Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 126, January 2020 | Page 45

MULTISPORT
Howard’s 56km ‘S’ to cross
the 35km-wide Channel
out and catch the 8am ferry! Elmarie slept for most
of this crossing, but I was wide awake and stood on
deck, just looking at the rough channel conditions.”
At this stage Howard still looked terrible, with a
swollen face, and he says he was in a lot of pain due
to his middle-ear condition, and sneezing caused
excruciating pain due to his throat being so raw.
However, he says that within three days he looked
normal again and the pain subsided, and just five
days after his swim, he was able to go for a run. “I
was told that I would probably need six months to
fully recover from the swim, but I bounced back much
quicker. Since then I have been asked many times, if
I had a choice between Comrades and the Channel,
which would I rather do again, and my answer is
the Channel, because I have always battled with the
Comrades.”
not ready to pick me up from beach yet, which meant
I still had some way to go. Then I hit some slack water,
with less pull from the tide, and saw the people on the
boat cheering. Elmarie was waving the SA flag, and the
dinghy was being pulled closer, but I still decided not
to count my chickens and just kept pushing.”
One of the crew jumped in to swim next to him for the
final stretch, as many a swimmer has fainted just as
they reach land and try to stand up, but this companion
is not allowed to touch the swimmer until they are
standing on land, nor are they allowed to swim ahead
of or next to the swimmer, to guide them or break
water for them. But they are allowed to encourage the
swimmer. “So I had this New Zealander, Tracy Clark,
screaming encouragement at me, but I was too scared
to lift my head, because that might cause me to spasm.
I told myself to keep swimming till my hands touched
sand, then carried on until my belly touched sand. Then
I stood up and walked out the water.”
Sinking in Slowly
Howard says reaching France was simply surreal.
“As I walked onto dry land, I stopped and turned
around, but couldn’t see England. I literally pinched
myself, because it didn’t feel real that I had done
it. My whole body was numb. But I can recall Tracy
shouting, “You made it!” and giving me a hug. I saw
the dinghy approaching the beach, with the skipper
and Elmarie on board. They told me afterwards that
they normally don’t allow partners into the dinghy, but
after everything we’d been through, they broke that
rule for us.”
15 minutes I was sitting up, because I wanted to see
where they were taking me.”
That was when Howard found out that he had been in the
water for over 16 hours, and his ‘S’ had totalled 55.7km!
As the boat battled back to England, the observer turned
to him and said, “Howard, do you realise you swam
through these conditions?” He says he just stared up at
the sky, too bewildered to take it all in yet. “We arrived
back at our chalet in Dover around midnight to find a big
message of congratulations hanging on the door. I still just
couldn’t fathom or comprehend what I had done, and it
took four to five days for it to get to me. Then I just broke
down and cried.”
Back for More
There was little time to rest, because Howard and
Elmarie had to be up early the morning after the swim
to catch the ferry to France, to begin the holiday they
had planned after his swim. “We had planned to leave
Dover three or four days after my swim, but due to
starting the swim later than planned, we now had to
get moving again. So I got into bed at 1am after the
swim, and at 5am we were up again in order to check
Following the Channel swim, Howard returned to
his running, biking and triathlon routes, in order to
shake off his ‘Channel Fat.’ He rode the three-day
Wines2Whales MTB event towards the end of 2018,
then did Two Oceans and Ironman a few weeks apart
early last year. “Around the 45-kilometre mark in
Oceans, I felt the fatigue from Ironman, but I filed my
way through it. It was not my best time, but it was
my best Oceans run. The Cape Town and Lisbon
Marathons followed, and his plans for 2020 include
another Ironman in March, the Joburg2Sea MTB
event in April, the Edinburgh Marathon in May and the
SkyRun 100km trail run in November.
And somewhere in between all of that, Howard plans
five or six more Robben Island swims, because
he needs to keep up his swim training. You see,
he has put his name down for a slot to swim the
Straights of Gibraltar. “Then I will have swum from
the UK to Europe, and from Europe to Africa,” he
says. He is busy finalising details of a new charity
initiative, because he wants his next swim to benefit
those in need instead of just being something he
is doing for himself, but his drive to take on the big
challenges remains the same. “I believe that nobody
can understand the desire until they have really
experienced it, come hell or high water. And I just
always remember that whenever it gets hard, the
10-second rule will get me through. By the time I
count to 10, I will get over it.”
Back into running after
all the swimming
The first thing I did was collect my French pebbles –
my trophies – but I couldn’t close my hands around
them. I still had to swim out to the dinghy to get back
to the boat, and I couldn’t swim with pebbles in my
hands, so I had to shove them into my costume. But
by now my brain was simply not functioning properly
any more, and Tracy and the others had to help me
into the dinghy. As I got to the big boat, the cold
hit me, like a million needles pricking my body. My
face, eyes and tongue were swollen, and my throat
had closed. I couldn’t drink anything because I was
shaking so much. But they put you in a swim gown,
to get your core temperature stabilised, and within
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