If the wind gets worse, I’ll have to give up,
If the sun doesn’t warm, I’ll have to give up,
If the water gets rougher, I’ll have to give up,
If the boat breaks down, I’ll have to give up,
If my shoulder gets bad, I’ll have to give up,
If I get hypothermia, I’ll have to give up,
If my crew get sicker, I’ll have to give up,
If this cramp gets tighter, I’ll have to give up,
If I miss the tide, I’ll have to give up,
If the boat runs me over, I’ll have to give up,
If the pilot tells me stop, I’ll have to give up,
If they run out of feed, I’ll have to give up,
If the boat runs me over, again, I’ll have to give up,
But for now, I’ll keep on swimming.
LoneSwimmer 
Today I only lasted 15 mins in the Guillamene and with no noticeable/significant afterdrop just a general cold feeling afterwards. At the start of this weak swim time slowed down, towards the end it was speeding up. Two days ago I did 25mins in rougher conditions swimming further than I expected and experienced an obvious afterdrop. Mind you I did have a bit of a dodgy engine going in today thanks to the not many, but few drinks had lastnight with a visiting Hungarian family. Now at least I have a reference point for the future.
So about if this and that happens and giving up. At the Comalees today which is the point where I turned back because I felt wrecked, sun blazing into my face couldn’t see a bloody thing for distance except in my mind and started to feel like nothing was working and giving up. I simply remembered from Donal’s posts on Trent Grimsey that part where Mike Oram says , “get your arse in gear and stop fucking around, and bloody swim“… lol it cracks me up every time, humour can make a real difference on perspective.
Can’t imagine the mind games that go on during a Channel swim, must be a real shocker. An internal jihad.
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Excuses are pointless ,the mind is trying to rule the heart!!
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Almost all these happened me swimming the Channel (no hypothermia and the boat didn’t break down). However the wind did reach Force 5, for 6 hours, the crew did get sick and had no more water for further feeds, I did get run over by the boat. Twice. And therefore also missed the tide & the pilot did want to stop. Many less predictable things can happen in the Channel, every swimmer must find their own mental strategies for dealing for with them. It’s the mind that gets you across.
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