Training for the English Channel – Marcella MacDonald

Guest feature by Matt McDonough

STORRS, Connecticut, May 4. AT 5 a.m. on a February morning in Storrs, CT, bitter cold temperatures are accompanied by a light wind. The month-old snow on the ground is a reminder of the long, hard winter. Dawn has yet to reach the Northeastern Connecticut college town, with the sun barely peeking out over the horizon of the black sky.

On the fringe of the University of Connecticut campus, however, Marcella MacDonald is already in the pool at the Mansfield Community Center, which at 81 degrees, is a little too warm for her liking.

"It's hot," MacDonald said, while taking off her swim cap and tossing it poolside.

While its temperature may satisfy others, the pool does not suit MacDonald. The temperature for her June swim of the English Channel will be in the low 50s. If it goes well in June, she'll go back in the fall.
She said she prefers cold water.

"I can't really say I like swimming in the warmth," MacDonald said. "I don't like doing long swims in hot water because I overheat. I actually do better in cold water. The June swim is going to be cold. I'm not saying I'm going to enjoy it. I've done it before so I have to get myself ready for cold water."

"With the Channel water below 62 degrees, it's like swimming with ice cubes," says John Lenard, who swims with MacDonald five mornings a week, adding that he would die swimming in that kind of water for 24 hours.

"I never understood how she could do it," Lenard said. "But she's very strong and that's her hobby."

Hobby may be an understatement. By 6:30 a.m., the time when Lenard arrives, MacDonald has already been practicing her passion for almost an hour. As she swims smoothly in the far lane, that ranges from four to 12 feet deep, her strokes are like the hands of a ticking clock. She's efficient, leaving hardly a ripple as she does a down and back in 42 seconds, and almost three 25-yard pool lengths in a little more than a minute.

After eight round trips, she takes a short rest.

At the end of the shallow pool lies what she calls her "toys." A tube that helps her with upper body workouts, flippers, goggles, flip flops and a water bottle. After a rest and sip of water, she resumes her swim. In her colorful print bathing suit, she more closely resembles a steady moving rainbow fish than a blur under the water. Her Mermaid tattoo on her arm whizzes by as she swims.

"I don't worry about speed," MacDonald, 47, said. "I worry about endurance."

Endurance may define MacDonald, not only in swimming, but in life.

Following her early morning swim that usually ends at 8:30 a.m., the Andover native heads to her Manchester office, where she is a private-practicing podiatrist in her hometown. Leaving the pool at 8:30 gives her enough time to get ready for her 9:30 patients. Her breakfast, a protein shake that she drinks on her drive to the office, lasts her until lunchtime. But MacDonald doesn't take a break during lunch.

"I may even work out at lunchtime," MacDonald said, such as taking a walk with her receptionist or going to the gym to work out.

MacDonald once minded getting up so early, but no longer does.

"My body kind of got used to it," MacDonald said. "It's harder to sleep in. I'm up at 5 a.m. I can't remember the last time I slept past 6 p.m."

After lunch, MacDonald will see patients from 1:30 to 5 p.m. Her day's not over, however, as she coaches a swim team of eight-year-olds in East Hartford a couple of days a week. After getting home around 8:30, MacDonald enjoys a dinner and goes to bed, ensuring an early rise the next morning. She saves the naps for the weekend.

"As I grow older, my life has become more stable, not as many worries about finances, studies, and so on, so I suppose my swimming is extremely consistent," MacDonald said. "My body has gotten 'used' to these extreme distances."

MacDonald will make the 21-mile trek across the Channel next month. But first, she needs to make the trip across the pond. She'll leave for England June 17, giving her time to hang out and swim around the harbor before the first crossing on June 30. The weather won't be great, MacDonald said, and as usual, she expects the water to be very cold. A plus is the fact that there will most likely be only four or five hours of darkness, so there will be plenty of sunlight on the sea.

Crossing the Channel can become a waiting game, but with a long tide going out July 3, she should be able to reach her goal of a single crossing. Depending on the first crossing, MacDonald plans to try for a double, across the Channel to France and back, in October depending if there's flatter water.

"I want to be the first and last crossing for the season," MacDonald said.

Firsts are not foreign to her. MacDonald was the first American woman to swim across the Channel to France and back, which she did in 2001. After two missed tries due to an injury in 1999 and bad weather in 2000, MacDonald made history by completing the double. The first time she completed a swim across the Channel was in 1994, and MacDonald has done 10 total crossings since. Her family went with her the first time, and her partner, Janet Galya, has been on all the swims except one. It's the challenge that keeps MacDonald going back to the cold water.

