and so it begins again..........

One last big one, is what I have told myself. In the last 2 years I've swum 5 'big' swims. A double Windermere and the English Channel in 2009. The Bloody Big Swim, Rottnest Channel and the Maui Channel this year. The main differences between the last 3 and the first 2 being relatively warm Australian/Hawaiian waters and much more sensible distances - 11km, 20km and 16km respectively. Windermere and the EC were not a lot of fun and I swore I would never do another swim like the English Channel, it was an 11hr struggle, and I spent 10 and 1/2hrs wanting to get out! The thing is though, time softens the unpleasant memories. The swimmers I have met along the way inspire me to consider other swims, the quest to tackle another monster swim starts to sound more appealing and then before you know it, it's 4am on the 1st of November and I am hunched over the computer firing off an entry into a 28mile marathon swim that some say is harder to get into than it is to finish. I thought I was prepared for the involved entry process. I believed I met all the criteria to get selected but over the next few days I keep rechecking the start list to see other swimmers names accepted but not mine. Initial frustration for not get the nod straight away starts to give way to a nagging feeling that maybe it's for the best not getting in, after all do I really want to do this? Then the email and the green tick appear - I'm in, I'm on the very select start list for the 2011 Manhatten Island Marathon Swim. 45km of cold, tidal, fairly unpleasant water! One last big one. This is it, no more after this........Mind you I've just heard my mate Howard is having a crack at the North Channel (what a swim that is) and then if I do Catalina I'd have the triple crown..............