Customer Reviews

Dover Solo

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading Marcia Cleveland1s Dover Solo-Swimming the English Channel. This book is enlightening and it fills a void. It is a reliable and thoughtful work, published with the idea of helping the prospective English Channel swimmer. This book provides specific advice and practical information for planning this swim. Marcia1s book is concise and objective; it is fluent and well written. I found it instructing and easy to read. There are maps, pictures and illustrations of excellent quality. There is an appendix with inspirational thoughts, temperature and distance conversion charts, important addresses and swimming contacts. Some interesting mind tricks games and thoughts that allowed her to endure this lengthy and demanding process are clearly explained. Marcia delivers what she promises by writing this book, invaluable help for future and novice channel swimmers with their attempts. She does this by recounting her experience that ended with her successful Channel Crossing in l994. Marcia prudently warns the reader, that following the recipe that led to her own success may not fulfill nor suffice every English Channel hopeful. The book describes her transformation from a pool to an open water swimmer and the steps that lead to her decision to attempt to swim the English Channel. She reviews important practical steps that she thought necessary to feel that she was ready to do it. The relevance of swimming partners; cold acclimation and endurance building are emphasized. She also discusses her experience during her qualifying swim and issues regarding weight gain. This along with details of her training system and her Maine mini-camp experience round the first part of the book. Her trip to England and the details of swimming the Channel start to finish comprise the second part of the book. Her Channel crossing is discussed in great detail on hour by hour blow, as well as the effects of currents and swimming patterns on her progress. Her final approach system might prove useful for those finding big boulders instead of sandy beaches at the end of their swim. In my opinion her main contribution is sharing this experience with us to allow the reader a rare insight into the life events that take place while undertaking a goal of this type. There are some principles that apply to all successful finishers. Marcia reviews them in detail, while noting that training should be individualized. This work is an inspiration for those trying to emulate Marcia. I recommend this book most highly.Nick Olmos-Lau M.D.

I found Dover Solo to be a good read with an appeal that should cross over different reader interests. At the risk of cries of nepotism, I would say up front that I live in Ms Cleveland's home town and that I have met and found her to be very personable and interesting. I am also a triathlete and I swim in the same waters off Greenwich Point, in Greenwich Ct, as she did in her training. Hence the interest in reading the book in the first place. Beyond that, however, I found the book to be both fascinating and inspirational on several levels. Her writing style presents her as an ordinary mortal - no super athlete - who took it on herself to perform a relatively rare feat of physical endurance that required great discipline and commitment over a long two years. While the goal was fixed and she was determined enough, she is always happy to share her fears and doubts in a way that defies the modern self-aggrandizing, "chest-beating", athletic stereotype. Ms Cleveland comes off as a sweet but very driven personality who is easy to relate to. Her acknowledgement of those around her in helping her to achieve her goal is also noteworthy in making her seem like the rest of us. Meanwhile, the playing out of the goal to swim the English Channel is written in a gripping fashion, even though we know the outcome. In words and photos we really get a sense of what it may have been like. Finally,I am a school teacher of young adolescents, and because we know they can be torn by insecurities and lack of purpose, I think that, because of the style of the writing, Dover Solo would be inspirational to young people who are in search of what it takes to set goals and to realize them. More particularly of course, while this read crosses over the sexes - boys should read this as well as girls - I would think that young women would particularly find inspiration in the story. But I reckon it's a great yarn for anyone of any age.

[From a larger review]

"...Despite her unwavering ambition and machinelike training, though, Dover Solo's author unself-consciously confesses her fears whenever they surfaced, which keeps her narration always at a human level. Cleveland states being "downright scared" at the initial prospect of open-water training without a partner. During her ten-hour qualifying swim one year later in a New Hampshire lake, she censors none of her moments of weakness, suffering her own "private hell" while her swimming companion seemed to be in much better shape. Even after long months of intense yardage, upon arriving in Maine for a three-week solo training camp, Cleveland enumerates her various anxieties before entering the waters off Bailey Island ("These were not the thoughts of a confident Channel swimmer"). It's this utterly transparent self-representation that will help ensure the book's enduring value in the field of swimming literature, for it avoids transforming the tale from fact to legend.....

