Being a top swimmer in the open water is not easy. A marathon swim in a lake, river or sea takes many boring hours and requires a lot of mental strength. We swim in the professional circuit (WPMSA), but outside the official international swimming federation FINA. Familiarity and recognition is therefore very difficult. Why then continue for seven years in that circuit? And how exciting is it to swim across The English Channel! In my career I was six times World Champion, traveled all over the world to swim competitions. Every time with a coach at my side who is indispensable in top sport. Every marathon is an adventure. Sometimes with beautiful victories, sometimes with bitter abandonment. Sometimes in a wild sea, the other time in a calm, boring, long stretched lake. Then comes the moment of retiring. This period has a huge impact on my future life. Read it in 'Hardship of a marathon swimmer' Monique Blok-Wildschut (1963) is a six-time World Champion in marathon swimming. From a young age she trained hard and lived for swimming, adventure and traveling. In her career in the professional circuit she traveled across the world to gain points. The life of a marathon swimmer was heavy but also free and varied. This has shaped her mentally. In her current work she still seeks variety and wants to achieve the best for her clients. Freedom and passion are a common theme throughout her life. She helps people with a blockade to listen and communicate through the Tomatis Method. Her newest challenge is to help top athletes who are blocked mentally to break through and get to their top. With this she can unite her two worlds, the sport and therapy. This completes the circle. Swimming the English Channel: 'I can start at twelve o'clock. Pitch dark. A green luminous stick, as a search point, is attached to my swimsuit. The water temperature is a degree or sixy Fahrenheit. From Dover Beach I walk into the water and swim as quickly as possible to the spotlight of the fishing cutter. I have never swam in the dark before. It is actually quite scary, outside the spotlight I do not have any reference point. And then swim. The light seems to be in my eyes all the time. I see nothing. I am afraid I would die when I am outside of that beam and end up in the big black sea. At a certain moment I see that the moon is shining. It is full moon and it feels like I have company, a kind of buddy. I like it and say hello to the moon. The moon moves. In the beginning it is small, clear and behind me, after about five hours big yellow and in front of me. It gives me the idea that I swim from one point to another. A reference, how important is that I realize. The waves are still brutal, choppy. The pointy waves let me roll up and down quickly. I get sick of it. Do not complain, I say to myself, just swimming, we have not paid all that money for nothing and this is now my chance to put myself on the map. The seasickness may soon become less. It stayed that way. The skipper and my father have a solution. I have to swim on the other side of the boat. The waves are coming from my side. If I go swimming on the other side, the boat can break the worst buds. The problem is that I can only breathe on the left side....