20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan recap

9 hours and 19 minutes. A time that will be forever etched in my memory. At 23:34 on Saturday 19th July, I completed the 20 Bridges Swim around Manhattan. A total distance of 48.5km.

I knew it was going to be tough. But this pushed me more than any other endurance swim. Thankfully, the conditions were in my favour. The sun was shining. Not too hot. Overcast skies made for choppy waters at the start. But it calmed as we went on.

After a last minute panic trying to locate a missing kayak paddle in the support crew, we set off at 2.15pm local time from Battery Park. Swimming up The East River, the first bridge we reached was the Brooklyn. Shortly followed by the Manhattan. Then the longest of them all, the Williamsburg.

Ahead of me was Hell Gate – the infamous narrow tidal strait where The East River meets The Harlem. Simply put – I had to reach this point at an exact time. Too slow, and the support crew would’ve pulled me out as I would’ve missed the tide.

But I was on track. Moving into The Harlem, I knew we were about to swim under 15 bridges in 8 miles – most of them between Manhattan and the Bronx. The water quality….wasn’t great (to put it mildly).

19 bridges down, only one to go. The magnificent George Washington Bridge on the mighty Hudson. The river that flows both ways. We were warned that The Hudson can get quite choppy in the afternoon due to all the boat action, especially if there is wind coming up from the Harbour.

I swam past Yankee Stadium, Central Park & The MoMA. The Freedom Tower was the landmark that just never seemed to arrive. This last stretch was by far the hardest part.

In the dark. Adding to the drama, the support crew had lost comms. The radio wasn’t working, so the pilot had to guess what the ferry was doing.

I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t in a good way at this point. But I knew I had to push on through. So many people had helped me get here and I didn’t want to let them, my fellow swimmers, or the charity down. It was this that spurred me on.

23:34 – 9hrs & 19mins after I jumped into the water.

Euphoria is a word often associated with such moments. But no other sums up the emotion of reaching that finish line. The margin between success and failure is so incredibly fine after all.

It was a privilege to swim alongside Stuart Bowman, Alan Luckhurst and Laure Latham. 3 incredible swimmers, and even finer people. A heartfelt note of appreciation to the 151 people that have helped us raise £18,500+ (so far) for the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association – a cause incredibly close to my heart.

If you would like to add more to my fundraising efforts, then the link to donate is here > https://lnkd.in/ecRmvYmf