I was always a terrible athlete. I always loved running around and being active, but despite my best efforts growing up, I could never handle a ball. I tried all the usual sports in Canada – basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey. Anything that involves aiming a ball (or a puck) to a target, I have no chance of succeeding in, despite hard work. With the exception of baseball, which I found incredibly boring, I do actually enjoy team sports such as basketball, soccer and hockey, I just can\u2019t play them without causing severe detriment to the team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I began swimming towards the end of my grade 8 year, at age 13. I\u2019d spent most of my grade 8 year being very uncharacteristically inactive after failing miserably at grade 7 basketball. Despite hard work, I wasn\u2019t permitted to play anything but the bench. To be fair to the coach, I wasn\u2019t any good, but I\u2019d thought at age 12, participation was more important than winning. I recall a tournament where I asked the coach if I could play the final 3 minutes of a game when we were up by 30 points – a lead that even I couldn\u2019t possibly destroy in 3 minutes. I was snarled at and told to go back to the bench. My coach seemed convinced that the very future of the NBA rested on the shoulders of 5 or 6 of the players and in my estimation, was living vicariously through them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Becoming a swimmer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
After being defeated by basketball, for about 8 or 9 months of being inactive and eating a lot of junk food, I looked at at myself in the mirror one day in April and realised that if I didn\u2019t do something, I\u2019d turn into my father. He\u2019d had his first heart attack three years earlier, while in his early forties. That wasn\u2019t a fate I aspired to. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I joined the community swim team that afternoon. Previously, while going through the Canadian Red Cross Learn to Swim program, I\u2019d failed at all the levels multiple times. My stroke ridiculously uncoordinated, I couldn\u2019t make it a length of the pool without pausing and I was no better at swimming than I was at baseball – a sport where I couldn\u2019t hit, throw or catch a ball. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I liked about being on the swim team, however, was that the 90 minute practices, you were actually swimming the whole time, unlike in swimming lessons where you only were actually swimming 10-15 mins out of the hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I also liked was that when competition day came, the coach never said, \u201cYou can\u2019t race because you suck.\u201d Racing was permitted regardless of speed, and each swimmer, from the slowest to the fastest was able to race in 5- 7 events per competition. That and the fact that I simply love the water, swimming became the perfect sport for me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So with a joy in what I was doing, being permitted to race and some old fashioned bull headed determination, I trained myself to become a reasonably good swimmer. I was not, however, the strongest or the fastest on any of the teams I would ever be on. After deciding to do triathlons at age 14, I eventually trained myself to be a decent open water swimmer. One of the few athletic talents I seem to innately have was my ability to swim in a straight line in the open water, a skill lacking in many pool swimmers once they get outside the lane ropes. By the age of 17, I was regularly coming out of the water first or in the top three in a triathlon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon self reflection, I realised that over the past several years as I entered my 40\u2019s, my interests have shifted from triathlon and marathon swimming competition, to having mostly self organised challenging adventures in beautiful environments, some of which are swimming, some cycling, some running, and in the spirit of triathlon, I often combine all three sports in one noncompetitive expedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having completed a swim down the Clutha River, something that nobody else had ever done, and now reading Ross\u2019s book, I have been thinking about my own aspirations in marathon swimming, cycle touring and long distance mountain running. Part of the purpose of blogging is to do just that, as was making a documentary of my Clutha River Swim over lockdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, the prospect of swimming around Britain over 157 days really speaks to my soul. I\u2019ve had 3 – 6 week cycling tours, 3 week long hikes in the Himalayas and Mongolia,, completed Ironman triathlons, a 4 day run across the Larapinta trail in the Australian outback, and in the summer of 2020 before the world went mad, I became the first person to do a marathon swim down the lower Pelorus River, the lower Buller River and the full length of the Clutha River. The Clutha took 4.5 days and was my most satisfying challenge to date. