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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

FIRST EDITION

Text © Ross Edgley 2020

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Source ISBN: 9780008356989

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Version 2021-03-22

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DEDICATION

Thank you to my dad, the most stoically strong man I know.

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Dedication

FOREWORD by Ant Middleton

PROLOGUE

PART 1 | LIFE ON LAND (BEFORE THE SWIM)

CHAPTER 1 | WHY DID I DO IT?

CHAPTER 2 | WHY THE BODY DOES NOT BREAK?

CHAPTER 3 | WHY THE MIND DOES NOT QUIT?

PART 2 | LIFE AT SEA (DURING THE SWIM)

LESSON 1 | STOIC SPORTS SCIENCE IS PHILOSOPHY FORGED IN BATTLE

LESSON 2 | LEARN THE POWER OF SPIRITUAL SPORTS SCIENCE

LESSON 3 | THE BODY BRUISES AND BLEEDS BUT CANNOT BE BEATEN

LESSON 4 | TO WALK YOUR OWN PATH, WRITE YOUR OWN PLAN

LESSON 5 | MAKE THE BODY AN INSTRUMENT, NOT AN ORNAMENT

LESSON 6 | BUILD RESILIENCE BY ‘GETTING WINTERED’

LESSON 7 | FAST CAN BE FRAGILE AND SLOW CAN BE STRONG

LESSON 8 | STRENGTH IMPROVES STAMINA AND STAMINA IMPROVES STRENGTH

THE GREAT BRITISH SWIM TRAINING PLAN

LESSON 9 | LEARN HOW TO CRUISE OR KILL

LESSON 10 | LEARN TO LIMIT LIMITATIONS

LESSON 11 | THE TWO WAYS TO PROCESS PAIN

LESSON 12 | COMBAT FEAR WITH ‘FERAL FEAR THEORY’

LESSON 13 | LEARN THE POWER OF A HIGHER PURPOSE

LESSON 14 | ACCEPT THE UNCONTROLLABLES

LESSON 15 | CONTROL THE CONTROLLABLES

LESSON 16 | RESILIENCE CANNOT BE RUSHED, BUT QUITTING CAN

LESSON 17 | YOU’RE STRONGER WHEN SMILING

LESSON 18 | YOU CAN SLEEP YOURSELF STRONGER

LESSON 19 | HEROICS IN HUNGER

LESSON 20 | RESILIENCE IS BEST SERVED WITH FOOD

THE GREAT BRITISH SWIM DIET

LESSON 21 | STOMACH OF STEEL

LESSON 22 | RESILIENCE IS SUFFERING STRATEGICALLY MANAGED

EPILOGUE

Endnotes

List of Searchable Terms

Acknowledgements

About the Publisher

FOREWORD

By Ant Middleton

You only have to look at the numbers: 1,780 miles, 157 days at sea, half a million calories burned, over two million swim strokes completed. Staggering. And do you know what’s even more mind-blowing? Zero sick days.

Here was I thinking it would be hard enough to sail around Great Britain: who whould be crazy enough to swim all the way around it?

That’s why I wanted to be one of the first to congratulate Ross when, after five months out at sea, he got himself back to Margate beach at the end of his mammoth Great British Swim. One of the things I remember most about that day was that he was exhausted, he was hungry, he looked like an alien from another world … and yet he had this huge smile beaming across his face.

One of the key mindset principles that has got me through life is positivity. And for those who know him, you don’t need me to tell you that Ross has that in bucketloads. It means you have more mental energy. You’re smart. Your positive mindset can get you out of those dark places (and when you’ve read this book, you’ll see that Ross has been to a few of those).

What gives you the motivation that drives you through the pain barrier and the resilience to cope with any obstacles that nature throws your way? What is it about the mind that is so powerful it can lead you to achieve incredible things? How did Ross find the unbelievable strength to go against the grain of human nature and tackle something which has never been done before?

When I think of the answers to these questions, I reflect back on my time in the Special Forces and how training taught me how to play the odds. So in a combat situation I would be thinking about what would happen when I went through that door with an armed enemy on the other side. Is he going to get me before I get him? What are the risks of me getting a bullet through the head that kills me instantly? In most situations I’d calculate the chances were slim, so I’d say to myself, ‘Fuck that, the odds are with me, I’m going in.’

Ross overcame all the odds. The jellyfish in the Corryvreckan, the tankers crossing his path, the treacherous currents and tides, the winds and the waves, the storms. It’s a wonder the odd Atlantic shark didn’t decide to join the welcoming party!

With his physical and mental capabilities, backed up by his professional sports science qualifications and understanding of nutrition, if anyone was going to make the Great British Swim a success, it was Ross. You could be the best swimmer in the world but you wouldn’t make it past the first week without mental fortitude, resilience and flicking yourself into survival mode.

