Latest / The You Project / #1592 The Toughest Athlete I've Trained - Tammy Van Wisse (PT 1)

Transcript

#1592 The Toughest Athlete I've Trained - Tammy Van Wisse (PT 1) · The You Project

0:00
Speaker 1: I get a groo because it's fatty Harps, it's Craig Anthey, Harper,
0:03
Speaker 1: it's the you project. It's oh bloody hell, I'm excited
0:07
Speaker 1: about today. Every now and then I just wheel out
0:10
Speaker 1: an old friend from my historical kind of cupboard. I
0:13
Speaker 1: just knock on the door. I dust off the cobwebs
0:16
Speaker 1: off both the cupboard and the person. And I've dusted
0:20
Speaker 1: the cobwebs off. Tammy van Wissa, Who we go? Oh
0:24
Speaker 1: my god? So far back?
0:26
Speaker 2: Hi dam Hello, Craig. It's so good to see you.
0:29
Speaker 2: We did go really really far back. In fact, I
0:32
Speaker 2: don't even know whether we should mention how far back.
0:34
Speaker 2: It's just the years of ticking on, aren't they.
0:36
Speaker 1: When did we meet? What do you reckon? What year
0:38
Speaker 1: was that? Was it? Maybe early like ninety ninety ninety?
0:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say early nineties, I reckon
0:45
Speaker 2: that'd be pretty close to you.
0:46
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, back in the day, I was trying to
0:49
Speaker 1: figure out this thing, and the world was trying to
0:51
Speaker 1: figure out this thing called personal training, and people like, well,
0:56
Speaker 1: that's not a thing, Harps, that's not a thing. It's
0:58
Speaker 1: never going to take off its bullshit. It's not an industry.
1:03
Speaker 1: It's not a profession. There's no course, there's no accreditation,
1:06
Speaker 1: there's no insurance. And I'm like, I think it's going
1:10
Speaker 1: to work. And you were an early adopter of it
1:14
Speaker 1: wasn't so much it was kind of pet slash coaching,
1:18
Speaker 1: slash talking bullshit with me for an hour. Yeah, but
1:23
Speaker 1: there was a long time ago.
1:24
Speaker 2: Right, It was a long time ago, but it was
1:27
Speaker 2: fantastic for me. It was like a breath of fresh
1:30
Speaker 2: air because as a pool summer, you know, with your
1:33
Speaker 2: head down looking at a black line all day. You know,
1:36
Speaker 2: you work hard doing that, but it's good to diversify.
1:39
Speaker 2: And it was so good to actually, you know, still
1:42
Speaker 2: be building muscle and working on different things, helping with
1:46
Speaker 2: prevent injuries and just build different strength that I couldn't
1:49
Speaker 2: do in the pool. So and the chatter, the chat
1:52
Speaker 2: was just incredible. So you've got the mental health, the
1:54
Speaker 2: physical health, you have. It kicked every box.
1:56
Speaker 1: Well, do you know what was funny is like, honestly,
1:59
Speaker 1: I mean when I met you, I hadn't even gone
2:00
Speaker 1: to UNI yet, although obviously and you had to train people.
2:03
Speaker 1: I've been working in gyms my whole adult life, and
2:05
Speaker 1: I owned a gym and all of that, but I didn't.
2:09
Speaker 1: You know, I look back and I think not that
2:11
Speaker 1: I was the high watermark or harp As was the
2:13
Speaker 1: high watermark. But we did okay, right, and in a
2:16
Speaker 1: time when people didn't even understand what the fuck a
2:20
Speaker 1: personal training studio was. We can't say that on s
2:23
Speaker 1: and can we tam We can't say fuck no. We
2:26
Speaker 1: used to do a bit of radio together everyone. And
2:30
Speaker 1: but I realize now like I was kind of lucky
2:33
Speaker 1: before because you and I both of our default setting
2:37
Speaker 1: is friendly, chatty. You know, both of us are a
2:39
Speaker 1: bit outgoing. And I think that the whole thing worked
2:46
Speaker 1: largely not because the exercise programming was mind blowing, although
2:51
Speaker 1: it was okay, but I think because it was just
2:54
Speaker 1: a good experience, Like it was fun like for me too,
2:57
Speaker 1: you know, to go somewhere and hang out with someone
3:00
Speaker 1: that you like and by the way, let's do some
3:02
Speaker 1: training exactly.
3:04
Speaker 2: And this isn't that essentially what life's all about, though,
3:06
Speaker 2: Like in everything that we do, we try and make
3:08
Speaker 2: our work life fun. And when it's fun, you get
3:11
Speaker 2: things done. But it's just the you know, you enjoy it,
3:13
Speaker 2: you look forward to it, and you know speaking of
3:16
Speaker 2: being on, you know, a journey that you didn't know
3:18
Speaker 2: where you were going to go. I mean I was
3:19
Speaker 2: kind of in the same boat with marathon swimming at
3:22
Speaker 2: the time because you know, there wasn't a lot of
3:25
Speaker 2: benchmarks to sort of work off, so it was new
3:28
Speaker 2: territory for me too. There weren't a lot of marathon
3:30
Speaker 2: simmers doing you know, strength training programs at that time,
3:33
Speaker 2: so I guess, you know, you got to push the envelope,
3:36
Speaker 2: don't you know. It's good to have new experiences and
3:38
Speaker 2: see what works and what doesn't, and you know, sometimes
3:42
Speaker 2: you hit the jackpot and you go, yeah, this is
3:44
Speaker 2: really good, and then everybody follows you after that. Yeah,
3:46
Speaker 2: I knew that was going to be good, and all
3:48
Speaker 2: of a sudden they're on board. But yeah, so it
3:51
Speaker 2: was a fabulous journey, and obviously the friendships is just
3:54
Speaker 2: the main thing that I think back, like now, It
3:56
Speaker 2: was just an incredible time and just beautiful people wak
4:00
Speaker 2: to happens. All the trainers were fabulous, So yeah, they.
4:03
Speaker 1: Were good times. And also, I mean, you were a
4:05
Speaker 1: pioneer in that there are a lot of you know,
4:10
Speaker 1: a lot of athletes who they would pretty much only
4:12
Speaker 1: do whatever it is. If they are a runner, they'd run.
4:15
Speaker 1: They're a swimmer, they'd swim. If they're a netballer, they'd
4:18
Speaker 1: play netball. The idea of I mean, and now it's
4:21
Speaker 1: proliferated and of course it's commonplace, but the idea of
4:26
Speaker 1: cross training, as the kids call it, it wasn't really
4:30
Speaker 1: much of a thing back then. You're like you doing
4:32
Speaker 1: strength training, you running, you doing flexibility, balance, coordination, you know,
4:37
Speaker 1: high reps, low reps, muscular endurance, strength power. I know
4:42
Speaker 1: that it was done, but really that was just kind
4:44
Speaker 1: of that you know, where there is Obviously now swimmers
4:48
Speaker 1: do a lot of conditioning work and diverse kind of work,
4:52
Speaker 1: but back in the day, it was not that common, right.
4:55
Speaker 2: No, Look, the only thing we had from memory was
4:58
Speaker 2: like these rubber stretch cords and that about all we did.
5:00
Speaker 2: That was our dry land program was to do a
5:03
Speaker 2: bit of stretch forward work. So that was, you know,
5:06
Speaker 2: really you know, all we did. So, yeah, it was
5:08
Speaker 2: a real pioneering time and the benefits are huge now
5:11
Speaker 2: and obviously, as you said that, it's well known, but
5:13
Speaker 2: back then it was kind of like new ground and yeah,
5:16
Speaker 2: and it was exciting to be in those times and
5:19
Speaker 2: trying new things, and I think you know, to diversify
5:22
Speaker 2: as the key with everything though, isn't it? As we
5:24
Speaker 2: keep If you try new things and you have different
5:26
Speaker 2: things in your life, it keeps it interesting, always learning
5:29
Speaker 2: new stuff. You know some stuff, it doesn't work, you
5:32
Speaker 2: fail at no big deal, You learn a lesson, you
5:35
Speaker 2: move forward. So essentially it was really great times from
5:39
Speaker 2: that perspective. And I think you know there are simple
5:41
Speaker 2: life recipes in amongst all of that too.
5:44
Speaker 1: Would you my audience who don't know who you are?
5:46
Speaker 1: Because we go into ninety countries, so there are going
5:49
Speaker 1: to be people going cool. I mean they would have
5:52
Speaker 1: read the intro probably, but give give people a little
5:55
Speaker 1: bit of a snapshot of your background, a kind of
5:58
Speaker 1: a bio without me reading anything out, if you would.
6:01
Speaker 2: Okay, So I going right back to the very beginning.
6:06
Speaker 2: I wasn't very sporty or adventurous at school, so I
6:10
Speaker 2: was like the fatter scale in the class got picked on.
6:14
Speaker 2: And I so wish I'd kept this award. But this
6:17
Speaker 2: was back in the politically you know, where it wasn't
6:19
Speaker 2: politically correctness. I got an award for the person least
6:23
Speaker 2: likely to succeed at sport.
6:26
Speaker 1: Really hang on, hang on? Who Wow, Well you and
6:30
Speaker 1: I come from the same area. You're five years younger.
6:33
Speaker 1: But well I was called Jumbo at school, right, so
6:35
Speaker 1: it's same era. What who gave you that?
6:39
Speaker 2: I think that was in grade five from memory, and
6:44
Speaker 2: it was like it was something that was done through
6:47
Speaker 2: the class and the teachers, you know, at that point
6:49
Speaker 2: in time, because everybody got different things. And so yeah,
6:53
Speaker 2: I just remember I wish I so wish I kept it.
6:55
Speaker 2: Wouldn't that be awesome to go what it is?
6:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't want to interrupt your story. But how
7:00
Speaker 1: did they not think that that was hurtful?