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But swimming for 157 days around Britain is a whole other beast. Nothing in my experience compares to that. And I\u2019m not going to lie. The idea of swimming the perimeter of New Zealand popped into my mind on a few occasions since hearing about the Great British Swim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Having immersed myself in the endurance sport world for 30 years, it\u2019s obvious that there\u2019s a shift occurring within the endurance sport community. While conventional endurance sport is still huge, the rise of ultra marathoning, ultra distance triathlons and a huge interest in Fastest Known Times (FKTs) on various long distance – very often cross state or cross country trails and now swims like the Amazon River Swim by Martin Strel or the Great British Swim by Ross Edgely has struck a chord with untold numbers of athletes and adventurers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon self reflection, however, I realised that I prefer challenges that take 3 – 6 days to do. I\u2019ve got a job that I love as a chiropractor and I don\u2019t want to give that up. Nor can I afford to give it up. I have no sponsors knocking at my door and while Blueseventy NZ provided me with two Helix wetsuits to complete the Clutha, getting a few wetsuits probably won\u2019t pay my rent, or my mortgage when my house will finally built later this year. If I were to decide at some future time to do an expedition that took several months, it would likely be cycle touring, as it is a fantastic way to see the world, experience cultures, a great physical challenge, can be done inexpensively and you can stop whenever you want to enjoy the scenery and there is no rule to keep going or sponsors to please. Most importantly, for an expedition that long, it\u2019s an adventure that my wife can enjoy with me, as she is also into cycle touring, but is not a swimmer or a runner. So for the time being, with the desire for a balanced life, a job that I enjoy, other interests outside of endurance sport, the financial inability to take months off work, it\u2019s unlikely that I\u2019ll swim the perimeter of New Zealand or anything equivalent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m in no way encouraging anyone to steer clear of ultra long distance challenges, fastest known times or any other extreme challenge that can be dreamed up. If it\u2019s what someone truly wants and they have the means and the tenacity to make it happen, I will draw inspiration from those people, read their books or watch their documentary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What I caution against, however, is the obsessive need by many to compare themselves to others, fuelled worse than ever by social media, and feeling inferior about their marathon, their swim across a lake, their workout in the gym, their inability to do an arm balance in Yoga or being dropped by friends on the bike while cycling up into the hills. If you\u2019ve just swam across a 10km lake, then go on social media and hear about someone who just swam across a 50km stretch of ocean, it\u2019s easy to go from feeling really satisfied to very inferior in the space of a minute. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m certainly not immune to comparing myself to others. I\u2019ve thought about this quite a lot after completing the Clutha. Especially because I shared the adventure on social media, and while most engagement was overwhelmingly positive, the odd commenter would say, \u201cIt\u2019s not as impressive as swimming around Britain\u201d or \u201cI\u2019d be impressed if he\u2019d swam upstream.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s easy to ignore internet commenters once you decide that you\u2019re going to do so, or its easy to get sucked into that dark world. I decided many years ago to only use social media to use as a tool to help organise and share adventures, keep in contact with actual friends and make the odd bad joke with my annoying love of satirical humour and ignore the overwhelming number of internet commenters who seem to have an opinion and be an expert on everything. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What isn\u2019t easy to ignore, even in the absence of social media, is the tendency to compare yourself to others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n First, before saying anything else, I\u2019ve talked Ross Edgely\u2019s incredible swim. While I haven\u2019t ever met him, I\u2019ve listened to several podcasts of his and I\u2019m now reading his book. What I like about him, despite the fact that he\u2019s completed the most epic swim in history, he comes across as a very humble person. My impression is that he\u2019d give encouragement to anyone, ranging from someone who wanted to attempt to break his record for swimming around Britain faster to someone who wanted to get off the couch and complete five laps of the pool. So, in no way do I want to come across as discouraging attempting an epic adventure that might not have ever been done before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What I want to encourage is true self reflection, and find out what you truly want to do and why you want to do it. If going for a FKT on a thousand kilometre trail or swimming the perimeter of your country is what you truly want to do for yourself, go for it. Having read quite a few books on the subject of FKTs, round the world cycle tours and other similar adventures, a recurring theme that comes up from the adventurer is that at some point, they wish they could have spent more time engaging with the locals or spending more time in the some of the beautiful places than chasing the record. So I\u2019d encourage reflection prior to such an attempt to determine if a fast time is more valuable to you than enjoying the sights and the people along the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But I want to speak to some of the mere mortals who are also in the endurance sport community. Despite hard, unpaid, and often expensive work, there\u2019s