Scott Ragsdale

Two days ago, I swam the english channel.

My body is very tired and sore, esp. my right shoulder … so I have not yet sat down and written my swim report.

Ideally, I will do this tomorrow and post it with pictures.

I would like to thank the Pirate Ship of Fools (Pirates) UK based triathlon club for their incredible interest and support.

People I have never met gave me incredible encouragement and support.

Moreover…

There is no way I could have completed this swim without the support of my “Pirate” crew– Jules Roberts, Candy, Oxy, Anna, Claire, Tata, Romain and my 15 year old daughter Marie.

Consider this ….

How many people reading this blog would….

Drop everything you are doing to take a 90 minute train at the last minute from London to Dover …
spend an entire evening filling water bottles with carbo powder, and packing supplies…
even rush to a store at 10pm to buy last minute supplies of water…
go to sleep at midnight…
wake up at 1:30am to help load two cars with bags of food and supplies… 
ride on someones lap in a packed car to a harbor to move the supplies from the cars into the boat…
help get everything ready and then get off the boat and wave good bye to the team….because you have to work so can not join everyone
go back to a small BB and sleep in a bed that has already been slept in by someone else ….
wake at 7am to rush back to London to not be late for work at 9am….

How many people would do all of the above for someone you have never met, or spoken to before???

Jules Roberts did this for me.

Although I had never met the guy until 8 hours before my swim; I never even spoke with him on the phone, he dropped everything he was doing to come and help get me ready and sorted for my swim. 

He was the first person to call me to say congratulations after I had finished.

Thank you Pirates — and a special thanks to Jules Roberts

Tomorrow I will post my a blog on the swim with pictures

Over the past few months, (as I mentioned before) I have become buddies over the net with a few other people who were also training to swim the channel.

As of last week,  4 of the 5 failed in their attempts, and the 5^th after waiting two weeks, finally had to cancel his swim attempt and fly back to America because of bad weather. 

Last week, the most confident (cocky)  I have met training for this, failed … he quit his attempt just 6 hours in the water because of the cold …

But during this same period where these people quit, a few others have succeeded.

Every single report I have read about the English channel swim challenge states this challenge is 90% mental. 

Tonight I called my captain to find out how the weather was looking for my swim which will be either this Thursday or Friday. 
He told me everything looks good for an attempt on Thursday, Sept. 2nd.

We will start at 2:00 am and he expects me in the water by 3:00 am … and he laughing said,  “the water will be a lot warmer than the air… because the air will be between 6-8 degree’s celcius” (40-43 degrees F) and the water 16 degrees celcius (62 degree F) 

My first thought wasn’t   ”great!  I cant wait to start my swim ….” 
My first thought was   ”damnnnnn…. that’s cold ……” 

Sophie got me sorted straight away with her, “Of course its cold.  It’s the English Channel thats exactly why you are doing this“….

If I focus on the cold, before or during this swim  – I will fail. 

But…

It all depends on me. 

It’s interesting to think about life and how mental everything is.    

A week ago,  a friend sent me a book to help me mentally prepare for my english channel swim challenge.  

The book “Running on Faith” is the story of Jason Lester, a multi-ironman finisher, 2 time ultraman, he created “EPIC5,”  5 ironman in 5 days on the 5 islands of Hawaii…

What makes Jason’s story unique is that he achieves all of these adventure, endurance challenges with the use of just one of his arms. 

But I don’t think reading about JPL’s incredible story of making life happen in the face of adversity was the reason my friend sent me the book….

In the beginning of the book, Jason asks an interesting question: 

“When does the human spirit give in to the limits of the human body and just close up shop?  Or can we go as far as our spirit takes us?” 

Using his story, he shows how strong the human spirit can be when it is not blinded or consumed by negativity …. 

I won’t go into the details of the book – but it’s an interesting question or thought:  “can we go as far as our spirit wants to take us?”

My 4 different forum buddies who failed to cross the channel over the past 6 weeks … what separates them from the several who succeeded? 

Have you failed at something because you let negativity blind you/blind your spirit from seeing the finish? 

I think everyone has. 

Today – I fly to London to get ready for my swim on Thursday.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

For those interested in reading more about Jason Lester’s “Running on Faith” 
 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061965723/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1EFSHHA3WC3MQYAR3BMN&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Great book —  I read it in one sitting.
I even read two of the chapters three times. 

woke at 4am (slept ok)
SWIM:  30 minutes easy

Comments:  I had a nice easy 30 minute swim, just focusing on my feel for the water.
I have been eating a lot to try and gain weight.  Crazy, but I dont seem to be gaining much.

Early this week, I was in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and met up with a friend of mine, an American journalist who is based in Riyadh.

We got into a discussion on my blog…

In particular he said he was “inspired” by my English Channel swim challenge, but he felt I was “not properly marketing it.” 

“Your writing style can gain a lot of readership – but you have to align yourself to a charity to be able to better market your English channel swim and all the other adventure challenges you are doing….” 

I tried to explain…. (we have discussed this in the past so our conversation was not a new one)

I am not doing this swim to market myself. 

I don’t give a damn about marketing my blog — marketing my blog would go against everything I stand for in this blog, hence, I do not allow naseba’s communication team to promote, link or market my blog in anyway.

He seemed annoyed by my response….  

Once again, he tried to persuade me that I could expand my readership of this blog and gain more media interest for my various endurance challenges if I aligned myself to “a cause.” 

By now I was annoyed and frustrated so sorted of shouted:  “ I AM aligned to a cause …” 

“My cause” is to remind everyone:  “but, we have to make our lives happen.”  

In my opinion… 

Too many people waste their lives on facebook.

Too many people live vicariously through movie stars and pro-athletes.

Too many people sit around and talk about what they are going to do tomorrow… 

How many people reading this have a goal or a “dream” yet have done nothing to try and go after achieving this dream?

woke at 4am (slept ok)
SWIM:  90 minutes open water (nearly, all my training swims are open water)

Comments:  I have good feel for the water, but my shoulders were sore for the first 30 minutes …  I noticed at the end of the swim the soreness had gone.