7:04
Speaker 2: I don't know, Like I said, maybe reverse psychology that was.
7:07
Speaker 2: I don't know, but it just was different, just so
7:11
Speaker 2: different times. And yeah, so anyway, look, it turned out
7:15
Speaker 2: to be a really good thing because it actually did
7:17
Speaker 2: spare me on a lot as I progressed, because then
7:20
Speaker 2: my parents put me into swimming, and I didn't want
7:24
Speaker 2: to go kicking and screaming, but you know, they were
7:27
Speaker 2: intent on making sure that I was safe in the water.
7:30
Speaker 2: So there was you know, I think they persevered through
7:33
Speaker 2: some pretty difficult times. I put up a pretty good fight,
7:36
Speaker 2: but eventually, you know, realized I wasn't going to get
7:39
Speaker 2: out of it, and I guess a bit of a
7:40
Speaker 2: change in mindset there. Started to like it, enjoyed it.
7:44
Speaker 2: Had a great teacher. You know, as happens in life,
7:47
Speaker 2: you click with someone who you know they're on the
7:50
Speaker 2: same level, you resonate with, then all of a sudden
7:52
Speaker 2: progress And so I then got asked to join the
7:57
Speaker 2: swimming squad, which I did. That was like one of
7:59
Speaker 2: the greatest moments of my life, like you know, yeah,
8:03
Speaker 2: and did pool competitions for a number of years. I
8:05
Speaker 2: did States and nationals and didn't look did quite well
8:10
Speaker 2: at one States and stuff that, you know, didn't really
8:12
Speaker 2: hit the top level in the pool all. It just
8:15
Speaker 2: I discovered that I had a natural talent for insurance,
8:19
Speaker 2: like for doing things for a long period of time
8:21
Speaker 2: and being in the in the paining cave so to speak.
8:24
Speaker 2: That was sort of plucked by foretapes and in training
8:27
Speaker 2: that was really evident. So so I got a bit
8:30
Speaker 2: jaded with the pool swimming. My parents put me into
8:33
Speaker 2: life saving and that's where I kind of had the
8:35
Speaker 2: introduction into open water. I really loved life saving because
8:39
Speaker 2: there was a big social component of it as well,
8:42
Speaker 2: and it was just different, challenging, you know, being out
8:44
Speaker 2: in open water. I love the fact that, you know,
8:47
Speaker 2: it was different every time you went out there. And
8:50
Speaker 2: so then through the Life Saving Club, one day I
8:52
Speaker 2: saw like an ad for a race that was on
8:56
Speaker 2: from Bomorris to Frankston, a twenty kilometer swim in Port
8:59
Speaker 2: Philip Bay and Victoria. I thought I'd have a crack.
9:02
Speaker 2: One of my training mates were supposed to do it
9:04
Speaker 2: with me, and they pulled out at the last minute.
9:06
Speaker 2: So I was left there petrified, thinking, probably crack, How
9:11
Speaker 2: am I going to make twenty kilometers?
9:12
Speaker 1: Like, you know, I think the furthest I've.
9:14
Speaker 2: Done in the pool was ten so it was kind
9:16
Speaker 2: of like doubling what I'd ever done before. So jumped
9:19
Speaker 2: in and so the biggest thing that frightened me was
9:23
Speaker 2: just basically sharks, you know, that was all I think.
9:26
Speaker 2: And I watched you know, and stupid me had watched
9:28
Speaker 2: Jaws the night before as a bit of like pre
9:30
Speaker 2: race prep, so you know, really.
9:33
Speaker 1: Really just was off the mark there.
9:35
Speaker 2: But anyway, my whole race plan was to stay in
9:38
Speaker 2: the middle of the pack because I figured that if
9:40
Speaker 2: a shark pame it and hopefully take somebody else and
9:42
Speaker 2: I could use my sprinting ability to get.
9:44
Speaker 1: Back in quickly, good time.
9:46
Speaker 2: Good plan, which fell apart sort of about halfway into
9:49
Speaker 2: the race because the conditions got really hairy, and so
9:54
Speaker 2: people started to sort of separate and I lost track
9:58
Speaker 2: of people, didn't see any feet in front of me anymore. Also,
10:00
Speaker 2: it's on my own all of a sudden, and you know,
10:02
Speaker 2: had the massive panic attack. I thought I'd seen a
10:04
Speaker 2: shadow in the peripheral of the goggles, and of course
10:06
Speaker 2: the Jaws music starts playing in the head, and I'm
10:09
Speaker 2: just fight offlight, my wo off, you know, and it's
10:13
Speaker 2: it's just so fascinating to me how the body can
10:18
Speaker 2: just you know, act on a thought and it's not
10:20
Speaker 2: a true thought, like obviously my mic, it was all
10:24
Speaker 2: just made up, just and there. I was frightened and
10:27
Speaker 2: thinking I was going to get eating any segment realized
10:29
Speaker 2: didn't happen, so kept going. Managed to get to the
10:33
Speaker 2: finish line first, go home, third overall, and I was
10:38
Speaker 2: approached by the Australian Marathon swimming team coach. I didn't
10:43
Speaker 2: even know there was an Australian Marathon swimming team back
10:45
Speaker 2: in those days. Wow, And he said, this is a
10:47
Speaker 2: sport and you're really good at it, and would you
10:51
Speaker 2: like to explore you know.
10:52
Speaker 1: That a bit fair.
10:52
Speaker 2: That's sort of how it started. And then I sort
10:55
Speaker 2: of started setting my sights on things like English channels
11:00
Speaker 2: and races around Europe because there was a big circuit
11:04
Speaker 2: you could do around Europe. Was huge in Europe, and
11:06
Speaker 2: even in the States there was quite a few races
11:08
Speaker 2: you could do. So kind of jumped on board with
11:10
Speaker 2: that and did okay, you know, and then started to
11:13
Speaker 2: do a few individual challenges as well. So I've swum
11:18
Speaker 2: the length of the Mai River here in Australia, which
11:20
Speaker 2: is two four hundred and thirty eight kilometers, and that
11:24
Speaker 2: took me three and a half.
11:26
Speaker 1: That's hang on, hang on, all right, just pause. Okay,
11:31
Speaker 1: so we're going to go two and a half out, well,
11:33
Speaker 1: two four hundred and thirty eight kilometers. Hang on. I
11:39
Speaker 1: don't want to. I'm just there's so many questions right
11:43
Speaker 1: cape bar away before we go to the Murray. Right,
11:46
Speaker 1: So your first you've never swum more than ten k's
11:49
Speaker 1: in a pool. Now, swimming in a pool is from
11:54
Speaker 1: the environment, very controlled wins not an issue. Currents are
11:59
Speaker 1: not an issue. Sharks are not a fucking issue, you know,
12:03
Speaker 1: Like it's it's you know, it's the safest of swimming
12:08
Speaker 1: environments and the most controlled and the most predictable. So
12:11
Speaker 1: you've gone from that to doubling it in an uncontrolled,
12:14
Speaker 1: unpredictable environment. Probably not going to get eaten by a shark,
12:18
Speaker 1: but it's happened. How would and I know it depends
12:24
Speaker 1: a lot on weather encurrents and particular beaches, but how
12:28
Speaker 1: would you compare twenty kilometers in that particular open water
12:33
Speaker 1: versus twenty kilometers in a pool.
12:36
Speaker 2: Oh, difference between day and night. As you said, like,
12:38
Speaker 2: you know, you're in a lane. You've got you know,
12:40
Speaker 2: anti wave lane ropes, You've got a black line to follow,
12:44
Speaker 2: so you know, you know your distance, your water temperatures controlled.
12:49
Speaker 2: You know, it's a nice twenty sort of eight and
12:51
Speaker 2: a half degrees. You've got a coach standing at the end,
12:54
Speaker 2: sort of telling you what to do and giving you encouragement.
12:57
Speaker 2: You've got your teammates around as well. The water is
13:01
Speaker 2: generally quite flat, you know, unless everybody's doing butterfly. That
13:04
Speaker 2: makes a bit wavy. But you know, other than that,
13:07
Speaker 2: it's all it's all very predictable, and so you know,
13:11
Speaker 2: you don't have a lot of fear, so to speak,
13:13
Speaker 2: you don't.
13:14
Speaker 1: Know twenty I know this is dumb, right, and there's
13:17
Speaker 1: really this is bro science. But is twenty kilometers in
13:21
Speaker 1: the ocean twice as hard as twenty kilometers in a
13:24
Speaker 1: pool or it's impossible to make that kind of judgment.
13:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really hard to make that judgment. I think
13:31
Speaker 2: there's the monotony in the pool that's a killer for me,
13:34
Speaker 2: is that you know there's a set distance, so you
13:36
Speaker 2: know in your mind you're already calculating how many lapse
13:39
Speaker 2: it is, whereas you know out in the open water,
13:42
Speaker 2: you know you've got the just the horizon and so
13:45
Speaker 2: it's kind of like it's a long goal, but you're
13:47
Speaker 2: seeing yourself make progress, like in increments there as well.
13:51
Speaker 2: But yeah, so it's very very hard to compare. But
13:53
Speaker 2: I would say that it is more difficult doing it
13:56
Speaker 2: in the open water, just because of the challenge of
13:58
Speaker 2: dealing with the known, the uncertainty and being being prepared
14:03
Speaker 2: for it. You know, as we know, like if you
14:05
Speaker 2: plan for it, then that's great. If you train in
14:07
Speaker 2: those conditions, you know what to expect or what I
14:10
Speaker 2: like to think. It's always planned for worst case scenarios.
14:13
Speaker 2: And that became my thing, is when everybody did a
14:15
Speaker 2: swim or my training involved okay, in the planning stages,
14:19
Speaker 2: what could possibly go wrong, and let's train for it.
