English Channel

If you have ever had a dream of winning a million in the lotter, then more or less my dream was of swimming the English Channel. I knew it was possible, that people had swum it before, but I was sure that it would never happen to me.
It takes a lot of effort, and logistics, to prepare for the swim. We started to put all staff on the escorting boat 1 am. At 3 am I was already in the water starting my swim.
After the first hour of my swim I was cold, the water temperature was not that bad (17 degrees C), but air temperature was 13 degrees C, and the cold wind further chilled my body, so that I seriously began to consider to stop and get out of the water.
The next hour of swim was not any better and I started to feel even colder. I pushed myself not to abort, and swim till sunrise (approx. 6 am). Some early sunshine gave me more optimism, nevertheless water and the air temperature stayed the same. I change my idea “of immediate swim stop” to “stop perhaps a bit later”, and in that mood I was able to carry on till midday, when I decide to swim as long as in my last race in Spain thus 8 h and 40minutes.
In the second part of the day I was able to see the other shore, and it seem to be so close, perhaps an hour of additional swim. The shores seems not to be so close. It took me almost four hours to reach it, and complete entire swim in 12 h and 56 minutes.