ENDURANCE ADDICT

In September 2014 recovering alcoholic Paul Parrish attempted to become the oldest person to complete the Arch to Arc triathlon, running 87 miles from Marble Arch to Dover, swimming the English Channel and cycling 182 miles to the Arc de Triomphe, Paris

OVERCOMING ADDICTION

Marble Arch

“This will never end. It will never end. I have been swimming for 17 hours. I only know this fact afterwards and I actually think I have been swimming for much longer. No one is allowed to tell me anything. My crew are under strict instruction to say nothing about time, place or distance left. It has been dark since 7pm the previous evening. That was the last time I had any visual reference other than my pilot boat, Gallivant, bobbing next to me. I know it must be morning soon and the fact that I can’t see light in the sky is confusing me. All is darkness. All is sea. All is hopeless.

Stroke, one, two, three, head out, stroke, one, two, three. This same action, this same mantra repeated for many hours. At first it had been comforting. I had felt strong and the adventure had seemed possible – probable, even. But now – many, many hours later – it is over. I have failed. I know from all the things that I have read and from all that I know about my own ability that I should have finished this swim hours ago. I have spent the summer swimming with other Channel swimmers and I know from those that have already been successful where, in the pecking order of swim times, I should be. I should be warm, back on board Galivant and heading to Calais. The fact that I haven’t finished swimming by now means something has gone horribly wrong. Something going horribly wrong on a Channel swim preceded by an 87-mile run will mean a compounded disaster that the human body won’t have the resource to deal with. The blood supply transferring oxygen around the body needs organs that are well fed to keep pumping life around me. But every store of energy in my body must be used up now. There can’t possibly be any more left. Any chance of success has gone.

Paul onboard Gallivant

Paul on his way to France

When people ask me how I managed to swim for the 17 and a half hours that I spent in the English Channel that September night in 2014, I answer by saying: “I could keep going because I am an alcoholic”. It’s the answer that I think is the most honest. It is not the answer people want and it frustrates swimmers who want tips on nutrition and training plans.

Extensive and expert advice on those topics is available on the internet, but very few places help with the mental discipline and psychological steps needed to prepare for a big swim. For 20 years I drank alcoholically and lived in a place of darkness. In the 17 subsequent years that I have spent in recovery, I have come to apply the simple steps that have motivated me to stay sober each day to endurance swimming.