14:22
Speaker 2: So you know, if you're going to be swimming at nighttime,
14:25
Speaker 2: let's do some nighttime swimming training. If it's going to
14:27
Speaker 2: be huge waves, let's practice when you know it's really
14:30
Speaker 2: rough out there, just get out there and do it
14:32
Speaker 2: in those conditions. Or if it's going to be cold,
14:34
Speaker 2: a lot of cold water acclimatization. So yeah, it's just
14:38
Speaker 2: a matter of preparing because it's all the mind, you know,
14:40
Speaker 2: the thoughts.
14:42
Speaker 1: We think about, like running twenty kilometers, Like if you've
14:46
Speaker 1: I've done a few halves, right, and that's twenty one
14:49
Speaker 1: point one right, yeah, And I mean not that that
14:53
Speaker 1: in any way compares, but running twenty is not an
14:57
Speaker 1: easy feat. I mean, especially when you've you've literally done
15:02
Speaker 1: double like the furthest you've swum as ten, then you're
15:05
Speaker 1: doubling it. How did you firstly, how did your body
15:08
Speaker 1: pull up? If you can remember how long we saw
15:11
Speaker 1: and how much fucking food did you eat when you
15:14
Speaker 1: finally felt okay.
15:17
Speaker 2: I was absolutely exhausted when I got to the end,
15:20
Speaker 2: like I was literally you know, I think I ran
15:22
Speaker 2: up the beach and then literally collapsed in a chair
15:25
Speaker 2: that they had there. And yeah, I was my stomach
15:28
Speaker 2: was tuning because I wasn't super hungry just at that time.
15:31
Speaker 2: But later on that night, I ate and a friend
15:33
Speaker 2: actually offered for me to come around to sit in
15:36
Speaker 2: their hot sparks. I was so cold, so I did.
15:39
Speaker 2: I went and sat in a hot spa. So I
15:40
Speaker 2: went straight pack in the water, but in warm water,
15:42
Speaker 2: just to kind of listen up the muscles a little bit.
15:45
Speaker 2: And it's funny because you know, I thought, you know,
15:48
Speaker 2: that was it, that I was going to rest for
15:49
Speaker 2: weeks after that. But my dad actually said to me,
15:53
Speaker 2: this was a So there was the twenty k race
15:55
Speaker 2: on the Saturday, and on a Sunday there was a
15:58
Speaker 2: one point six k swim and it was part of
16:01
Speaker 2: a series. And he said, why don't you go back
16:03
Speaker 2: tomorrow and do the one point six And I went, nah,
16:06
Speaker 2: I can't do it. I'm just I'm too tired. And
16:08
Speaker 2: he was like and coming from so a bit of background.
16:12
Speaker 2: Dad grew up through tail end of the Second World War.
16:15
Speaker 2: You know, I used to had to train, you know,
16:17
Speaker 2: in the Dutch Army and they walked with packs, and
16:19
Speaker 2: he used to tell us, you know, how lucky we
16:22
Speaker 2: are and how much you can push yourself so much
16:24
Speaker 2: further than what you thought. And told us stories about
16:28
Speaker 2: you know, family of six and you know, his father
16:31
Speaker 2: walking eighty kilometers to get them a loaf of bread
16:33
Speaker 2: so they could eat. So I really, you know, really
16:36
Speaker 2: sort of used to I guess work on my mental
16:39
Speaker 2: state in the background, said long story shot. I went
16:41
Speaker 2: back the next day and I churned up, and everyone
16:44
Speaker 2: thought I'd come to watch, you know, and I said, no,
16:47
Speaker 2: I'm thinking about entering. And anyway, one of my competitors
16:51
Speaker 2: from the pool was there and we had like a
16:53
Speaker 2: bit of a rivalry, and she said to me, you're
16:58
Speaker 2: not going to do this age because i'd you anyway
17:00
Speaker 2: if you came here, because you will be exhausted from
17:02
Speaker 2: the twenty k yesterday. Well that kind of light, that
17:05
Speaker 2: kind of like was a defining moment for me. And
17:07
Speaker 2: I went, she thinks I'm tired, I'm bloody going to
17:11
Speaker 2: go in there and I'm going to show it. So
17:12
Speaker 2: inted winning and I won the one point six the
17:14
Speaker 2: next day. Soeh, bloody endurance jeans, I tell you what.
17:21
Speaker 2: So But again, you know, it's funny how things sort
17:24
Speaker 2: of happen and you just start to realize the more
17:27
Speaker 2: you stretch yourself and try.
17:29
Speaker 1: I bet that girl was pissed off. Imagine if you
17:32
Speaker 1: did you go hey, Imagine if I was fresh Ah
17:35
Speaker 1: well ah well did you go oh well you had
17:40
Speaker 1: to go? Good on you? Yeah, it's good, it's good seconds. Okay,
17:44
Speaker 1: Sure I didn't quite.
17:46
Speaker 2: Say that, but I did have a very big grin
17:49
Speaker 2: on my face when I crossed the finish line and
17:50
Speaker 2: when the trophy presentations were happening, because they had like
17:53
Speaker 2: a podium and there was there was a little bit
17:56
Speaker 2: of prize money back in the day, you know, really
17:59
Speaker 2: brain now, like a hundred bucks or something, and it
18:01
Speaker 2: was like, you know, life changing because never won anything
18:04
Speaker 2: in my whole life. So yeah, so that was a
18:08
Speaker 2: big turning point for me too, Like you know, again,
18:11
Speaker 2: just the psychology behind it all of like, yeah, I
18:14
Speaker 2: thought I was stuffed. Heroes go back, and I found
18:17
Speaker 2: this extra tank worth of fuel in there and my
18:20
Speaker 2: body responded, so, yeah, so that was sort of like
18:24
Speaker 2: I guess the beginnings of the thinking around Yeah, this
18:28
Speaker 2: is so interesting, the whole mind and body, and how
18:31
Speaker 2: much more we've got still in the tank.
18:34
Speaker 1: How much of and we'll get to the Murray River
18:36
Speaker 1: in a moment. Twenty four hundred and thirty our kilometers.
18:39
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. By the way, it's somebody's birthday tomorrow. I heard.
18:44
Speaker 1: How do you know that I know everything? How much
18:48
Speaker 1: of being an ultra endurance athlete, be it running or swimming.
18:53
Speaker 1: You're obviously a swimmer, but how much of that is
18:56
Speaker 1: about being able to manage pain?
19:00
Speaker 2: Ninety five percent of it because you know, ultimately, you know,
19:05
Speaker 2: the mind drives the body. Body just listens to what
19:07
Speaker 2: the mind says. So really it's about how you control
19:11
Speaker 2: the mind and what things you feed it and sort
19:15
Speaker 2: of what attitudes and beliefs you have sure, and that's look.
19:19
Speaker 2: Part of that process is why you do the training,
19:21
Speaker 2: because part of that is putting yourselves in situations where
19:25
Speaker 2: you know you're going to reach this wall. And so
19:27
Speaker 2: in training, your goal is to constantly push past the
19:30
Speaker 2: wall and working out strategies for how you're going to
19:34
Speaker 2: deal with that. And everybody's different, you know, every athlete's different,
19:37
Speaker 2: every person's different, so essentially that you know, one might
19:40
Speaker 2: listen to, I don't know, classical music, another might listen
19:43
Speaker 2: to rock music. We're all motivated by different things and
19:45
Speaker 2: have different triggers that keep us going. And it's sort
19:48
Speaker 2: of life about kind of finding what works best for you.
19:50
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, it's all about
19:52
Speaker 2: what's being fed. In between the world between your ears
19:55
Speaker 2: is where it all happens.
19:57
Speaker 1: It's so true, so true, and I mean, I guess
20:00
Speaker 1: I know there were of course, psychologists have been around
20:03
Speaker 1: for a long time, but we're talking thirty odd years ago,
20:06
Speaker 1: so sports psych was really kind of in its infancy,
20:10
Speaker 1: if not at all, right.
20:12
Speaker 2: Correct, I never saw a sports psychologist at all. It was, Yeah,
20:16
Speaker 2: it was really basic back then. So as you said,
20:18
Speaker 2: what was real pioneering sort of an era where nutrition,
20:22
Speaker 2: you know, training methods. It was all you know, like
20:26
Speaker 2: I said, we were learning. I was working with my
20:29
Speaker 2: coach even to work out what kind of training to
20:31
Speaker 2: do for a marathon, because we was essentially taking you know,
20:34
Speaker 2: distance pool swimming training and then just extending upon it
20:37
Speaker 2: and trying to you know, work out what we did.
20:39
Speaker 2: I mean I trained with a bucket toed behind me
20:42
Speaker 2: and all sorts of silly things we did. But yeah,
20:46
Speaker 2: it was all brand new stuff back then, so it
20:48
Speaker 2: was kind of a bit exciting.
20:50
Speaker 1: Has it Beenmark? Has it been interesting for you as
20:54
Speaker 1: an excellad athlete but also somebody who I guess is
20:58
Speaker 1: a sports fan but also so understands to a level
21:03
Speaker 1: the science of competition and training and recovery. And has
21:06
Speaker 1: it been interesting for you to watch the evolution of
21:08
Speaker 1: sports science over the last few decades. Oh?
