A 54-YEAR-OLD swimmer has described being “over the moon” and “on cloud nine” after completing an 11-and-a-half hour solo swim around Jersey.
Julia Morris took on the 56 km challenge on Wednesday, making the most of a short weather window with favourable tides and calm conditions. She completed the swim in 11 hours and 36 minutes, in water just under 17 degrees.
“I’m absolutely elated,” she said.
“I started off with a lot of self-doubt. On the first stretch, you just feel jittery.
“Then you sort of relax, and then it’s a matter of: this hour, and then this hour.
“I am absolutely over the moon that I did it – so proud and happy.”
Although she had been involved in swimming “30-plus years ago”, Julia said she dropped the habit, only to rediscover her love for the water in the past three or four years.
Last year, she was one of a team of six women who swam the length of Lake Geneva – but her swim around Jersey had to wait until this year, when the conditions finally lined up.
A consultant in the pain clinic by day, Julia said swimming – from bobbing around in the water to elite-level long-distance swimming – is ideal for many patients, and that she finds she “needs” the water.
Her support crew – made up of Gary Hill, Ben Richardson, and friend and mentor Sally Minty-Gravett MBE – spent the 11-hour day on a boat, handing her drinks and gels every hour to keep her going.
Support crews aren’t allowed to touch swimmers, and stops have to be carefully timed: long enough to refuel, but not so long as to lose body heat. Julia said she suffered just one cramp during the whole swim – when JEP photographer Dave Ferguson suddenly appeared nearby.
“I didn’t realise he would be in the water,” she said, adding that the distraction “helped pass the time”.
Julia said she had also thought about her family friend Lily McGarry (24), a triathlete who lost all her limbs to sepsis earlier this year, during the swim.
She gave her support crew “a huge thank you” – and said they were planning to celebrate with pizza and beers soon.
