Department of athletics, physical education and recreation
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Aug. 3, 2005
Reprinted with permission WICHITA, KAN. - Fighting an upset stomach and dodging jellyfish, former Wichitan Forrest Nelson successfully swam the English Channel in 10 hours, 33 minutes. Nelson, who swam for Southeast High and the Wichita Swim Club, and played college water polo at MIT, made the 21-mile crossing nearly 90 minutes faster than he'd expected. Glassy water and favorable weather helped Nelson, 40, complete the trip, which is considered the Mount Everest of distance swimming. Of more than 6,000 people who have tried the swim since the first successful crossing in 1875, fewer than 500 have finished, according to the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation. Nelson started the swim at 3:52 a.m. on July 13, crossing from Shakespeare Beach, near Dover, to the rocky point of Cap Gris-Nez, France. The tides were so strong near the end that he had to sprint for an hour to avoid being swept past the point, said Nelson, who returned to his home in Los Angeles this week. But in the final stage, the wind and tides were in his favor and helped push him to shore. There were tense moments. For the first three hours, Nelson said, he was concerned that his body temperature in the 59-degree water was dropping faster than it should. Hypothermia is the biggest risk to channel swimmers. "I was working a little bit harder than what I had hoped to try to generate more energy to get more heat in my body," he said. "But by hour four or five I stopped worrying about that." Nelson said his worst moment came about four hours into the swim after one of many feedings of a high-carb liquid mixture. "I felt really bloated, like I had a basketball in my stomach," he said. "I had never felt that in a swim before." He vomited twice and wondered if he was becoming ill. That was the same point when a swimmer normally hits a performance wall, he said. His right arm, his strongest, became heavy. "There was a lot of doubt at that moment," Nelson said. But he refueled 30 minutes later, stopped thinking about his arm and pushed through the barrier, he said. Three hours later, he felt the stomach upset again, but kept going without becoming ill. Nelson said he swam through a wide band of jellyfish about halfway across. Some had heads the size of a dinner plate, and he saw one with tentacles about 10 feet long, he said. He was able to maneuver between them and avoid being stung. "But I was frightened through the entire thing," Nelson said. On the trip back across the channel in the escort boat, all aboard but Nelson were exhausted, he said. "I was like a kid at Disneyland." NOTES: |