21:12
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, I think. Look, it's fantastic. I think in
21:15
Speaker 2: many ways it's been wonderful for the athletes now because
21:20
Speaker 2: you know, really the mental processes weren't thought about, and
21:23
Speaker 2: I guess the identity of an athlete too when they
21:25
Speaker 2: retire has been a really big thing because you know,
21:28
Speaker 2: you see yourself, you value yourself as the person who competes,
21:33
Speaker 2: as the athlete, the competitor. You base your whole world
21:36
Speaker 2: on that because it has been your whole world. Whereas
21:38
Speaker 2: now you know, there's a lot more there's a lot
21:41
Speaker 2: more support, there's a lot more work done on outside
21:45
Speaker 2: of the pool on what do you want to do
21:46
Speaker 2: as a career and how you can further, you know,
21:48
Speaker 2: advance yourself and use all the skills that you got
21:51
Speaker 2: from you know, working hard and knowing the value of
21:54
Speaker 2: hard work and sitting in discomfort and taking that into
21:57
Speaker 2: a work situation outside of the pool. So I really
22:00
Speaker 2: do think in those situations it's been fascinating and really
22:04
Speaker 2: really good. And the sports science. Of course, one of
22:06
Speaker 2: the people that fascinates me is Cam McAvoy at the
22:08
Speaker 2: moment because he's still pioneering right now. He's just made
22:12
Speaker 2: to come back and you know, his land based program
22:15
Speaker 2: is so different. He's not doing massive swimming. I think
22:18
Speaker 2: he swims three times a week and he's just made
22:21
Speaker 2: to come back and won of the world championships and
22:22
Speaker 2: he's obviously qualified for this round team. So it is
22:25
Speaker 2: I love. I love seeing how people go about things
22:29
Speaker 2: in different ways and sitting new benchmarks. It's just great.
22:33
Speaker 1: How old is he?
22:34
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, good question, I'd say. I'd say be in
22:38
Speaker 2: his late twenties.
22:40
Speaker 1: Get a guess what about I'm just looking at I
22:43
Speaker 1: follow this guy on Insta? Do you have Insta? Grandma?
22:46
Speaker 1: Are you on it? Are you on the Instagram? Grandma.
22:49
Speaker 2: Oh, yes, I've had I've had to go into that
22:51
Speaker 2: side of things. It's not my forte but I'm learning.
22:55
Speaker 1: Now. Have you seen that. I'm sure you've seen Ross.
22:57
Speaker 2: Edgeley Yes, rosientially, yes, absolutely, yes, Hey everyone.
23:02
Speaker 1: If you want to see a fucking freak, so just
23:05
Speaker 1: Ross r O W S E D G L E
23:08
Speaker 1: Y on Instagram. He is like he's his body.
23:14
Speaker 3: I mean he's short and he's chunky, and yes, I
23:18
Speaker 3: mean he looks like at times if you didn't know,
23:22
Speaker 3: like depending on what side cycle or phase cycle there's
23:26
Speaker 3: a bad word, but phase of his trained cycle maybe.
23:30
Speaker 1: But he can look like a bodybuilder, like I've never
23:33
Speaker 1: seen a swimmer so jacked, Like swimmers are generally in
23:37
Speaker 1: really good shape, but not too many of them. I
23:41
Speaker 1: mean he's reprinters.
23:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, he's typical for sprinting, but not yet not
23:46
Speaker 2: to be ripped like you were saying, like he does.
23:48
Speaker 1: And that's the contradiction, is he's ripped off his head
23:51
Speaker 1: and he's an endurance swimmer.
23:53
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, although he did change his body composition
23:58
Speaker 2: before he did his swim round Great Britain, so he does.
24:01
Speaker 2: I think he's got a sports psychology background as well
24:03
Speaker 2: and physiology, so he's very attuned to trying new things
24:08
Speaker 2: as well. So I think he did go on about
24:11
Speaker 2: a different diet when he was doing his longestwim. So
24:14
Speaker 2: when he prepares, he kind of changes things around so
24:16
Speaker 2: that he knows he's going to need extra body fat,
24:19
Speaker 2: you know, to cope with certain conditions and for flotation.
24:22
Speaker 2: And yes, he is working against it though he's not
24:25
Speaker 2: your typical it's not your typical long distance summar sort
24:29
Speaker 2: of makeup.
24:30
Speaker 1: Basis completely fucking mad, but also he's fucking mad but awesome.
24:35
Speaker 1: It's a nice combo. Yeah, I remember him. He was
24:40
Speaker 1: on I think he was recently on. I didn't watch it,
24:43
Speaker 1: but everyone's like, hey, Craig, did you watch did you
24:45
Speaker 1: watch a Thing with Chris Hemsworth which was about living longer?
24:49
Speaker 1: And did you watch that? Tim? Yeah?
24:51
Speaker 2: I loved it. It was a great series, fantastic. Yeah,
24:54
Speaker 2: so he was on that, right, Yes he was, he was,
24:57
Speaker 2: and he helped Chris because Chris went I'm trying. I
25:00
Speaker 2: think where they went they went somewhere very cold where
25:03
Speaker 2: there was you know, freezing water, and he trained Chris
25:08
Speaker 2: to swim in the cold. Basically just you know, like
25:11
Speaker 2: the whim Hoff method, you know, trying to control your breathing.
25:14
Speaker 2: And he made him, you know, and we didn't make him,
25:16
Speaker 2: but Chris Hamsworth swim out to a boy and back
25:18
Speaker 2: again and it was very cold. Was it was like,
25:21
Speaker 2: you know, two degrees one degree is sort.
25:23
Speaker 1: Of type things.
25:23
Speaker 2: So and he did it. Yeah, and it was really
25:25
Speaker 2: fascinating to watch. And he's a great character. Ross is
25:28
Speaker 2: a great character. So I've got his book Resilience as well,
25:30
Speaker 2: which I read and that was that's fantastic.
25:33
Speaker 1: You know what. Also digressing momentarily, I like Chris Emsworth
25:37
Speaker 1: because yeah, he's a good look and he's fucking six
25:39
Speaker 1: foot fifteen and he's rich, he's a Hollywood But he
25:42
Speaker 1: has a crack, doesn't he He does like he really
25:45
Speaker 1: has for a guy who he doesn't need too. He's
25:48
Speaker 1: fucking rich and famous, he doesn't need to do all
25:50
Speaker 1: that horrible shit, but he dives in that makes me
25:53
Speaker 1: respect him. What Like, of course he's an awesome actor
25:56
Speaker 1: and all that he's famous, good, you know, that's cool.
25:58
Speaker 1: But the shit that I love is that he really
26:01
Speaker 1: seems to be any way down to earth and has
26:02
Speaker 1: a real crack at some horrible shit.
26:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, that series is fabulous. I can't think of
26:08
Speaker 2: the name of it, but I highly recommend it because
26:10
Speaker 2: there's also a part where he tries out like fasting,
26:13
Speaker 2: and he fasts for like I think it's over twenty
26:16
Speaker 2: I think it does a twenty four hour fast, maybe
26:18
Speaker 2: even longer. And all his mates you know, said that
26:22
Speaker 2: they join him, and of course he's absolutely dying because
26:25
Speaker 2: he's exercising and doing things as well. And they go
26:28
Speaker 2: away and get pizza and he can smell it, and
26:31
Speaker 2: it's just hilarious the reaction.
26:33
Speaker 1: Like he really is.
26:34
Speaker 2: He really is a great, down to earth guy. He
26:37
Speaker 2: seems like the kind of guy that you know you'd
26:39
Speaker 2: be mates with. He's really down to earth and humbled.
26:42
Speaker 1: I think so it was it was called Limitless, so
26:45
Speaker 1: Limitless I'm producing and hosting now all at the same time.
26:51
Speaker 2: It's called Multi Talented as usual.
26:54
Speaker 1: Well, I think you can watch it also on Disney,
26:58
Speaker 1: so if you have Disney, everybody you can. And I'm
27:00
Speaker 1: sure a lot of people speaking of being jacked and
27:04
Speaker 1: ripped and do you know what, this could literally be
27:06
Speaker 1: a fucking three hour podcast. I've just looked down at
27:08
Speaker 1: half an hour in I haven't even got through the intro.
27:12
Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about I've always wondered about.
27:19
Speaker 1: And I know this is not an exact science, but
27:23
Speaker 1: you know, Ross Edgeley is an anomaly because he does
27:26
Speaker 1: ultra endurance and he's ripped, which means he's less buoyant
27:30
Speaker 1: because he's got less fat, which means correct me if
27:34
Speaker 1: I fuck any of this up, but he needs to
27:36
Speaker 1: expend more energy energy to stay high in the water
27:39
Speaker 1: because muscles, muscle basically sinks. He's like a fucking swimming rock. Yeah. Yeah,
27:47
Speaker 1: he's more dense. What about how did you like when
27:50
Speaker 1: you did you know the English channel multiple times you
27:54
Speaker 1: did lock Nest You did? I think you did Locknest
27:57
Speaker 1: in New Yeah?
27:57
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah?
28:00
Speaker 1: And what was that other one where you broke the
28:03
Speaker 1: New York City to Sandy Hook, which was thirty five miles.
28:07
Speaker 2: Yeah?
28:08
Speaker 1: Do you when you're going in to do these ultra
28:10
Speaker 1: long events, even the Murray River, like, do you do
28:14
Speaker 1: you have to say, well, my body fat needs to
28:16
Speaker 1: be twenty five percent before or is it not done
28:20
Speaker 1: like that? How does it work?
28:22
Speaker 2: Well? Again, we were just winging it, so you know,
28:25
Speaker 2: there was no one You know, look, I did have
28:29
Speaker 2: at my squad. I had a lovely girl by the
28:32
Speaker 2: name of Julie Toldberg, who was into sports science, and
28:35
Speaker 2: she would do my did she get the calipers out
28:37
Speaker 2: and do my body fat and we did. We were
28:40
Speaker 2: trying to increase it. I didn't have I worked out targets.
