A 20-year-old lifeguard and swimming teacher worked at a council-run pool in Cambridge and encountered notable regulars, including Prof Stephen Hawking and ex-Olympic swimmers. The lifeguard secretly dreamed of swimming the Channel and confided the plan to a coach who had competed at the Munich Olympics. The coach dismissed the goal, saying insufficient body fat would prevent insulating skinny legs for 12 cold hours in the Channel. Family legs were described as straw-thin and lacking muscle. The lifeguard swam widely in lakes, rivers, pools and quarries and attempted to gain bulk by eating peanut butter, banana sandwiches, protein shakes and ice-cream to withstand cold-water distances.
In my youth, I secretly harboured a dream of swimming the Channel. When I was 20, I worked as a lifeguard and swimming teacher at the council-run swimming pool in Cambridge. There were some intriguing regulars. Prof Stephen Hawking would watch poolside as his nephews swam. There was also a smattering of ex-Olympic swimmers, including a Maltese guy who moved through the water with such precision and power that he barely made a ripple.
My family had famously scrawny legs: straw-thin and devoid of any tactical muscle. They were legs destined to reside in perpetuity beneath the troglodyte darkness of an office desk, not power through the seas to cross-Channel glory. Despite this, I'd always been a strong swimmer at school and later swam anywhere I could: freezing mountain lakes near my village in Snowdonia, rivers, pools, ponds and quarries.
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