{"id":10160,"date":"2014-08-07T09:59:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-07T13:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news\/?page_id=10160"},"modified":"2016-02-25T09:44:46","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T13:44:46","slug":"paige-christie-15-aims-to-become-the-sixth-smithie-to-swim-the-english-channel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/paige-christie-15-aims-to-become-the-sixth-smithie-to-swim-the-english-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Christie \u201915 Aims to Become the Sixth Smithie to Swim the English Channel"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATED Monday, Aug. 25\u2014Twelve hours and five minutes after leaving England Sunday, Aug. 24, Paige Christie ’15 reached land in France,\u00a0completing her solo swim of the English Channel<\/a>. Christie is the sixth Smith student to successfully swim the English Channel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There\u2019s something about Smith that makes you want to … swim the English Channel?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly true if you\u2019re Paige Christie \u201915, who in August will become the sixth Smithie to attempt the Channel swim. She follows the legacy of Margaret Broenniman \u201985 and Maura FitzPatrick Sklarz \u201985 (who completed a joint swim in 1984), Maureen Travers M.S. \u201991 (who completed a solo swim that same year), and Mackenzie Bradley \u201913 and Emma Reim \u201913 (who completed a joint swim in 2011).<\/p>\n

You can follow Christie\u2019s mid-August attempt with a GPS tracker app<\/a>, available on the day of her swim. Follow Smith College on Twitter and Facebook for updated information on her swim date.<\/p>\n

Christie was inspired to take on the Channel four years ago when she visited Smith as a prospective student the summer after her junior year in high school. \u201cWhen I saw the plaque by Dalton Pool,\u201d she said, listing the Smithies who had completed the swim and with room for more names to be added, \u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t live with myself if I didn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reim and Bradley were training for their upcoming 21-mile Channel swim during Christie\u2019s visit, and the high school student quickly began to imagine taking on the same goal. Christie told swim coach Kim Bierwert, \u201cIf I get accepted to Smith, I\u2019m going to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

An outstanding student academically and athletically, Christie was recruited by schools across the United States, but when she received her acceptance from Smith, her decision was easy.<\/p>\n

And now, it\u2019s Channel time.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason that swimming the English Channel is widely perceived as the ultimate long-distance swim: It\u2019s tough. Several hundred people attempt to swim the Channel every year; annually, some 20 or 30 succeed. Of the 3,000 people who have successfully completed the swim, about 1,000 are women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Channel is a pretty tough cookie,\u201d says Christie. \u201cWe like to say that she\u2019s a fickle lady. Some days she can appear as smooth as glass, and then all of a sudden you\u2019re looking at rolling waves. I\u2019m a big planner, so the unpredictability factor is something I\u2019ve had to learn to roll with.\u201d<\/p>\n

To swim the Channel, you must reserve a boat and a start date a year in advance. On the day you\u2019re scheduled to swim, you get into the water at Dover, England, and conclude the swim some 14 hours later at Cap Gris Nez, France.<\/p>\n

During the swim, you\u2019re followed by a boat carrying a few friends and an assigned observer who makes sure you follow all the official rules: You can\u2019t leave the water, you can\u2019t touch the boat, and no one is allowed to touch you. Other variables to contend with include the weather and water temperatures that average around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re swimming in open water, not a swimming pool, so there\u2019s lots of \u201cchop\u201d\u2014along with large transport ships (the Channel is a major shipping area), debris, and stinging jellyfish. In addition, the long swim can mess with your mind: Twelve hours on your own in demanding physical conditions can make you question yourself, coaches say.<\/p>\n

But Christie is upbeat about the mental demands. \u201cI\u2019m a philosophy major,\u201d she laughs, \u201cSo thinking is what I do!\u201d A self-described planner, she\u2019s developed a schedule of what to focus on for each half-hour increment of the swim: her stroke for the first 30 minutes, favorite songs later on.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to prepare for the hardships that will come in the middle of the swim,\u201d she says, \u201cbut why let that drag you down?\u201d<\/p>\n

Christie says she\u2019s been preparing \u201c24 hours a day\u201d since swim season ended in March. This summer, she\u2019s spent one or two hours a day in the weight room and between two and four hours each day in the pool.<\/p>\n

Even when she\u2019s not working out, Christie is still readying herself for the swim\u2014making sure that she gets eight hours of sleep each day and monitoring her diet to ensure that she\u2019s taking in enough calories to build insulation while still staying fit. \u201cI also practice meditation and yoga every day because it helps me stretch out and clear my head,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

NCAA regulations prevent Christie from meeting with Coach Bierwert during the off-season, but she\u2019s working closely with \u201cthe bible\u201d he gave her in March. Although he\u2019s never swum the Channel himself, Bierwert has a great track record: all five of the Smithies he\u2019s worked with on previous attempts have successfully completed the swim.<\/p>\n

Bierwert will be on Christie\u2019s boat during the swim, along with her parents, her brother and an official observer. Mackenzie Bradley \u201913 will be on the boat too, serving as Christie\u2019s support swimmer. (After three hours, Bradley can get in the water to swim for an hour with Christie, then she must return to the boat for three hours. That schedule continues until the swim is over.)<\/p>\n

Christie says that her former teammate\u2019s support is invaluable: \u201cWe were great competitors, but we\u2019re even better friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s other teammates have provided support and encouragement too, working out with her, serving as \u201ccoach for a day,\u201d and cheering her on. \u201cThat\u2019s something that I think is unique to Smith,\u201d says Christie. \u201cWhen someone here sets a goal, everyone else really encourages them to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s Channel attempt is scheduled for sometime between August 17 and 24, depending on weather and the schedule of swimmers who have starting times before hers. Christie will travel to England August 12 to adjust to the time change and will spend some time training in the harbor. Leading up to her swim, she\u2019s been blogging at theenglishchannelgrind.wordpress.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And after the swim?<\/p>\n

Christie, a pre-law major (philosophy, with a minor in exercise and sport studies), is honored to have been elected co-captain of Smith\u2019s swim team for her senior year and to be serving another term as president of the Smith Republicans. She hopes to attend law school after graduation\u2014and she\u2019s scheduled time during the long Channel swim to think about her personal statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that to achieve any goal, it takes maturity and sustained commitment,\u201d Christie says. \u201cI hope that swimming the Channel will help me prepare for many things that come next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED Monday, Aug. 25\u2014Twelve hours and five minutes after leaving England Sunday, Aug. 24, Paige Christie ’15 reached land in France,\u00a0completing her solo swim of the English Channel. Christie is the sixth Smith student to successfully swim the English Channel.   There\u2019s something about Smith that makes you want to … swim the English Channel? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10160","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10160"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10568,"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10160\/revisions\/10568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smith.edu\/news-stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}