28:44
Speaker 2: I just plucked targets from the air, basically because we
28:46
Speaker 2: weren't sure. I mean, look the really I kind of
28:51
Speaker 2: didn't really take putting on weight too seriously at the beginning,
28:54
Speaker 2: but I went over to the English Channel with my
28:56
Speaker 2: brother in ninety three, my brother John and I. I
29:00
Speaker 2: was serious about putting on weight. So I put on
29:02
Speaker 2: ten kilos because everybody that is one swim where there's
29:05
Speaker 2: quite a bit of benchmarking. You know, lots of people
29:07
Speaker 2: as from the channel, so there's a lot of information,
29:10
Speaker 2: so we knew we'd have to put on weight. My
29:12
Speaker 2: brother thought it would be fun. His perspective was to
29:16
Speaker 2: be the skinniest and the fastest man across the channel,
29:19
Speaker 2: and he was quite muscular. But it didn't work out
29:22
Speaker 2: that way. He got hypothermia four kilometers away from the
29:25
Speaker 2: coast of France. Actually disappeared under the boat and Dawn
29:31
Speaker 2: Fraser has been a mentor and coach for us for
29:34
Speaker 2: a long time, very huge support. And she was actually
29:37
Speaker 2: on my brother's boat and jumped in and pulled him
29:39
Speaker 2: back on board the boat, gave him mouth's mouth resuscitation. Wow,
29:43
Speaker 2: she broke I think she broke three ribs in the
29:45
Speaker 2: process of dragging him back on board the boat.
29:48
Speaker 3: So scary know that I did not know that.
29:53
Speaker 1: And Dawn wouldn't have been twenty five years old either
29:56
Speaker 1: at the time. She would have been what fifty on
29:59
Speaker 1: at the time.
29:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say she would have been about fifty, so,
30:02
Speaker 2: but she's just amazing she and it happened so quickly,
30:06
Speaker 2: Like I remember she because I had my own boats,
30:09
Speaker 2: I was assuming separate to John, and we went close
30:12
Speaker 2: close to each other in terms of physical distance. But
30:15
Speaker 2: she apparently had spoken to him not very long before
30:18
Speaker 2: and said to him, how are you going? Because she
30:20
Speaker 2: was getting a bit worried, And I'd actually flued her
30:23
Speaker 2: in and said, listen, keep an eye on John because
30:25
Speaker 2: I'm worried about him with the cold. And so she'd
30:29
Speaker 2: spoken to him, said you know you're feeling ok, and
30:31
Speaker 2: he's gone, yeah, yeah, fine, And then like about five
30:34
Speaker 2: minutes later, hyperthermi you're set in. So it kind of
30:37
Speaker 2: really was a big shock and a wake up call
30:40
Speaker 2: to you know, the reality of how scary hypothermia is.
30:44
Speaker 2: And so from that point on we kind of worked
30:46
Speaker 2: out some protocols as well. So now we know that
30:49
Speaker 2: when you're in a hypothermic state, you can answer very
30:52
Speaker 2: simple questions, but if you're asked to give your date
30:54
Speaker 2: of birth or you know, answer anything in detail, then
30:58
Speaker 2: your cognitive thinking is just not there. So that helped
31:01
Speaker 2: us formulate plans. So that became the benchmark for the
31:03
Speaker 2: rest of the swims I did that were in cold water,
31:06
Speaker 2: and I knew that if I couldn't answer Dawn, she
31:08
Speaker 2: pulled me out.
31:09
Speaker 1: So that was good book.
31:11
Speaker 2: So John look, I managed to get him back to
31:13
Speaker 2: England and she went into hospital and he recovered and
31:20
Speaker 2: he actually wanted to go back the following year and
31:23
Speaker 2: try again, and this time he put on weight. In fact,
31:27
Speaker 2: he put on twenty two kilos.
31:30
Speaker 1: Ye talk about talk about one extreme to the other. Ye.
31:35
Speaker 1: He he did just put a bed at McDonald's or something,
31:38
Speaker 1: did he pretty much?
31:40
Speaker 2: I think I think part of it. I think Dawn
31:41
Speaker 2: might have said to him that drinking stout and lemonade
31:43
Speaker 2: was a really good diet plan, so you know, hey,
31:47
Speaker 2: so he was like the it was like the Michelin man,
31:49
Speaker 2: you know, the blink, ready to simm across. So we
31:52
Speaker 2: went back the following year in ninety four, and yeah,
31:55
Speaker 2: we became first brother and sisters in the channel together.
31:57
Speaker 2: So he made it cost no worries at all, So
32:00
Speaker 2: huge leaning experience. And yeah, so hypothemia definitely. And the floatation,
32:06
Speaker 2: like the body fat just makes you like sit on
32:09
Speaker 2: top of the water. It's such a big difference, Like honestly,
32:12
Speaker 2: you literally pop onto all the water.
32:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean imagine with an extra twenty two
32:16
Speaker 1: kilos and probably twenty of that was fat. I mean,
32:19
Speaker 1: you're just gonna be like a little fucking cork with
32:21
Speaker 1: arms and legs. Well you are, you are.
32:23
Speaker 2: But there is obviously also a trade off, as you
32:26
Speaker 2: would know, because you have to pull it. You still
32:27
Speaker 2: have to you know, you just have to drag that
32:29
Speaker 2: amount of weight through the water. So there's you know,
32:31
Speaker 2: there's a compromise with everything. But again, you train for that,
32:35
Speaker 2: you get used to that, so you've got to do
32:36
Speaker 2: that to actually make it. So that's the price you pay.
32:39
Speaker 1: What was the most you ever lost on a I
32:43
Speaker 1: mean not say the Murray River because that was over months,
32:46
Speaker 1: but on a like an event.
32:50
Speaker 2: Okay, so I lost. I've lost ten kilos multiple times,
32:54
Speaker 2: like summing the channel across Bass straight. I lost eleven
32:58
Speaker 2: kilos in seventeen hour. I was in forty six minutes.
33:01
Speaker 2: Yeah on, hang on, just just soak that up. Everyone
33:05
Speaker 2: you lost? Did you say eleven or ten eleven? You
33:09
Speaker 2: lost eleven kilos in seventeen hours? Yep.
33:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, you should start running programs. You're going to get
33:16
Speaker 1: a million people signing up for that. Yeah, they'll get their.
33:20
Speaker 2: Toads in the freezing order and go for half an
33:22
Speaker 2: hour and decide that's it.
33:23
Speaker 1: Though.
33:24
Speaker 2: That's the problem, isn't it. Like you've got to be
33:26
Speaker 2: willing to do the hard yards. I think that's you know.
33:29
Speaker 1: So where did you swim that for that? Where did
33:32
Speaker 1: you Did you tip off at Wilson's prom or.
33:36
Speaker 2: No, I went the other way. I started in Tazi,
33:38
Speaker 2: So I started at King Island and I swam to
33:41
Speaker 2: Apollo Bay. That was I did a lot of research,
33:44
Speaker 2: and so obviously logistically I was looking for a finishing
33:48
Speaker 2: point near civilization as well. That if something happened, I
33:52
Speaker 2: could be taken to a hospital. So that's why we
33:56
Speaker 2: chose King Island again obviously with some resources there and
34:00
Speaker 2: finished at a holiday.
34:01
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, like, honestly, it's it's not a
34:07
Speaker 1: sport that you do because you want to be rich
34:09
Speaker 1: and famous.
34:10
Speaker 2: Right hardly.
34:12
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean if I was, if you were
34:16
Speaker 1: my kid, I would have said, throw those fucking goggles away,
34:20
Speaker 1: here's a tennis racket, get out there.
34:23
Speaker 2: Exactly I do. And it was funny because I did
34:25
Speaker 2: use Obviously, when you go out to sports nights and things,
34:28
Speaker 2: you do get to mingle with other sports people and
34:31
Speaker 2: you know, the tennis players would all be complaining about
34:34
Speaker 2: the couple of hours training that they had to do
34:36
Speaker 2: in the middle of the day. You know, I should
34:40
Speaker 2: have been a tennis play the same amount of work
34:43
Speaker 2: and training into tennis. If I had just any bit
34:46
Speaker 2: of talent, surely I would have done better. But no, look,
34:49
Speaker 2: there was you purely do it for the challenge. You
34:53
Speaker 2: really do. It's a personal I guess experience. It's a
34:57
Speaker 2: wanting to test yourself, push your limits to the ultimate extreme,
35:01
Speaker 2: and it's addictive. I think once you start doing that
35:03
Speaker 2: you want to do more of it, and with so
35:07
Speaker 2: many endurance sports, I think you're right on the edge,
35:10
Speaker 2: you know, you right on the edge of discovering what
35:12
Speaker 2: your body can can't do and her mind.
35:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of the it's one of the one
35:20
Speaker 1: of these sports in the world or events in the world,
35:22
Speaker 1: sports in the world where the gap between the male
35:25
Speaker 1: and the female bodies not that big, is it? Because
35:29
Speaker 1: you know, and there have been I think more than
35:31
Speaker 1: a few times where and we see that there's another
35:35
Speaker 1: lady who's fucking amazing. What is her name to me?
35:39
Speaker 1: But she's no not a swimmer, a runner. Now this this,
35:43
Speaker 1: this incredible woman is winning ultra endurance runs, beating all
35:49
Speaker 1: the chicks and the blokes. She's not winning the women's bit,
35:53
Speaker 1: she's winning the overall events and blokes. A big I mean, yeah,
35:57
Speaker 1: I think, I think, yeah, it's incredible.
36:01
Speaker 2: Oh it is, it is? It really is.
36:04
Speaker 1: Yeah.
36:04
Speaker 2: There comes a point where there's the.
36:08
Speaker 1: Courtney de Walter. I think that's her name something like that.
36:11
Speaker 2: I was going to say that I have read about
36:13
Speaker 2: her and I couldn't quite think of her name as well,
36:15
Speaker 2: But you're right, Courtney to Walter, I saw something about
36:16
Speaker 2: her the other week and just went wow, it is
36:20
Speaker 2: and sitting benchmarks. The thing is is that once one
36:23
Speaker 2: woman does it, then belief the power of her being
36:27
Speaker 2: a role model and instilled in that belief insie. I
36:30
Speaker 2: bet you'll start to see more women now coming through
36:33
Speaker 2: because they just need that one person to do it.
