English Channel Swim

First swim in Dover

I got up at 5 to catch the train down from London to Dover.  I thought that given that I had only flown in on Friday, that I would be somehow fooling my timeclock into thinking that it wasn't too early, but it was.

I managed to stay awake for my connection, and then dozed into Dover.  I was wondering how I would recognize the Channel swimmer training, but given that there were a bunch of folks wandering around near the beach in their speedos, I made the assumption that they were a particular brand of eccentrics, and tried to blend in.

Frida gave me my marching orders, and a numbered hat.  Barry slapped some vaseline under my arms, and I chatted to the swimmers, some of whom were relay swimmers, some of whom were solo aspirants, and some of whom had already swum the Channel, including Roberta from Switzerland, who was choosing to train in Dover for swimming the length of Lake Zurich.  Maybe Dover was more attractive a destination than I had at first thought.  I tried to picture the posters as I breathed, looking up at the White Cliffs, but the mood was occasionally shattered by a passing car ferry.

The water was a little warmer than San Francisco, which was nice, and fairly pleasant until the wind whipped it up a bit.  I ploughed along with Roberta, Alex and Doug, who were all very fast, and went from wall to wall of the ferry terminals on either side.  Each length took 20-25 minutes.  I stayed in for about 1.45, and then reminisced about the South End sauna and showers as I climbed saltily back up the beach, into my clothes and back on the train.

I slept all the way back.

Can't wait to be swimming with the White Cliffs behind me.

J

Round Trip Alcatraz

The last longish swim before the Channel, was beautiful.  If the Channel is anything like this - flat and sunny, I will be overjoyed (and very lucky!).

Napa Bob was in fine form, with a full briefing, and plenty of verbal abuse.  He blew the horn while we were all still filing down to the beach, and we splashed off to Alcatraz.  Morgan was wearing her wetsuit, which must be the only reason why she was so much faster than everyone else....  Hank and Joel started off hard, and then paid the price of not having been in the bay yet this year, and I slid past Joel on the way out, and Hank on the way back to the cove.  Since they both usually beat me, this was the perfect ego boost for the Channel - thanks guys.

I tickled a seal on the East Corner of Alcatraz, which made me jump, but he was just being friendly.

Melissa caught some beautiful footage of the swim, as Bob ran her around the bay shepherding swimmers.

Morgan came home in 1:12 - not far off the 1:05 record.  I trickled in probabaly about 1:15, which I was very pleased with, seeing as I was trying not to go too hard (although the competitive juices definitely started to flow) and when I was sprinting in Pedro's around the rock race (see http://www.englishchannelswim.com/2007/05/swim_round_the_.html) I did 1:20.  Clearly the conditions were almost perfect today.

So - just a splash around the bay on Tuesday morning, and then I fly to England on Thursday!  Can't wait.

Julian

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