Holly Manktelow Q&A extract, April 2023.
Holly, a teacher from Eastbourne, swam the Channel in August 2022 (in 17 hours 22 minutes) while raising money for The Youth Counselling Project in Seaford, East Sussex. I interviewed her before I started writing The Swim. Just reading about swimming the Channel wasn’t going to be comprehensive enough and there was no way I was going full method. I did, however, start proper cold water sea swimming in the middle of the winter. It’s like being stabbed by icy needles, but what euphoria afterwards! It suddenly made sense to me how one could get lured into swimming the Channel…
What thought or event made you want to swim the Channel?
A friend suggested I swim the Channel and I immediately thought this isn’t for me! They were a competitive swimmer and had swum the Channel in ten hours. My uncle had wanted to do it, and he knew I was doing longer and longer each year in distance with the Eastbourne Swimming Club. The club sea swims from April to November and eventually, I didn’t want to stop at the end of the season. So I carried on. Everybody’s body is different: I managed 25 minutes in December down to 10-12 minutes in January and February, then longer as it warmed up. My uncle actually gave me the money to swim the Channel – it costs £3500! I suffered three weeks of analysis paralysis, then I booked the swim (through the Channel Swimming Association) and paid the deposit.
How did preparing for the channel affect the rest of your life?
As far as the teaching concerned there were a few dodgy moments. I had to turn round and say I can’t do loads of after-hours stuff. I’d come home in the evenings and crash on the sofa with the cat asleep on me. I was so tired from all the swimming that I’d go to bed and pass out. Lots of time in the day I was just thinking about it – it was always running away in the back of my mind. I constantly had nervous pit in my belly; it was an obsession. I wasn’t allowed to bore everyone in life about it, apart from the sea swimming group. My parents had had enough!
What was the run up and the day actually like?
Jim, my coach, made me lie down on the bed and rest at home the night before. I was like a child before Christmas and couldn’t sleep. The start time was 11.30pm at night; most swims start at night. Mum wouldn’t come on the boat – she didn’t want to see me suffer.
I couldn’t see anything it was so dark when I jumped in the water off the boat (that was tracking her, every swim has one; they are the support boat) and swam to the beach (Samphire Hoe); it took two minutes. I was waiting for a horn to blow so I could start the swim, but no one sounded it and I was waiting there like a lemon until I decided to just wade into the water. I chose to have the boat on the right because I am right handed. A huge floodlight shines into sea and you’re supposed to swim in the floodlight. You can’t get in the boat, if you touch the boat or hold on, it’s annulled. I had a screw-top bottle on the end of a piece of string. They would shine a light onto me as a signal for the feed. I unscrewed the top, would take as much as I could, then screw it back up and they pulled it back in. Every three hours I had a treat: gel and water and then banana. After six hours I had chocolate buttons in a goggles case! I wasn’t hungry; I didn’t feel sick. The poo part of you shuts down! You have to wee every few hours.
Ferries were miles away but they were closer than I thought; it felt like a bit of a highway. The water starts to feel colder about 6 hours in – I had a cup of tea! I hit the wall near the end and they said sprint for half an hour. You haven’t got a choice – but I managed it. My arms were very heavy, shoulders too, like a Hippo trying to walk on dry land. I kept seeing things on the (French) landscape to aim for but the current kept sweeping me straight past it. A friend had said to just swim, imagine you’re swimming to the big wheel and back on Eastbourne seafront. And that made it doable…
I got emotional, crying, then I got to the beach – I was able to stand up, didn’t think I would be able to – all these people moved away and started clapping. People asking me all these questions. Where are you from? Did you swim from Eastbourne?