36:36
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden it's like the floodgates
36:38
Speaker 2: have been open, like hey, a woman can do it.
36:40
Speaker 2: So it's really it's such a powerful thing when one
36:43
Speaker 2: person does it.
36:44
Speaker 1: Amazing. All right, let's talk about the Murray River, which
36:47
Speaker 1: you did over three and a half months, two four
36:49
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty eight kilometers. Now for my international listeners,
36:53
Speaker 1: of which we have quite a few. The Murray River
36:57
Speaker 1: is a river that essentially separates to Australia in States,
37:02
Speaker 1: which is Victoria and New South Wales, yes, go on.
37:06
Speaker 2: And then flows into South Australia basically yeah, so yeah,
37:11
Speaker 2: and it's a life club for Australia too because there's
37:13
Speaker 2: a lot of our food is grown in the Murray
37:16
Speaker 2: daleing basin region, so it's a very important river on
37:19
Speaker 2: so many levels.
37:19
Speaker 1: But tell me about that, tell me about prepping for that,
37:23
Speaker 1: doing that did you swim one hour a day, ten
37:25
Speaker 1: hours a day, did you have days? Like? What was
37:28
Speaker 1: that about?
37:29
Speaker 2: So again, I'd done a lot of planning. I'd actually,
37:32
Speaker 2: you know, traveled a lot of the river prior to
37:35
Speaker 2: the swim because the logistical side of things was really
37:39
Speaker 2: challenging because I had to have obviously a crew with me.
37:42
Speaker 2: I had to have a support crew in the water. Yeah,
37:45
Speaker 2: I had to have a support crew on land as well,
37:48
Speaker 2: because at the end of the day, you know, when
37:50
Speaker 2: you finish something, you need a camp to go to,
37:53
Speaker 2: you need food, you need all the resources to keep
37:57
Speaker 2: you going. So and then you know, we had caravans,
38:02
Speaker 2: two caravans basically traveling the first part because some parts
38:06
Speaker 2: you're remote, other times you're in caravan parks. But again,
38:10
Speaker 2: it's all difficult to plan because everybody when you book
38:13
Speaker 2: into a caravan park or accommodation along the way, what
38:17
Speaker 2: data you riving? Well, I don't know, I don't know.
38:22
Speaker 2: Like I had a rough plan. I broke the river
38:26
Speaker 2: into four pieces, so you know, I set sections, segmented
38:29
Speaker 2: the river and had goals in my mind of where
38:32
Speaker 2: I wanted to be and what I wanted to swim
38:34
Speaker 2: each day. But like life, things don't work to plan,
38:38
Speaker 2: and some days you're tired. Some days you run into
38:41
Speaker 2: a snake, some days you run into a log. You know,
38:45
Speaker 2: there are things that happen. The water is freezing, so
38:47
Speaker 2: you don't get as far as you thought you would
38:49
Speaker 2: you're tired. So for me, I was trying to break
38:53
Speaker 2: a record that was set by a gentleman by the
38:56
Speaker 2: name of Graham Middleton, and he was actually the first
38:59
Speaker 2: person to the length of the Murray and so he
39:02
Speaker 2: had set the benchmark at one hundred and thirty eight days.
39:05
Speaker 2: That was the goal to try and break his records.
39:07
Speaker 2: I kind of had planned my swim to try and
39:09
Speaker 2: you know, just get in sneak in before that. So
39:12
Speaker 2: you know, the problem that I found was I actually
39:17
Speaker 2: announced really what my goals were, so a lot of
39:19
Speaker 2: the media knew I was aiming to be like say,
39:22
Speaker 2: let's say at one of the towns, at a Chuka
39:24
Speaker 2: buy a certain period of time. So then when I
39:27
Speaker 2: didn't get there by those times, of course the media
39:29
Speaker 2: be negative like, oh, she's behind her goal, she's not
39:31
Speaker 2: going to make it lower. So again, you know, if
39:35
Speaker 2: I go back and do my time again, I'd approached
39:37
Speaker 2: it in a different way. But it was just it
39:40
Speaker 2: literally became about doing it day by day. That's what
39:44
Speaker 2: I focused on. Had to really just concentrate on one
39:46
Speaker 2: day at a time, and I had a plan to
39:49
Speaker 2: swim sort of between six and eight hours a day.
39:52
Speaker 2: That was the goal. And sometimes i'd break that up
39:54
Speaker 2: and do three or four hours in the morning, you know,
39:57
Speaker 2: have lunch, and then go back in and do another
39:59
Speaker 2: sort of three hours in the late afternoon. But again
40:02
Speaker 2: that all changed with the conditions because when I started
40:05
Speaker 2: it was early November. I was simming in the snow
40:07
Speaker 2: melt coming down from it Cosiasco, so it was like
40:10
Speaker 2: a crisp sort of seven degrees in the water.
40:13
Speaker 1: Wow.
40:14
Speaker 2: And then gradually as I headed towards South Australia, which
40:17
Speaker 2: was about two thousand kilometers. By the time I got
40:21
Speaker 2: to South Australia, we had a hotter summer on record
40:25
Speaker 2: and it was fifty six degrees in the shade, so
40:29
Speaker 2: like I couldn't swim in the heat of the day
40:31
Speaker 2: because it just get burnt to a crisp. I mean,
40:33
Speaker 2: the Murray River was twenty nine degrees.
40:35
Speaker 1: It was that hot, fifty six degrees.
40:39
Speaker 2: Yes, in the shade. When we went through border clips
40:41
Speaker 2: like it was just it was unbelievable, off the charts,
40:44
Speaker 2: like seriously, it was incredible. And that was, like I said,
40:49
Speaker 2: when we went through, they had the thermometer outside, so
40:51
Speaker 2: that's how we knew what temperature it was.
40:53
Speaker 1: Now I'm just converting that so to our international listeners,
40:57
Speaker 1: fifty six degrees celsius. Fucking hell, it's like one hundred
41:03
Speaker 1: and thirty three degrees.
41:05
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. It was insane.
41:08
Speaker 1: How did you not melt well?
41:11
Speaker 2: So then we had to come up with a different plan.
41:13
Speaker 2: So you have to be, you know, willing to change
41:16
Speaker 2: your plans, and so we diverse five. We thought, okay,
41:19
Speaker 2: the best way to approach this was to start really
41:21
Speaker 2: early in the morning, so first light, as soon as
41:24
Speaker 2: the sunrise came up and it was safe for me
41:26
Speaker 2: to swim, they could see me in the water I
41:28
Speaker 2: was in, and I'd just do as much as I could, say,
41:31
Speaker 2: you know, I might start at five thirty sort of thing,
41:33
Speaker 2: and swim till eight thirty nine o'clock, and then we'd
41:36
Speaker 2: and then we'd rest through the heat of the day
41:38
Speaker 2: and then i'd go back in again, like you know,
41:40
Speaker 2: six o'clock sort of thing and swim till nine o'clock,
41:44
Speaker 2: so we had to just make use of whatever daylight
41:48
Speaker 2: hours we could at the beginning and end of the day. Yeah,
41:52
Speaker 2: to try and make progress and just thinking outside the box.
41:56
Speaker 2: I didn't plan on that, Like, I didn't expect it.
41:58
Speaker 1: So I know there weren't I know there's lots of planning,
42:01
Speaker 1: but the science back then is not the science now.
42:04
Speaker 1: But did you have did you have a nutritionness? Did
42:08
Speaker 1: you have any idea of calories in and out and
42:12
Speaker 1: like was your goal to maintain weight and that levels
42:16
Speaker 1: through the swim or it wasn't in depth.
42:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it wasn't very in depth. I didn't have
42:22
Speaker 2: a nutritionness. I didn't have really anybody like you advising me. Again,
42:27
Speaker 2: it was all fled by the seat of your pads.
42:29
Speaker 2: I had a set of scales, you know, which I
42:32
Speaker 2: stood on every now and then because we were camping,
42:34
Speaker 2: so like, you know, until we got to halfway. Then
42:37
Speaker 2: we were on a house boat and that was really awesome.
42:39
Speaker 2: But you know, you can be on the side of
42:41
Speaker 2: a riverbed, you know, so you kind of it's pretty basic.
42:44
Speaker 2: It's pretty basic. So you're just trying to eat enough
42:47
Speaker 2: to keep your weight up and just you know, have
42:49
Speaker 2: the energy to keep going.
42:50
Speaker 1: Really you must have had I mean like still logistically
42:54
Speaker 1: and practically you must have had quite a few. But
43:00
Speaker 1: you know, you think about the caravans, think about who's
43:02
Speaker 1: going to beare food, who's going to give you a rub,
43:05
Speaker 1: who's got you know, like you must have had some
43:07
Speaker 1: kind of medical contingency plan. There must have been a
43:10
Speaker 1: few people involved. Yes, yes, there was a lot of people.
43:13
Speaker 2: I had a support crew of twelve to fifteen people
43:17
Speaker 2: traveling with me along the way.
43:18
Speaker 1: Wow.
43:18
Speaker 2: So with roles, you know, like my mum did a
43:21
Speaker 2: lot of the cookies, so when I said didn't have
43:24
Speaker 2: a nutritions, I had my mum there, so she knew
43:25
Speaker 2: what I liked and didn't like and was really good.
43:28
Speaker 2: So and you know a lot of a lot of
43:30
Speaker 2: really great friends obviously that worked with me before. So yeah,
43:34
Speaker 2: so for me, the resources that I tapped into was
43:37
Speaker 2: the Royal Life Saving Society. So because I've done so
43:40
Speaker 2: much life saving, lots of friends. So the boating squad,
43:43
Speaker 2: you know, they had their IRBs and they're all trained obviously,
43:47
Speaker 2: you know for rescue situations and for medical situations. We
43:51
Speaker 2: had back in the tape which I with with the
43:53
Speaker 2: SAT phone, which was like this huge clunky thing and
43:56
Speaker 2: a suitcase because you know, we had we had SEAMA
44:00
Speaker 2: phones at the time because you didn't have coverage everywhere.
