Taking the Scenic Route to France

After months of eating and swimming - I'm taking the scenic route to France.

I'll be leaving English shores at approx 3:30am (Midday AUS Time) on Wednesday 25th July


I will be in very good and experienced hands with my pilot Neil Streeter and his boat SUVA. My crew is my supportive and very understanding boyfriend Mark and channel swimming master Nick Adams, to whom I am very grateful for backing up and crewing my swim after supporting his girlfriend Sakura in an Ironman on Sunday and completing his own channel crossing on Tuesday.


My crew will be tweeting on https://twitter.com/krittermac and you can track my progress via

http://www.shipais.com/shiptrail.php?mmsi=235018589

or

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0yeHQ0bluLFqyTf932J6W1nRCQHB5nCif


In completing the swim I'm hoping to raise much needed funds to support Cancer Research in both the UK and Australia. The effects of cancer have impacted the lives of many people I konw and I'm hoping that my little bit of fundraising can help.

In the UK please dontate here:  http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserPage.action?userUrl=KristyMcIntyre&faId=206851&isTeam=false

In Australia - please donate here: http://www.everydayhero.com.au/kristyecswim

Thankyou to all those who have donated thus far, provided sound words of wisdom and support I really appreciate everything you've done for me and will be giving it my all out there for you and for those who continue to inspire me every day.

Channel swimming is not an individual sport it is a team effort and there are many people I must thank those that have gotten me this far:
- Mark my house husband/training partner/chef/crew member/support swimmer
- My Australian family who while they aren't here in person have been supportive via phone and email, even my mum who was horrified at how much weight I had gained and has embraced the weigh-in challenge of each phone call,
- The beach crew in Dover - Freda, Barry, Irene, Michelle and the countless other people who give their weekends so selflessly to feed the hungry seals (I mean swimmers) on the beach and yell at you when you need a bollocking or provide hugs when you've done well.
- All the swimmers in Dover - who are going through the same thing as me and are positive and encouraging even when they don't know your name.
- The people of the Serpentine Swimming Club, especially Deirdre, Tory & Boris who I have shared the channel adventure with and the most miserable days in Dover and who have given me words of encouragement when I needed it most
- Nick and Sakura for all your words of advice, swim sets, training time, feeding ideas, patience and general encouragement and for giving me the confidence to go ahead with the idea in the first place
- The amazing Clare McGirr who was the other half of our two person channel relay in 2011 - she didn't have any idea what she was getting herself in for but she came along whole heartedly for the ride
- To all my very understanding friends who have never questioned why but just said go for it.

THANKYOU!!

Please oh please don't let that be a little brown cloud

Wednesday is a club swim night, I swim on club nights rather than swimming by myself or with friends like I usually do. The only difference between this Wednesday and all other wednesdays was I had a little bit of a dodgy tummy....


Before entering the session I had a 'man up princess' chat with myself and my tummy and told myself I would be fine.


Warm up done - no problems - next up 6 x 200 on 3:15. I usually like to do my 200s of 3:20 or 3:30 but this was man up time so off I went. First 200 down and I start to toot like a horn blower at a jazz festival - tummy starts grumbling.... Not good. Keep going this is man up time 3 more 200s and the toot power is pushing me along nicely with not too many tummy grumbles. By the 5th 200 my tummy decided it was not happy with the toots becoming more frequent and a little more powerful to the point I had to look around in horror to see if I'd left a little brown cloud behind.... thankfully not.... Cue bathroom break....


Get back in this time it's 6x100 got through those with not too much problem then all of a sudden it starts happening again.... This time have I, have I, really, no .... Nope no brown clouds .... Time for another bathroom break.


After questions from coach Norm as to why I'd exited the pool twice during his session - I got told I could hop out. But no this was man up time and I was back in for the rest of the session.... Thankfully with no further incident. 


Now if this was Dover training I would have sucked it up and coped with a possible brown cloud - but that kind of behaviour will get you kicked out of a pool....


Needless to say next time I give myself a 'man up princess' chat with a dodgy tummy I'll be making sure I'm in Dover Habour and not the local swimming pool