The transformative lessons you can learn from this daring endeavour are countless. Don’t let other people define you. Overcome that fear of the unknown. Purge your mind of everything apart from you against the water. Crack on, get in the zone, and get the job done.

Ross is one of the most humble and inspiring individuals you could ever wish to meet. From reading this book, the message that comes shining through is this: you can achieve anything.

Who dares swims. Good luck, mate – I couldn’t be prouder to call you a friend. You are one of a kind, a true British hero and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for your next big (and hopefully dry) adventure.

PROLOGUE

It’s 10.00 a.m. on 31 January 2018 at the Royal Marines Commando Training Centre in Lympstone, Devon. I had just completed a 48-hour training swim (covering 185 km in the centre’s training pool) in preparation for my quest to set the record for the world’s longest current-neutral swim in an ocean, sea or bay. I was planning to take on this challenge around Bermuda where the waters were warm, the food was great, and I knew lots of people with boats so plenty of support would be at hand.

Entering the officer’s mess (an area where military personnel socialise and eat) I sat down with my good friend Ollie Mason, a Royal Marine Captain, head rugby coach and my temporary training instructor, to reflect on the last few days. Perched on a couple of grand leather sofas, we drank tea and spent the first few moments in silence.

Looking around it always felt like such a privilege for me just to be here. Hundreds of officers would have passed through these doors over the years. Yet this place still possessed a kind of timeless, old-fashioned opulence and came complete with solid-oak bookcases, polished brass door frames, a grand piano in the corner and a huge painting depicting a group of commandos receiving their green berets and becoming fully-fledged Royal Marines.

The silence was broken as we were joined by one of the older officers.

‘You boy,’ he said pointing at my shrivelled feet and hands. ‘I heard about your 48-hour training swim. What is it that you are training for?’

He was tall with massive hands that made the teacup he was drinking from look comically puny. He also had an equally impressive moustache. You couldn’t have designed a better Royal Marine Officer if you’d tried.

‘I’m possibly training for the world’s longest current-neutral swim,’ I said.

He paused and sipped his tea, looking pensively into the bottom of the cup as if searching for clues before giving his verdict.

‘Can I be honest with you, young man?’ he asked.

‘Yes, please do,’ I replied, intrigued as to what he could possibly say.

‘That just sounds a bit shit.’

Needless to say, I wasn’t expecting this response. Nor did I actually ask for a response. In fact, I was still yet to introduce myself and learn his name. But it seemed the usual pleasantries had been forgotten and we’d gone straight into an impromptu brainstorming session.

Ollie then intervened. ‘I’m going to be honest, mate. I think you should just man up and swim around Great Britain.’

‘Why would I do that?’ I asked stunned at the scale of his proposed swim.

‘Well, I can think of at least three reasons,’ he said. ‘It’s about 1,800 miles so would be the longest staged sea swim in human history. You’d be bringing that record back home to British waters. And it doesn’t sound as shit as a current-neutral swim in Bermuda.

I paused to consider his logic.

At first, I dismissed the idea. Sipping my cup of tea in a semi-conscious and heavily-chlorinated state, I laughed, shook my head and shuddered at the thought of spending my summer ploughing through some of the most treacherous currents in the world up and down the coast of Britain.

But as the night wore on, and the tea supply ran low, I have to admit it no longer seemed like the worst proposition in the world. Maybe I wasn’t thinking straight due to sleep deprivation, but as I sat there comatose in my giant leather chair the thought of swimming around this big rock we call Great Britain continued to play on repeat in my head. I began to think about the Great British adventurers of old, from Captain James Cook to Ernest Shackleton; it seems adventure and exploration are engrained in our British DNA, and the idea of following in their footsteps (in my own smaller way) had now lit a fire under my belly that even an energy-sapping 48-hour, 185-km training swim couldn’t extinguish.

~

It’s 7.00 p.m. on 3 August 2018 and we’re 63 days (and over 800 miles) into the Great British Swim. We’ve reached the Gulf of Corryvreckan, a narrow strait between the islands of Jura and Scarba off the west coast of mainland Scotland. There is no doubt this is the wild, wild west of Great Britain. In the summer, the towering mountains plunge into the glens below among scattered collections of pine trees. But in the winter, those same mountain ridges become shrouded in white as Arctic blizzards leave a crystalline layer of shimmering snow on their peaks.

At the moment, we are somewhere between summer and autumn. Mile after mile of gnarled, wet heathland across the firths and fells is turning a golden brown in the ever-weakening sun. All of which you can enjoy as an incredible and unique spectacle if wrapped in a thick coat, woollen hat and warm thermal gloves.

None of which you can enjoy if you find yourself submerged in 8°C seawater, midway through an attempt to become the first person to swim around Great Britain, the ninth-largest island in the world.