44:03
Speaker 1: So we had to I don't know what that means.
44:05
Speaker 1: What is c DMA.
44:08
Speaker 2: Country something something. I don't know. They were the ones
44:11
Speaker 2: that you used in the in the country areas. So
44:15
Speaker 2: I'm showing my dinosaur age. That's all right, But basically
44:18
Speaker 2: the mobile phones didn't didn't have great service, so it
44:21
Speaker 2: was really difficult, and of course if something happened, like
44:24
Speaker 2: you know, again, tiger and brown snakes quite prevalent in
44:27
Speaker 2: the river. Two are the most venomous.
44:29
Speaker 1: In the river.
44:30
Speaker 2: In the river, in the road, they swim.
44:32
Speaker 1: They swim fucking the hell.
44:34
Speaker 2: I know.
44:35
Speaker 1: I know that's brightening, that's not that's more than frightening.
44:40
Speaker 1: So the brown snakes and tiger snakes, as you said,
44:43
Speaker 1: both venomous and both like kind of.
44:45
Speaker 2: Deadly, very deadly, like in the top I think they're
44:48
Speaker 2: both in the top ten dead list in the world.
44:50
Speaker 1: Like that.
44:51
Speaker 2: You know, they buy you, you've got to get the
44:52
Speaker 2: anti vierneine.
44:53
Speaker 1: So what was the the contingency with that did you
44:58
Speaker 1: did you like, what do you do if you see
45:01
Speaker 1: a snake?
45:03
Speaker 2: So so again there was a bit of learning, because
45:06
Speaker 2: you know, I'd spoken to a lot of local people
45:08
Speaker 2: and tried to get some advice on what to do.
45:10
Speaker 2: And of course, not a lot of people get in
45:12
Speaker 2: the water. Some people say, just you know, just let
45:15
Speaker 2: them cross and stay out of their way and they'll
45:18
Speaker 2: go and do what they want to do, which is
45:19
Speaker 2: fair enough, but when you're in a situation. So when
45:22
Speaker 2: I started my swim, I actually had to delay the
45:25
Speaker 2: start because the river had been in drought for five
45:27
Speaker 2: years and I actually thought that I might be walking.
45:30
Speaker 1: Parts of it.
45:31
Speaker 2: There was barely any water. But a couple of weeks
45:34
Speaker 2: before I was due to start, we had a tremendous
45:37
Speaker 2: downpour and the river was in flood. It was out
45:40
Speaker 2: of the banks. It was too dangerous. The sees advised
45:43
Speaker 2: me that this emergency Services advised me not to start
45:46
Speaker 2: my swim because it was too dangerous. So once the
45:49
Speaker 2: river subsided and it went back into its banks, I
45:52
Speaker 2: started my swim, but it was flowing. It was flowing
45:55
Speaker 2: at five kilometers an hour, so I swim sort of
45:58
Speaker 2: roughly four to five as well. I was traveling like
46:01
Speaker 2: not in ten k's an hour.
46:02
Speaker 1: Down this river like wow wow.
46:05
Speaker 2: Scary on a number of levels because there's a lot
46:07
Speaker 2: of trees that have fallen into the river banks. So
46:10
Speaker 2: you know, one of the scary things is getting caught
46:12
Speaker 2: on snags and branches because obviously the clarity of it
46:15
Speaker 2: is not great. It's better at the top end, but
46:17
Speaker 2: it you know, just integrates as you head into South Australia.
46:20
Speaker 2: It's a it's a muddy river essentially, so you can't
46:22
Speaker 2: see your hand underneath you. So but at the beginning,
46:25
Speaker 2: you know, Actually I think it was the second or
46:27
Speaker 2: the third day, I actually got trapped on a submerged
46:31
Speaker 2: branch and it caught me. I got snagged on it.
46:36
Speaker 2: I was wearing a wet suit and I got snagged
46:39
Speaker 2: on it and it ripped to my wet suit. And
46:42
Speaker 2: the worst thing is that I had like a little
46:44
Speaker 2: inflatable boat beside me and IRB we call them, and
46:48
Speaker 2: it actually I was feeding. I was, you know, having
46:51
Speaker 2: my sustenance in the water as you do, and as
46:55
Speaker 2: I'm floating down, I got caught on this snag and
46:57
Speaker 2: then the boat came on top of me. Literally got
47:00
Speaker 2: pushed down. Oh my god, it happened so quickly, and
47:04
Speaker 2: I actually thought it was all over because I literally
47:06
Speaker 2: went under and the boat reversed and they managed to
47:10
Speaker 2: pull me off the branch. But I had brize back.
47:13
Speaker 2: I was I was the mess because it was like
47:15
Speaker 2: day two, day two, and then said a snake yet,
47:18
Speaker 2: But you know that was that was a good introduction
47:21
Speaker 2: of what can happen. So you're in this very volatile
47:24
Speaker 2: environment and you just have to be so aware and prepared.
47:26
Speaker 2: So lucky I had a great crew, as I said,
47:28
Speaker 2: you know, Royal Life Saving crew. They were on top
47:31
Speaker 2: of it really fast, and you know, managed to get
47:33
Speaker 2: me out of the river. But you know, things happened.
47:35
Speaker 2: So yeah, scary situations. But I don't even remember the
47:41
Speaker 2: original question you asked me.
47:42
Speaker 1: Now that's right, No, no, no, okay, So three and
47:47
Speaker 1: a half months out of your life. So did you
47:51
Speaker 1: beat the record? I'm thinking, yeah, you did the beat
47:53
Speaker 1: the record, right, I did?
47:55
Speaker 2: I broke it by thirty five days.
47:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's amazing. Yeah, And I know, I mean,
47:59
Speaker 1: I'm usually you don't do it for the money, or
48:02
Speaker 1: you didn't do it for the money, But did that
48:06
Speaker 1: get any sponsors, Did that get any did you get
48:08
Speaker 1: any dough through that or did you just kind of
48:12
Speaker 1: break even or or worse?
48:14
Speaker 2: No, I did manage to break even, which was a
48:16
Speaker 2: success because most of the swims didn't even get enough
48:20
Speaker 2: to cover you know, the actual basic cost of it all.
48:23
Speaker 2: And that's with everybody volunteering their time, so you know,
48:27
Speaker 2: it's all run on a shoe string. So basically, you know,
48:31
Speaker 2: like I had people like Jaco donated the caravans to
48:34
Speaker 2: use for the swim, like miss donated a couple of
48:37
Speaker 2: cars sort of thing, you know. So with all of that,
48:39
Speaker 2: I broke even at the end and no real huge,
48:44
Speaker 2: you know, life changing sponsorships at the end of it.
48:46
Speaker 2: But I guess really was that the speaking side that
48:49
Speaker 2: I went into. You know, people wanted me to come
48:51
Speaker 2: and speak, so that sort of, I guess opened up
48:54
Speaker 2: opened up an avenue to earn revenue, and that's where
48:57
Speaker 2: I moved into more than you know as a result
48:59
Speaker 2: of them, which again I didn't anticipate or really see coming,
49:03
Speaker 2: but it's something I really enjoy and still do today.
49:06
Speaker 2: So yeah, so that's family lovely.
49:09
Speaker 1: Am I imagining this or did you and I once
49:12
Speaker 1: do what's called a speaker's showcase for Saxton's speakers about
49:16
Speaker 1: twenty five years ago.
49:17
Speaker 2: No, I'm pretty sure we did. I'm pretty sure we did.
49:20
Speaker 1: I think. So what this is everyone is So this
49:25
Speaker 1: was this was fucking terrifying. Like my speaking career was
49:28
Speaker 1: just kind of stepping off. I was already doing bits
49:31
Speaker 1: and pieces of lecturing and little bits, and I'm going
49:34
Speaker 1: to be honest, I wasn't fucking great. Some would argue
49:36
Speaker 1: I'm still not, but but I remember I did actually
49:44
Speaker 1: okay on the day. I wasn't amazing, but I did okay.
49:47
Speaker 1: But I don't know if you remember this bit, Tam.
49:49
Speaker 1: But so this is what it was.
49:51
Speaker 2: Everyone.
49:51
Speaker 1: It's called a speaker's showcase. And was it icmi L Saxton's.
49:57
Speaker 2: I'm not quite sure.
49:58
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. Yeah, anyway, it was a speaking agency
50:01
Speaker 1: that we both were doing some workforce. So what they
50:04
Speaker 1: do is they get out, like event planners and people
50:09
Speaker 1: who put together conferences, conference organizers, a whole lot of
50:13
Speaker 1: people in a room and they sit them down and
50:15
Speaker 1: then they wheel us out like fucking international runway models,
50:19
Speaker 1: except I'm not wearing a frock. I've just got to
50:22
Speaker 1: come out and I've got to do. I think it
50:24
Speaker 1: was like a fifteen to twenty minute presentation, might have
50:27
Speaker 1: been twenty yep, so a little bit of a snapshot
50:30
Speaker 1: of a keynote. Yes, like half a keynote. And so
50:34
Speaker 1: your job is literally and that by the way, they're
50:37
Speaker 1: not here. They're not there because they've heard of you,
50:40
Speaker 1: or they're interested in personal or professional development. Their reason
50:45
Speaker 1: for being there is solely to see if you're shit
50:49
Speaker 1: or good and whether or not they might want to
50:52
Speaker 1: book you for an event. I don't know if you
50:56
Speaker 1: remember this bit, but everyone in the audience, and there
51:00
Speaker 1: was more than a few. There was quite a few
51:01
Speaker 1: people in the audience, and I think it was you
51:04
Speaker 1: and me and maybe four other speakers. There might have
51:07
Speaker 1: been six speakers on the day. Ye, but I'm pretty
51:10
Speaker 1: sure you did well. I'm not just saying that, but
51:13
Speaker 1: I remember. So what they did was everyone had this
51:17
Speaker 1: kind of a remote control thing that they would push
51:21
Speaker 1: in our score and it would be stage presence, content,
51:27
Speaker 1: fucking you know, confidence, audience connection, whatever, like all these
51:33
Speaker 1: criteria that I can't remember, but essentially, you're standing on stage.