...Preparation is key for such an endeavor, but though Dover Solo records one woman's successful swim, the book continually reminds us that once you enter the chop nothing is certain. Cleveland honestly relates what training aids or feeding selections worked and didn't work for her. She is consistently forthcoming about her fluctuations in confidence, and often suggests that luck (the benevolent "Channel Gods") played no small role in her accomplishments. Readers years down the road will appreciate her transparency as they contemplate their own prospective athletic milestones; particularly humbling is a scene where, immediately after jumping into the waters off the coast of Dover, and even after "sweat[ing] the details" like no one else, she realizes "I just smeared my goggles and need new ones right now, and I forgot to put drops in my ears, and I forgot to put Vaseline on my lips." This is a human achievement after all, with all its humanity evident...."

Not just for swimmers, Marcia Cleveland's Dover Solo is an inspiring story...and a 'must read.' It offers lessons applicable for anyone either inside or outside business. Marcia's story is not just about setting and achieving a lofty goal - that's just the tip of the iceberg. It is also about the necessity to undergo careful and ardous preparation, and to build a team to assist in achieving the goal (yes, even Marcia's solo swim required the support of an extensive team). Engaging writing.

This is a book that any swimmer will find rewarding. It's a snapshot of three years in the life of a working woman, wife and United States Masters Swimmer(USMS), culminating in her 9 hour 44 minute swim of the English Channel on July 29, 1994 -- making her the 445th person to complete the official Channel Swim.

Like any worthwhile accomplishment, it did not just happen.

"I set up a long-range training schedule and gradually increased my swimming yardage to a level which would give me the endurance to swim the distance," Ms. Cleveland writes. She increased her yardage from 20,000 per week to 45,000, supplemented by twice-a-week weight training. For her final six weeks' training she averaged 80,000 yards per week. She knew she needed this kind of regimen for the Channel's 23 mile distance in the Strait of Dover.

And because the summer water temperature in the Channel averages only about 60 degrees F. (compared with most indoor pools at about 80 degrees) some serious "acclimation" was required. This she did by moving from her home in New York City to Bailey Island, ME for a three weeks "training camp" in the cold waters of Merriconeag Sound.

"Being in Maine before my Channel swim made the difference between just crossing the Channel and swimming it as well as I did," she writes.

But her book is a lot more than a "how to swim the Channel," or a memoir. It's a compelling look at one swimmer's determination to accomplish a major life goal without sacrificing marriage, career, or friends.

It may well be classified as a "how-to be a dedicated swimmer without sacrificing everything else in your life," book. As such, it offers good advice to all of us who swim.

In February, 1998, Ms. Cleveland and her husband, Mark Green, (to whom the book is dedicasted), had their first child, Julia.

"Although my family is my top priority," the author writes, "swimming will always be a part of my life. Even with a super-busy schedule, I make sure swimming and fitness remain within the big picture."

Add "Dover Solo" to your bookshelf. It will inspire you to keep swimming and fitness within the "big picture" of your life.

I ended up reading the entire thing from cover to cover (just over 200 pages) in about 5 hours. I was impressed with how well written the book was. It included feelings she had involving relationships that grew during her journey as well as critical tips and lessons she learned. Because of this approach it made the book read more like a novel. I would highly recommend it for anyone who is considering starting to train for the fantastic achievement of swimming the English Channel. Definitely a must read! I'm sure I'll be re-reading and referencing this book several times over the next few years.

It's about more than just swimming.

Can inspire one to accomplise any "impossible" goal!

This book takes you through the preperation and actual swimming of the English Channel. It can be adapted for preparing for any swimming challange worldwide and gives an insite into what the swimmer is thinking -- and must think -- to be successful. Easy to read.

Interested in building your body up to a level where you can be successful at long-distance athletic events? While you may not be interested in immersing yourself in cold water (sub 60 degrees), this book provides an excellent immersion into of one athletes preparation and perseverance for success in one of the longest and coldest competitive swim distances in the world.

Dover Solo is a must read for any aspiring Channel swimmer. The book is a wealth of information regarding Marcia's well-conceived training program, her acclimation to cold water swimming, the logistics of a Channel attempt, and the swim itself. All of this information comes in an engaging and revealing personal account of the balance Marcia was able to strike between her Channel attempt, her work and marriage.