Which is exactly where I currently find myself. Some 856 miles into what will be known as the Great British Swim. Far from happy and far from healthy.

After swimming through treacherous storms, pounding waves, constantly changing tides and polluted shipping lanes, my lungs and limbs no longer function like they used to and have been plagued by fatigue for twelve hours a day for the past two months straight. But this was a fatigue unlike any I’d experienced before …

Exhaustion was essentially deep-rooted within my ligaments and tendons. What’s more, my tongue was shedding layers from chronic salt water exposure as I gasped for air with every stroke. (This was a condition known as ‘salt tongue’ where all moisture from the mouth is lost and the first few layers of your tongue begin to erode away.) To top it all off, the Scottish waters were showing no mercy as the very tides themselves felt angry and venomous.

As for my other body parts, my shoulders had been relentlessly contorted by the waves for so long, while my skin had been tormented by chafing, sea ulcers and the bitter cold. In fact it was so rough, discoloured and a strange blend of blue, purple and grey that I no longer looked like I belonged to this world. Finally, my nose and cheeks had swollen so much from the constant battering of the waves that I struggled to fit my goggles over my increasingly painful eye sockets.

But despite my long list of ailments I did consider myself lucky to still be on the surface of the water (rather than below it). The local coastguard had told us that the waters are so treacherous and the death toll so high, its place is forever cemented in Scottish folklore. Local fishermen speak of a mythological Hag Goddess who governs the lochs and pools of Scotland.

I must point out that, before arriving at the Corryvreckan I would not have considered myself very superstitious, but that would quickly come to change. As the howling winds funnelled through the islands, the haunting sound which seemed to echo across the coast led me to believe that something in Scottish mythology was insulted that I would even attempt this.

The wildlife of Scotland seemed to agree too. Gathering to enjoy the spectacle, birds began to circle overhead and a lone seal watched from afar – none of them were quite sure what they were witnessing. That’s because my shoulders had been relentlessly contorted by the waves for so long, my swim stroke was dogged and cumbersome and I didn’t look like most humans they’d seen before.

Keeping a safe distance from this half-man half-beast, the crew on our support boat, the Hecate, decided it was time to prepare me for more torture ahead. Matt (the captain of the Great British Swim) and Taz (Matt’s son and chief crew) shouted clear and precise instructions from aboard the deck.

‘You’re going to have to sprint at full pace for the next three hours,’ Matt said with a hint of empathy, knowing he was asking a lot from my bruised and battered body. ‘If you do that, we’ll be clear of the whirlpool.’

Given the current state of my body, a three-hour sprint was ambitious. Unfortunately, I knew he was right; this was the only way to swim through this seething stretch of water known as the Corryvreckan whirlpool. At this moment in time, pacing strategies, rest and recovery simply didn’t exist. You either swam hard or you didn’t swim at all.

I signalled to Matt and Taz that I was ready. Carefully positioning my goggles around my swollen eyes, I set the three-hour countdown timer on my watch and promised myself I wouldn’t stop swimming until I heard the alarm. Neither whirlpool nor fabled water spirits were going to distract me from the task at hand.

Stroke after stroke I battled between the extremes of bravery and common sense. My arms ached and my lungs complained, but I knew this was better than the alternative fate that lay at the bottom of the ocean bed, so for the first 40 minutes I pleaded with my body to keep the impossible pace as we continued our attack on the Corryvreckan. But after an hour or so, the Scottish waters – also known as the mystical washtub of the Hag Goddess – had other ideas and delivered a ‘curve ball’ I never saw coming … a giant jellyfish swimming straight into my face.

There was not just one, but a whole army of them in the water. Known as lion’s mane jellyfish, their tentacles can grow up to 6 ft long and they can weigh up to 25 kg. But while I had been hit in the face by jellyfish tentacles many times before, this particular group was different. That’s because, despite trying to swim through their initial stings, I could still feel a burning sensation across my nose and cheeks.

After two hours, the pain was excruciating … it felt as if someone was pressing a hot poker into my face that was searing into my flesh with such intensity, I could feel the blisters forming with every mile that passed.

After two hours and thirty minutes, the pain became paralysing … I began to feel that I no longer had any control over the left side of my face as the toxins from the jellyfish seeped into my skin in the most painful form of paralysis I’ve ever experienced. No longer the manager of my own mouth, I was dribbling, but thankfully still not drowning.

After two hours and forty-five minutes, the pain became blinding … the paralysis had spread to my eyes and was now causing tears to fill my goggles and impair my vision. Trying to adjust my goggles mid-stroke, I quickly discovered this final jellyfish blow had stung my face so badly that my eye sockets had become inflamed and the seal of the goggles to my face was no longer watertight.

