Real Life Stories

Jennifer Hurley From a 1k swim in 2005 to planning an English Channel swim

Jeniffer completed a 1km swim in 2005, 2006 this distance increased over the years and in 2010 will swim the English Channel. Read her story and you will feel inspired to get out and swim.

Perhaps like many women, for a few years my time was easily taken up with running a business with my husband and home life with the children.  In May 2005, my husband Mick and I escaped for a night down to West Cork on the excuse of me doing the Union Hall to Glandore swim.  For most of the eighty or so swimmers this was to be an easy and short 1,200 meters sprint.  For me it was a very scary prospect.  I completed the swim but my nerves were still winning until well after the group dinner in the local pub.

I was pleased that I had met the challenge and looked forward to a quiet summer.   Well into the evening the talk turned to the group of 92 Irish swimmers booked to swim Alcatraz that autumn and with Mick’s encouragement I become swimmer 93.  Team Hurley then seemed to swing into action!  Mick acquired a Kayak and the kids came on several preparatory swims and I now look back on a successful Alcatraz with a smile. 

I picked a few longer swims as goals each year in 2006, 2007 and 2008 – and it all seemed to work.  Mick and the kids started to join me on the shorter swims and Mick became a regular volunteer kayaker and safety boat crew.  My challenge for 2009 was to be the 20k Perth to Rottnest Island swim.   This was to be my first full marathon swim and my physical and mental training ramped up substantially.  The mental part of marathon swimming is critical because you have no idea what the conditions will be on the day:  sunny, rainy, calm, smooth, jellyfish, sharks (in Australia!), wind and currents.

I have family in Perth so the run up to the swim passed quickly and pleasantly.  One the day,  200+ solo swimmers and 2,000 + relay swimmers registered and the excitement started to build.  The swim is a mass participation event and every solo swimmer and every relay team has a proper safety boat – so imagine a disorganized swim parade with 500+ safety boats and kayakers mixed in.  So, we all hit the water and it felt fantastic.  Mick was by my side in the kayak and we reached the 1k “gate”.  This is where you need to rendezvous with your safety boat before advancing.  Mick just couldn’t identify the boat and I spent more than 30 minutes just circling. I tried to remember my mental training but I kept getting the sinking feeling that my swim was over.  Eventually we connected and three hours in the swim we passed half way.  The finish was not to be reached in 6 hours, or 7 or 8 or 9 hours.  The current and wind had pushed us South of the Island and I was actually being pushed backwards in sight of the finish.  This is unlike most other sports where you have a time limit or in running your feet always move forward! Again the mental training came to my assistance.   I just kept swimming and swimming and made the finish in 9 hours and 50 minutes.

Put several thousand swimmers and safety boats crews on an Australian holiday island and you can imagine we enjoyed the next days and evenings!  It wasn’t long afterward that I was putting the phone down having confirmed an English Channel boat for 2010.  The training continues and I am hoping that, with a little luck, we’ll be celebrating an amazing five year journey of open water swimming in France.