51:37
Speaker 1: I remember standing there talking and people in the audience
51:41
Speaker 1: looking at this what looked like a remote control pressing
51:46
Speaker 1: these buttons and they're scoring you in real time.
51:49
Speaker 2: Crazy. If it's not terrifying enough just being up there
51:52
Speaker 2: on the stage, but seeing people disconnect from engaging with
51:55
Speaker 2: you and there's anything, Oh, I'm like.
51:59
Speaker 1: Can you fuck can do that at the end? Could
52:01
Speaker 1: you just wait? Exactly? And yeah? That was that was
52:07
Speaker 1: That was terrifying. But you know, that's what you do
52:09
Speaker 1: when you're trying to get get some traction.
52:12
Speaker 2: Huh, exactly the things we do. We can look back
52:15
Speaker 2: and laugh about it now.
52:16
Speaker 1: But my last question about the Murray River before we
52:20
Speaker 1: step on to a more recent challenge of yours, is,
52:25
Speaker 1: as you said, it's not that it's a dirty river
52:28
Speaker 1: per se, but it's a muddy river, right because at
52:31
Speaker 1: the bottom of it's all mud, and depending on rainfall
52:36
Speaker 1: and stuff, it gets churned up and blah blah blah bah.
52:40
Speaker 1: How much of like, surely there's a fair chance that
52:44
Speaker 1: you get an infection or you get sick or you
52:48
Speaker 1: you know, because you're swimming in you know, muddy water
52:51
Speaker 1: for fuck and three and a half months. How did
52:55
Speaker 1: you deal with that when you went looking out for
52:58
Speaker 1: logs and snakes?
53:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was very challenging as well, because there were
53:02
Speaker 2: a couple of times that I was very sick, like
53:05
Speaker 2: as in like vomiting diarrhea sick and trying to trying
53:09
Speaker 2: to get yourself motivated because part of the record was
53:11
Speaker 2: I had to swim a minimum of two hours every.
53:13
Speaker 1: Day, right, all right, so no days off.
53:17
Speaker 2: No days off.
53:19
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that.
53:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, consecutive swimming days. So that was part of the
53:24
Speaker 2: deal when you swim. So yeah, So there were some
53:27
Speaker 2: challenging times, and I did get a look. I got
53:30
Speaker 2: multiple ear infections. I had an eye infection. At one
53:33
Speaker 2: point I was in mil Durer, I remember, because my
53:35
Speaker 2: crew drove me. We were a bit we were past
53:38
Speaker 2: my Durer.
53:38
Speaker 1: But they came.
53:40
Speaker 2: We had I had some friends in mill Drawer. They
53:41
Speaker 2: came and met us at a point on the river
53:43
Speaker 2: and drove me back to see a specialist to have
53:46
Speaker 2: a look at my eye and to clean out my ears.
53:48
Speaker 2: You know, they did the water syringe in my ears,
53:51
Speaker 2: and you should have seen what came out.
53:53
Speaker 1: Oh my god, really.
53:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, it was just so full of so anyway,
54:01
Speaker 2: but I could hear again after that, which was really good.
54:03
Speaker 2: I was because it's very It's very hard because you
54:07
Speaker 2: kind of weigh up should I put earplugs in? But
54:10
Speaker 2: then it takes away one of your senses. So like
54:13
Speaker 2: the balance here is like, so I'm attuned to the
54:15
Speaker 2: crew because I'm petrified that there could be a snake
54:18
Speaker 2: up ahead, which is what we've had. We had a
54:20
Speaker 2: couple of times, so I want to hear, you know,
54:23
Speaker 2: them yell out to mistake or you know, blow the
54:26
Speaker 2: whistle or whatever. And if you take that away, it's
54:31
Speaker 2: you know, already you've lost all your senses because you're
54:33
Speaker 2: looking down into like this is brown water, so you
54:35
Speaker 2: can't say anything when you turn your head. So yeah,
54:39
Speaker 2: so it was that I wore earplugs sometimes but most
54:42
Speaker 2: times not because of that. I just wanted to know
54:44
Speaker 2: what was going on. So so yeah, so you had
54:46
Speaker 2: to just deal with that. That was just part of
54:48
Speaker 2: the part of the journey. It was trying to find
54:50
Speaker 2: strength to keep going and yeah, and obviously, yeah, just
54:55
Speaker 2: deal with the situation at hand. It wasn't wasn't fun,
54:58
Speaker 2: it wasn't pretty. And yeah, my crew without my crew,
55:01
Speaker 2: like they literally you know, got me through.
55:04
Speaker 1: Who's the Who's the goat of endurance swimming? Like who's
55:09
Speaker 1: the male or female, Like who's the who's that person
55:13
Speaker 1: that who's the flow jo of or the Michael Jordan
55:17
Speaker 1: of endurance swimming.
55:20
Speaker 2: Well, I'd have to say Shelley Taylor Smith, like she
55:23
Speaker 2: was a pioneer as well. There's a few, so I
55:27
Speaker 2: would say Shelley because again she she very early on,
55:31
Speaker 2: she went in and beat a lot of men in
55:33
Speaker 2: the races on the circuit in Europe. Just was the
55:37
Speaker 2: first woman to do that. Like she's just incredible, like
55:40
Speaker 2: the force of nature. And one of my personal heroes
55:43
Speaker 2: is Gertrude Italy and she was the first woman to
55:45
Speaker 2: swim the Channel. So she you know, she actually smashed
55:49
Speaker 2: the men's record by over two hours, and it was
55:52
Speaker 2: it was in the early nineteen hundreds that she did it,
55:55
Speaker 2: and basically, you know, women were considered like almost like
55:59
Speaker 2: second citizens. It was like, you know, the newspapers were
56:02
Speaker 2: writing headlines like no woman can swim the Channel, It's
56:05
Speaker 2: not possible.
56:06
Speaker 1: You know.
56:06
Speaker 2: So she was up against it like massively. She couldn't
56:09
Speaker 2: get finances to get over there, and so what she
56:13
Speaker 2: did was such a huge achievement just for setting a
56:17
Speaker 2: benchmark for women to get involved in sports. So once
56:20
Speaker 2: she crossed the channel. So she was from New York
56:23
Speaker 2: and she she was a native of New Jersey actually,
56:26
Speaker 2: and so they did a ticker tape parade for her
56:28
Speaker 2: and it was massive worldwide, front page news, and apparently
56:33
Speaker 2: the influx of women that learn how to swim, that
56:35
Speaker 2: signed up for swimming lessons after that just was off
56:37
Speaker 2: the charts. Yeah. Yeah, And I was very fortunate because look,
56:43
Speaker 2: I really I didn't get a chance to meet her.
56:45
Speaker 2: She passed away before I got over to New York.
56:48
Speaker 2: But I actually met her family. And she set a
56:52
Speaker 2: record for swimming from New York to New Jersey and
56:56
Speaker 2: it had been in the marathon swiming history books for
56:58
Speaker 2: like eighty years, this record that she'd set. And she
57:01
Speaker 2: did this prior and it was just before she went
57:04
Speaker 2: over to the Channel. She used this room as a
57:06
Speaker 2: bit of a woman. So I really wanted to go
57:09
Speaker 2: over and sort of emulate Gertrude do her swim and
57:13
Speaker 2: do it as a tribute to her. And so I
57:15
Speaker 2: met with all her nieces and nephews. We had a
57:18
Speaker 2: big dinner together. They were all on my support boat,
57:21
Speaker 2: which is awesome. So I swam from New York to
57:25
Speaker 2: Sandy hooked in New Jersey and I broke her record.
57:27
Speaker 2: And then as I came up the beach, actually the
57:30
Speaker 2: mayor of Monmouth County in New Jersey came up with
57:33
Speaker 2: this certificate and said, I now proclaim July twenty first,
57:37
Speaker 2: from this day forward to be Tammy van Wis a
57:39
Speaker 2: day in Monmouth County, and all the schools will learn
57:42
Speaker 2: about your achievements in honor of this swim and Gertrue. Wow. Wow,
57:48
Speaker 2: So yesterday was Timmy van Wis the day in Monmouth County.
57:51
Speaker 1: In New York. That's bloody amazing. How good is that?
57:56
Speaker 2: I know, it's pretty cool her. I never thought I'd
57:58
Speaker 2: have a day named after me.
58:01
Speaker 1: Wow, wow, I want to day. I'm jealous.
58:06
Speaker 2: But that was, you know, like I said, and that
58:08
Speaker 2: was all just I just think that, you know, what
58:10
Speaker 2: Gertrude did was just absolutely incredible. Honestly, you know, you
58:14
Speaker 2: just can't putting yourself back in those times. I think,
58:16
Speaker 2: you know, we can talk about it, but you know,
58:18
Speaker 2: living in those times when you're you know, up again
58:20
Speaker 2: so much adversity just to get to the start line.
58:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what we're going to do, everyone is we're
58:27
Speaker 1: going to pau use here. I'm going to call this
58:30
Speaker 1: the end of part one with Tam, and we're going
58:33
Speaker 1: to come back tomorrow and we're going to conclude the
58:37
Speaker 1: story because there's a lot more than swimming that's gone on,
58:40
Speaker 1: especially in recent times. We're going to unpack that. But
58:44
Speaker 1: for the moment, we'll call this the end of Part one.
58:45
Speaker 1: Love you, guts, see tomorrow. Thanks Tam, Thank you.