‘Keep swimming!’ Matt shouted from the boat.

With 40 years’ experience of sailing, he knew better than anyone that we were still uncomfortably (and dangerously) close to one of the world’s largest and most deadly whirlpools.

As my vision became increasingly impaired by my own tears and the salt water, I was now semi-blind … in the sea … with no sense of direction … so in desperation I punched the goggles into my face. Somehow (painfully) securing a watertight seal around the rims again, I regained some vision and was able to sprint in whatever direction Matt told me to.

After three hours, the pain became worth it … the alarm on my watch had never sounded so sweet as it signalled I had swum clear of the whirlpool. But with no time to celebrate, my focus immediately shifted to the pain of the jellyfish stings now plaguing my face, neck and arms.

‘I’ve been hit by a jellyfish!’ I shouted to the crew.

Taz rushed over to the side of the boat to assess the situation.

‘My skin’s still burning,’ I said wincing from the pain.

As Matt focused on maintaining a strict course through the perilous waters, Taz looked down at my face and saw immediately what was wrong.

‘Yes, I know,’ he said now visibly wincing too. ‘I can see the tentacle still wrapped around your face.’

Unbelievably, I had been WEARING A JELLYFISH TENTACLE all through the Corryvreckan.

I unpeeled the fat, thick, toxic tentacle that had somehow threaded itself through the goggle strap and around my face, and felt a momentary sense of relief as the bitter Scottish breeze cooled my skin. Now free to continue the swim, I covered three more miles before I was clear of the Corryvreckan’s clutches.

Climbing into the boat I collapsed onto the deck, mentally and physically spent. I now understood that the rules of conventional sport didn’t apply out here. In this wild and untamed corner of Britain, swimming technique was not going to be the limiting factor. Instead, adventures such as this one would be won or lost based on a person’s ability to summon every ounce of physical and mental fortitude they have in their arsenal and overcome chronic, crippling fatigue.

That night I came to realise this was much more than a swim … it was a form of extreme research into the art of resilience.

~

It’s 7.45 a.m. on 13 August 2018 and we’re (still) among the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.

‘Once you go under that bridge everything changes,’ said the fisherman in a thick Scottish accent that made everything he said sound even more ominous.

He was old, maybe north of 70 years old, and had been sailing these waters for more than half a century. You could almost see the wisdom and seafaring expertise etched into every line of his heavily wrinkled and weathered face, and the years spent hauling in the daily catch frozen into his deeply callused and hardened hands.

‘Up until now Scotland has been gentle with you,’ he said.

‘Really?’ I exclaimed.

I pulled down the neckline of my jumper to reveal my battle wounds that consisted of sea ulcers from the wetsuit chafing and jellyfish stings and scars from my time spent in the Corryvreckan with the Hag Goddess.

‘If that’s gentle, do you want to tell me what you’d classify as rough?’ I asked.

‘Oh, lad,’ he said with a concerned smile. ‘You’ve been swimming in the Inner Hebrides between the islands off mainland Scotland. These are close together, sometimes only a mile apart, and so offer some shelter from the wind and waves. If a storm comes in you can easily pull into a harbour for food and supplies and maybe even sample some famous Hebridean hospitality and a local single-malt whisky.’

As he said this he turned towards Kyle of Lochalsh, a place where you could hear the ancient Gaelic language being spoken and sung by folk musicians in the local pub.

‘You won’t find any of that once you swim under the Skye Bridge,’ he warned. ‘Once you pass under there, you’re heading to the Outer Hebrides and beyond. With nowhere to hide or shelter from a storm, it’s over 30 miles wide. You won’t be welcomed with whisky up there. Instead you’ll find 50-knot Arctic storms and 20-ft waves. Jellyfish might be the least of your worries.’

We all stood in silence for a moment and looked at the Skye Bridge. Spanning less than a mile across, it connects the island of Skye with mainland Scotland and the village of Kyle of Lochalsh over water that, prior to 1995, was only crossable by boat. Now it would become a pivotal landmark in the Great British Swim.

I had been on our boat this morning doing a round of interviews with the media along with some local fishermen intrigued about my round Britain adventure. The tide had begun to turn, which signalled the media interviews were over and another swim was about to begin. As the journalists and fishermen left the boat, I sat in silence with Matt as I delicately attempted to put on my cold, clammy wetsuit over my tender and raw wounds. As I did, one lone writer lingered on deck and plucked up the courage to ask three final questions that would become integral to both the swim and this book:

 ‘Why are you doing this?

 ‘Why doesn’t your body break?’

 ‘How does your mind not quit?’

In truth, I was still trying to answer these questions for myself.

Fatigue and pain were deeply entrenched in each and every cell of my body, and as I sat there they were threatening to bring a stop to the swim. In front of the journalist, even though I was still not 100 per cent sure of the answers, I tried my very best to articulate the conclusion I’d come to so far after 74 days at sea.