not a huge chance that you might get a FKT or have the means of taking 6 months off work to swim, run or ride the length of your country. I\u2019m not saying give up and don\u2019t try – nothing of the sort. If I\u2019ve learned anything from people\u2019s stories is that almost everything that has ever been attempted in sport or adventure was first mocked as being impossible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What I\u2019m saying is find out what kind of adventure you might actually want to do, one that is challenging and will bring you satisfaction. If that\u2019s a 3 day back country mountain bike trip, a big weekend swim across a lake or down a river, a mountain climb, a back country marathon or a 3 week cycle tour in a place you\u2019ve always wanted to see, find the joy and satisfaction in it and don\u2019t worry if it won\u2019t make it into the record books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether you\u2019re able to pull it off, or maybe something goes wrong, as it often does in nature – maybe the weather turns against you, a family emergency happens during your effort, an injury or you simply overestimated your ability – find the satisfaction in that adventure, and don\u2019t worry that someone has gone further or faster than you. For most of us, myself very much included, there\u2019s always someone faster or stronger. Even if you\u2019re in that elite class of athletes for a while, sooner or later someone will come along and topple you and take over being the fastest or strongest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe you want to swim across the lake near your home town. Maybe you want to ride your bike for 3 hours in the hills. Maybe you want to run across your state or province. Maybe a cross country event is within your means. But don\u2019t worry if you\u2019ll never be the fastest at it. Maybe a habit of doing such adventures leads you on a road that might eventually include a 6 month expedition. And maybe it won\u2019t. I\u2019ve come to believe that waiting for that \u2018epic\u2019 journey takes away satisfaction and joy from those weekend and week long outings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d also encourage against thinking, \u201cI still went better than those people who didn\u2019t get off the couch.\u201d While true, this is another way of comparing yourself to others and I\u2019d argue that these feelings aren\u2019t a sign of true satisfaction in what you\u2019ve accomplished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Enjoy the Journey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019d encourage doing an adventure and soaking up as much enjoyment from it as possible. From the physical and mental strength required, any cultural experience you may have enroute, the camaraderie of fellow adventurers and supporters and the feeling of freedom from leaving the creature comforts of home behind for a while, follow your heart, do what you love. And enjoy the self reflection that often comes after a great adventure out in the wild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is in this sentiment that I have begun planning another multi day swimming expedition. The Banks Peninsula, near my home in Christchurch, New Zealand is a beautiful stretch of rugged coastline with beautiful bays. From the small beachside suburb of Sumner, to the tourist town of Akaroa, I intend to swim the approximate 80 kilometres over three days. I originally hoped to do it in the 2020 – 2021 summer swim season. However with the pandemic still going, lockdowns possible at any time, having a house built and plans to do another multi day swim in Kiwi fiordlands in 2021, I decided the cost and risk was too high to spend money on it this season. So I hope to do it in 2022. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not even remotely close to being as long as swimming around Britain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But it\u2019s never been done, it\u2019s what I have the physical and financial means to do it, and more importantly, it\u2019s what I truly want to do. It\u2019ll be an epic swim attempt, and whether it goes well or not, whether I can complete the swim in the time that I have available from work or if bad weather forces it to be called off or cut short, to me, it\u2019s a journey that I want to have, to push the limits and also maintain a balanced life afterwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve now read the incredible book, \u201cThe Art of Resilience\u201d by Ross Edgely. For those unfamiliar with him, in 2018, he spent 2018 days at sea and became the first person to swim the entire perimeter of Great Britain, breaking several world records in the process. His book, which is both an account of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Swimming](\"https:\/\/adventuresoutsidethelanes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Lake-Coleridge-Wild-Swimming-Rob-Hutchings-1024x768.jpg\")
From Competition to Challenging Adventures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Rock](\"https:\/\/adventuresoutsidethelanes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Clutha-River-Swim-Rob-Hutchings-Rapids.png\")
Comparing Yourself to Others<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/adventuresoutsidethelanes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Old-Ghost-Road-Bike-Packing-Rob-Hutchings.jpg\")
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![\"Headland](\"https:\/\/adventuresoutsidethelanes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Rob-Hutchings-Headland-Swim.jpg\")