"I really do like England primarily because of the people that I've met," MacDonald said. "I've met some great people that seem to keep me going back there. Every different time you go in the water it gives you a different challenge."

MacDonald wasn't always a long distance swimmer. She swam throughout her youth in Manchester, competing at the high school and club level until she was 17. MacDonald attended AIC as a softball player and had to sneak into the Springfield College pool during free time. She worked as a lifeguard in Manchester, before trying open water swimming for the first time in 1993. When she first heard of a swim around the island of Manhattan, she thought it was a crazy idea, but since has totaled five trips around the heart of New York City since the first trip 18 years ago.

When she swims across the Channel, 64-year-old Mike Oram, principal and senior instructor of the Dover Sea School, is usually by her side. The escort boat pilot, who helps run websites about Channel crossings, has accompanied swimmers across the Channel more than 500 times since late 1981 with a 75-percent success rate.

Oram, who along with his wife is involved with the management of English Channel swimming, is a free spirit. A resident of Ramsgate, England, Oram said he only does what he wants to do because any minute could be his last (and there have been close calls in Oram's many hobbies). He sees that type of attitude in MacDonald as well.

"I've known her for a long time now as a friend and a swimmer," Oram said. "When we first met she was a quiet, determined and fairly reserved girl with a lot of spirit. She would set her mind to achieve and gave it her best in a very business-like and demanding manner. Like a good wine age has just made her more fortified and a little more settled with the rich pattern of life. Somewhere along the way, someone took the cork out and she has come out of her bottle full of the bubbles of life. The seriousness of life has given way to more of the enjoyment and a little bit of contentment also has kept in. The determination is still there but the desperation to achieve has taken a bit more of a back seat. Just as long as she can spice it up a bit every now and then with another challenge."

One of the most recent challenges was to cope with an injury suffered at the end of last summer. During a trip to Hawaii, MacDonald caught her shin on a pedal while riding a bike and split it open, requiring 40 stitches.

The injury kept her out of the pool for a few months and forced her to cancel a planned Channel swim in 2010.

Needless to say, MacDonald is happy to be healthy.

"It's great, I don't even feel it," MacDonald said, although the gash left a big scar.

With the injury healed, she is ready for her next crossing.

"I'm not worrying about speed," she said. "The cold is another story, but I've been there too, I'm just enjoying the challenge and seeing my British mates."

MacDonald keeps friends up to date with all her swims on her blog, "Cutting Water." Among those friends is Liz Fry, who is also attempting a double crossing this summer. MacDonald will start to swim in colder climates soon, training in lakes on weekends and even taking dips in the Long Island Sound in preparation for the cold temperatures that await her in the Channel.

But for now, she is still training with her mates at the Mansfield Community Center.

"We pretty much all know each other," MacDonald said. "We talk a lot to each other. Me being there for 2 ½ hours, I know the early swimmers, we all know everybody's time, who comes in or leaves early, we know. We know what's going on with everybody."

MacDonald has been training at the recreational facility since 2004, a year after it opened. Lenard has been swimming there since it opened.

"He swims great for his age even though he's pretty hard on himself," MacDonald said of Lenard, who is close to 80 years of age. "For his age group, he's fantastic."

Lenard was a member of the 1948 Hungary Olympic team, traveling to the games in London and competing in the 200-meter individual medley.

"I wasn't that great of a swimmer," Lenard said, through a thick Hungarian accent. "I wasn't top notch. I barely made the team."

Lenard and MacDonald met about 14 years at the now-defunct Masters swim program at UConn. Lenard was part of the local club for two decades, but the group that at one time had 30 members fell apart in the last seven years. So, Lenard had to find another swimming community to become a part of.

"I swim primarily for health, but it's nice to have people there I know," Lenard said. "But Marcy is special."

Lenard compared MacDonald to the pink Energizer Battery bunny rabbit, who keeps going and going. He still finds it unfathomable for someone to swim across the Channel and believes the brutality of the swim makes it harder than a Mt. Everest climb.

So it's not surprising to see MacDonald itch to get back into the pool after an injury. Or shake off a headache due to an overly hot pool. She knows that a successful crossing in June, starts with training on a bitter cold morning in February.

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