‘I think the reason my body hasn’t broken and my mind hasn’t quit (yet) is because I’ve been able to fuse the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers with modern sport scientists to form my own form of philosophy called Stoic Sports Science.’

The journalist appeared puzzled at first but then nodded with his pen and notepad poised as if eagerly anticipating my next answer, hoping I was about to dispense some profound, deep and spiritual seafaring wisdom. But unfortunately, I had nothing else for him. Since I still had over 900 miles left to swim, my newly found philosophy was far from proven. But I told him if I completed the swim, I would finish my study and the book.

‘Then I’ll have to wait to buy a copy,’ he said laughing.

I smiled as we sat there taking in the vast expanse of our surroundings while pondering what had brought us together in this unlikely gathering.

‘Okay, why are you doing this then?’ he asked.

I looked at Matt. He looked back at me with knowing eyes. Nothing needed to be said.

The memory of the start of this journey (and life back on land) seemed like a lifetime ago. Many miles, tides and sunsets had passed since that day. But to understand why we were doing this, you must understand we as humans have been practising the art of resilience for centuries. It’s the one key trait we possess over all other species. Therefore, in many ways, what began on 1 June 2018 on the sands of Margate beach in southeast England was just an exaggerated expression of our unique human ability to find strength when suffering.

PART 1 | LIFE ON LAND (BEFORE THE SWIM)

CHAPTER 1 | WHY DID I DO IT?

LOCATION: Margate

DISTANCE COVERED: 0 miles

DAYS AT SEA: 0

It’s 7.00 a.m. on 1 June 2018 in the small coastal town of Margate. Tucked away on England’s southeast coast, this seaside resort has down the years served as a magnet for Londoners, with its sandy beaches less than 80 miles away from the capital. In fact, Margate has an old-world charm that makes the ice cream parlours, pie and mash shops and amusement arcades seem almost timeless. Yet the town’s history is also closely tied to the sea and the absence of their once great Victorian pier, destroyed after a storm in 1978, is a constant reminder to the locals (and all who visit) of the ocean’s power.

This is why the British coastline was the ideal ‘testing ground’ to research The Art of Resilience. Known around the globe for having some of the world’s most dangerous tides, waves and weather, every menacing whirlpool, rugged headland and North Sea storm would become a tool for me to sharpen my mind and harden my body.

But why Margate to start? When planning for the swim, we decided we needed to swim clockwise around Great Britain because the prevailing winds affecting our island are from the west or southwest. So we would be facing the ‘harder’ half of the journey – if we made it down the south coast, around Cornwall and up the Irish Sea towards western Scotland – during the summer months. The ‘easier’ half of the swim would theoretically be over the top of Scotland and down the east coast of Britain where we would be more sheltered from the southwesterlies by the topography of the coastline. Speed was of the essence, however, in order to complete our mission before the onset of winter.

But this morning, standing on the beach looking out to sea, I had absolutely no idea what lay ahead. Many people considered this ‘swimming suicide’, believing it was an impossible swim that was foolish to even attempt. But to quote the award-winning novelist Pearl S Buck, ‘The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation.’

Which is why my plan was simple. Using myself as a sea-dwelling, human guinea pig I would attempt to complete the first 1,780-mile swim in history all the way around Great Britain, while putting to test the science behind strength, stoicism and fortitude. As I researched the intricacies of resilience on this swim, my goal was to fully understand what makes the human spirit so unbreakable.

The regulations governing the swim were pretty straightforward too. It would be classed as ‘the world’s longest staged sea swim’ (where the distance of the individual stages can vary each day, and the start point of each stage begins at the finish point of the previous stage) and would abide by the rules of the World Open Water Swimming Association (WOWSA) and the Guinness Book of World Records. I would be fitted with an electronic GPS tracker and my location recorded with WOWSA at the end of each day’s swim. I would also tow an inflatable buoy during every swim for safety (especially at night, since it contained a flashing light so I could be seen). I myself insisted that I would not set foot on land during the entire swim, but would take my rest periods out on the water on a support boat.

Of course, this wasn’t a solo endeavour. To even contemplate a swim of this magnitude I needed a boat captain equipped with ironclad fortitude and years of experience sailing in the most adverse conditions Mother Nature could conjure up. Then I needed a crew with unwavering faith who would sail day and night alongside me, through hell and high water, to make this mission a success.

But instead of finding a team, I found something far better. I found a family.

The Knight family were a committed band of sailors and big-wave surfers who had the (joint) dream of sailing around Great Britain for many years. With a love of adventure and penchant for the impossible, dad, husband and captain Matt Knight was recommended to me by a mutual friend as the ideal man to lead my crew. When we first met down in Torquay to discuss the mission, he was struck by my enthusiasm and didn’t need much convincing to adopt an utterly naive and wildly optimistic swimmer and mastermind the first circumnavigation swim around this big rock we call Great Britain.

As a personality and a character Matt’s hard to explain, but let me try. Standing just over six foot, he was 60 years old but had a physique that resembled an elite triathlete. With not an ounce of body fat, he had giant, cartoon-like forearms that rivalled Popeye’s and skin like hardened leather from years of battling wind, waves and salt water. But these features were purely a physical representation of his deep connection with the sea, which all began in the 1980s when, as a young boy, he left his hometown in search of adventure and sailed across the Atlantic employed as a deckhand. Hardworking and with an insatiable love of the sea, he moved through the ranks; years later he gained his Yachtmaster qualification and skippered boats across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.

Which is when he met mum, wife and chief cook, Suzanne, a petite, blonde Devonshire lady whose maternal instinct only seemed to be fulfilled when cooking for the family and crew while battling 20-ft waves somewhere across the high seas. In tandem with Matt, they sailed the coastlines of France, Cornwall, Devon, Wales, Ireland, Portugal and Madeira and explored some of the most remote islands in the South Pacific and Indonesia.

They even found time to produce four incredible children along the way, who would become the crew and my newly adopted brother and sisters: Taz, Harriet, Peony and Jemima. With no hierarchy, each one of my ‘sea siblings’ would do anything and everything possible to ensure we could continue making progress around the coast, from guiding me past lobster pots, jagged rocks and dangerous shipping lanes to guarding me from sharks, killer whales and seals during mating season.

Finally, I must mention my ‘home’ for 157 days. Hecate was a 53-ft (16-m) long and 23-ft (7-m) wide specially designed catamaran (known as a Wharram after its designer). Comprised of two parallel hulls that are essentially held together by rope and rigging, the entire boat bends, moves and contorts with the waves thanks to this form of traditional Polynesian boat-building that’s remained unchanged for thousands of years.

The idea for us on the swim was for Hecate to progress under sail as often as possible, but there would be times when travelling through rough seas or difficult tides that we would have to rely on her engine.

But the best part of Hecate? The galley. Serving as the kitchen and library, it was where most of this book was written. After swimming up to 12 hours per day, the remaining time I would spend eating, sleeping (dreaming) and writing about theories and philosophies in resilience that I’d been thinking about when staring at the bottom of the seabed. In fact, during the entire 157-day swim, we calculated I spent over 1,500 hours (over 60 days) swimming with my face down looking into the dark blue abyss, writing the chapters of this book in my own head before the words ever appeared on paper.

This is why the contents of this book have become a blend of:

 Real-life events from the swim.

 Stories from my past that influenced the swim.

 Tales from the strange world of sensory deprivation that occurred in my head.

The one common theme that runs throughout is resilience. This was also inspired by research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology which found, ‘The importance of intellectual talent to achievement in all professional domains is well established, but less is known about the importance of resilience. Defined as perseverance and passion for long-term goals … resilience did not relate positively to IQ, but demonstrated incremental predictive validity of success measures over and beyond IQ. These findings suggest that the achievement of difficult goals entails not only talent but also the sustained and focused application of talent over time.’¹

Essentially, intelligence is great and being genetically gifted physically is an advantage. But one of the most underrated, yet powerful virtues a human can possess is resilience – which is exactly why I wanted to embark on this swim.

I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my hero Captain Matthew Webb, who, on 25 August 1875 achieved what many believed was impossible: the first crossing of the English Channel (swimming 21 miles from Dover in England to Calais in France). At the time, sailors claimed this was swimming suicide because the tides were too strong and the water too cold. But Captain Webb, in a woollen wetsuit and on a diet of brandy and beef broth, swam breaststroke (because front crawl was considered ‘ungentlemanly-like’ at the time) and battled waves for over 20 hours to make history.

I loved this story. It was one of grit, resilience and defying all odds as his dogged persistence and self-belief captured the spirit of the times and cemented Webb as a hero of the Victorian age.

Therefore, for me, circumnavigating Great Britain would serve as a way of reconnecting with these powerful and primitive human traits. Looking at the anthropology of us humans (and earth’s 4.5 billion-year history), it’s the reason we’re all here today sitting firmly at the top of the food chain, as we compete in the game that Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer referred to as the survival of the fittest.

How did we do that? Well, our strategy has been simple. Around 100,000 years ago our ancestors developed these huge brains and amazing ability for endurance and physical labour and ever since have been able to outsmart, outhunt and outlast the bigger, stronger and faster members of the animal kingdom.

To them, bravery and tenacity weren’t rare and respected virtues. They were daily habits that people possessed solely in order to survive when everything outside of the comfort of their cave wanted to eat them.

Fast-forward to the era of modern (civilised) man and the same attributes of grit, determination and fortitude that saw us survive, now see us thrive. From the first ascent of Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953 to Captain Matthew Webb’s first crossing of the English Channel, it seems this idea of persistence, valour and intestinal fortitude is what bonds great feats of human endeavour throughout history.

But today we are in danger. We are ignoring these key attributes that made us great as a species and are losing our ancient, age-old abilities for mental and physical robustness. Living between our desks at work and sofas at home, we would be almost unrecognisable to our intrepid forefathers who 70,000 years ago had dreams beyond their horizons as they left East Africa to explore the world. Which is exactly why I decided to swim around Great Britain and to write this book.

To show that we modern humans are capable of the same superhuman resilience as our intrepid ancestors.

CHAPTER 2 | WHY THE BODY DOES NOT BREAK

LOCATION: Margate

DISTANCE COVERED: 0 miles

DAYS AT SEA: 0

The clock strikes 2.00 p.m. on Margate beach and signals my final three hours on land.

I spent these last precious moments bouncing between the local patisseries and pizza parlours along the seafront, as a generous portion of scones, doughnuts and an 18-inch stuffed crust helped to calm my nerves. Not knowing when I might get a freshly cooked pizza again, I ate what I could and then put the rest in my pocket as I headed to the beach to meet the Mayor of Margate who’d kindly agreed to say a few words to me and the local media before we set sail.

Her name was Julie and she was lovely. Impeccably dressed and wearing a huge traditional gold medallion (known as a chain of office), she and her husband Ray had already met my mum and dad who’d arrived earlier that day. So, we skipped the formalities and instead spoke about scones and swimming and I ate pizza out of my pocket as they proudly told me about the history and heritage of their beloved town.

‘How long do you think it will take you?’ Julie asked.

I paused for a moment, since I really had no idea. All I knew was the waves, wind and weather would decide if and when I would finish. But as a very rough guess I replied, ‘Maybe a hundred days, but likely more.’

‘Oh dear,’ she said disappointed and looked at Ray with concern. ‘He’ll miss our food festivals in August if he doesn’t hurry.’

That one moment is why I will forever love Margate.

Marvellous Margate. Traditional and welcoming, but entirely unpretentious and down-to-earth. Whereas everyone else was concerned with the start, Julie was already (ambitiously) planning the finish to coincide with scones and jam at her local food festival. This is why I will be forever grateful to the town who waved me goodbye on my voyage.

But worth noting is that not everyone shared Julie’s optimism and there weren’t many people in attendance that day other than those who lived locally. Sponsors had tried their very best to get the national media to report on the start, but few were taking it seriously. Just months before, another swimmer had attempted the swim but quit after a week due to bad conditions. As a result, most journalists believed this was an equally ill-fated attempt at an impossible adventure.

Also, social media was rife with people posting why they thought this would fail.

Many believed the mind would quit …

Others believed the body would break …

But of all the naysayers, the most vocal were sports scientists within the swimming community who were quick to point out that my chunky five foot eight, 88 kg frame would never make it around; that with such short, stubby arms and legs it was obvious that the laws of hydrodynamics (the study of objects moving through the water) were not in my favour.

I was well aware of this, too. Months before arriving in Margate, I visited a sports laboratory for a full medical examination to see if my body could survive a swim of this magnitude. After hours of being prodded and probed I was told in no uncertain terms that I had ‘no physical attributes to be an elite swimmer’. They also added, I would likely, ‘sink like a stone’ if I embarked on this ill-fated swim.

But it gets worse …

Entering the room that day, the chief sports scientist picked up the clipboard containing my scan results. Looking me up and down he said, ‘You’re very heavy … but also very short.’

Harsh, but true, I thought.

‘That’s not good,’ he continued, now frowning as if the stubby statistics of my body were offending him and his laboratory. ‘But if I can be honest with you, it’s your body composition that concerns me the most. Since fat is buoyant and insulating, and you have very little, and muscle sinks, and you have a lot. Basically, floating and keeping warm is going to be an issue for you, never mind swimming.’

I nodded and thought this must be the most brutal assessment of a body in the history of swimming. But I wasn’t out of the woods yet. His confidence-crippling critique of my body continued and this time he had an issue with specific body parts.

‘Also, it’s your head,’ he continued.

‘What about my head?’ I said, now feeling a bit self-conscious.

‘It’s big and dense,’ he declared bluntly.

‘I know I’ve a big head, but—’ I was interrupted before I could defend my oversized cranium.

‘Yes, but it’s not just big. It’s very dense,’ he said gesturing with his hands. ‘In fact, all your bones are dense, but my concern is when swimming, because of the position and size of your head, you’re basically turning yourself into a human submarine, as the weight of your massive skull plummets you into the ocean bed.’

He then continued to flick through the pages of notes, surveying the metrics while continuing to tell me I had one of the densest skulls he’d ever seen. Moments later (and five pages in) we found a statistical silver-lining.

‘Oh wait,’ he said. ‘There might be some good news.’

I breathed a sigh of relief.

‘You have brilliant … fat … chunky … child-bearing hips.’

‘WHAT?’ I had no idea how this was good news, but decided it was better than a massive submarine skull so decided to listen.

‘You carry your fat around your thighs like a woman,’ he said, again gesturing with his hands. ‘What this means is despite your big heavy head sinking, your fat thighs will float … almost like a duck’s bum.’

He paused to consider his final diagnosis. ‘If you want my advice, I’d stop strength training. Lose muscle. Obtain a body that more closely resembles that of a swimmer. Then try and swim around Great Britain in a few years, because right now I’m not sure you could walk around never mind swim around.’

Sitting there, I agreed with everything he said apart from this hips ‘prescription’.

I do have a heavy head and child-bearing hips, but – completely contradictory to conventional sports science – I would argue that despite being a super-sized sumo-swimmer, these would uniquely equip me to swim around Great Britain.

Why was I so sure? Because his diagnosis was based on an elite swimmer competing in a 100 m or 10 km race and not someone attempting to swim 1,780 miles around several countries. This was the fundamental difference, since I was aware that being a leaner and lighter swimmer would make me faster, but I was also aware that being heavier and stronger would make me more robust.

Studies in strength agreed, too. Research from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) stated, ‘When considering sports injury prevention strategies, the role of the strength and conditioning coach can extend beyond observing exercise technique and prescribing training to develop a robust and resilient athlete.’²

This is true in swimming and other sports. As early as 1986, research published in the Journal of Sports Medicine found that, ‘The incidence of various types of overuse injuries, such as swimmer’s shoulder and tennis elbow, may be reduced by the performance of resistance training activities.’³ How? Scientists added, ‘Resistance training promotes growth and/or increases in the strength of ligaments, tendons, tendon to bone and ligament to bone junction strength, joint cartilage and the connective tissue sheaths within muscle. Studies also demonstrate resistance training can cause increased bone mineral content and therefore may aid in prevention of skeletal injuries.’⁴

Now every athlete is, of course, different. Equally, there are thousands of incredible (and specific) treatments performed by world-leading physiotherapists, osteopaths and injury prevention specialists that are being used to treat thousands of specific intricate injuries, and in no way am I attempting to gloss over these. But evidence suggests – as you will see in a later chapter – that on a large scale across sports, countries, age groups and gender, strength training could hold the key to creating robust and resilient humans.

This (I believed) would be a deciding factor of the swim, because if I was to miss just a few days of perfect swimming conditions due to injury, I could also miss up to 100 miles of progress. Therefore, speed was an advantage, but physical resilience was a necessity.

Of course, many disagreed with this theory. But do you know who agreed with me? Barry. Yes, Barry always believed in me. A local fisherman from Margate, he was 65 years old and had lived here all his life. When news reached his local pub that someone was about to attempt to swim around Great Britain, he and his friend George came down to the harbour to watch the start of the swimming spectacle unfold.

Looking me up and down (like a short racehorse) Barry and George decided that there might be money to be made out of my little adventure. As they sipped their pints of locally brewed ale, they considered the terms of their wager and each gave their verdict on what they thought the outcome of the swim would be.

George approached me first. Very polite, but also very sceptical. He agreed with sports scientists from the swimming community and thought I might get 100 miles down the coast before my body broke or my mind gave up.

‘Young man, please don’t take offence,’ he said, looking up and down at my height (or lack of), ‘but based on how rough the sea gets on the south coast, I think you’ve just won me a hundred quid.’

Barry shook his head and disagreed, putting his arm around me as he said, ‘Go on, lad. I’ll get the beers in when you’re back.’

I laughed and gave Barry a big hug.

Again, this is why I love Margate. I thanked them both for coming as, regardless of the bet, they both showed up to wave me goodbye. But my parting words to Barry were, ‘I prefer cider to beer, but see you in a few months.’

It was late afternoon and the tide was beginning to turn. Once it did I would be swimming out of the harbour and heading east towards the famous white cliffs of Dover on the south coast of England, only returning to Margate after I had swum all the way around Great Britain.

To be successful, I would have to ensure my body wouldn’t break and my mind wouldn’t quit; and to do this I knew I couldn’t defy the laws of sports science. Many of the rules that govern our psychology and physiology are infallible and as a sports scholar I knew I couldn’t ignore them.

Instead, over the next 157 days, I had to learn how to bend them.

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