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Victoria's relay team swims the Channel

Wednesday 16th September 2020

Massive congratulation to Vicky from Masters squad who put the work in and completed the challenge of being part of a relay team to swim the channel. She swam three times in the crossing and was the swimmer who landed on the French coast! Here is her story from her Facebook post. "Re-wind to Autumn 2018, I had just placed third in the UKBFF masters bikini competition, sadly my dad passed away the same week (but got to see me raise my 🏆 . A week after my show, I swam 1K in the Serpentine in memory of my best friends sister. I swam in a wetsuit and the water temperature was 19 degrees...it’s hard to comprehend now, but my body frame was 3 stone lighter .. to cut a long story short I learnt that body building is not conducive to open water swimming (even with a wetsuit I suffered from mild hypothermia). This and copious amounts of googling ‘when does hypothermia set in’ what are the risks and can it be life threatening .. led me to develop a massive fear of open water swimming. Prior to this event I had held no fear and had contacted Aspire who raise money for people with spinal cord injuries wanting to know if I could attend the assessment centre for a channel swim. "I had been given a date for the assessment but decided after this event and not having processed my dad passing properly, this was a stupid idea. I contacted the Aspire organiser Andrew to say I couldn’t attend. Andrew must of known I had unfinished business even if I didn’t at the time and said you can attend the assessment next year .. yeah alright I thought, pushed it to the back of my mind and got on with work and caring for my mum. "Fast forward a year and I received an email from Andrew asking if I was still interested in taking part in a channel relay swim. My head said NO, but I ended up saying Yes, having not swam since the Sepentine, I thought I’ll make my excuses soon to opt out ...once I’ve worked out what they were! "Now the thing with doing a sporting event for a good charity ...Is you have a Why, and having that why and knowing you are helping others makes it a lot harder for you to cut and run. I’m also someone who likes to face their fears and I didn’t want to let my fear of the cold put me off something, I used to enjoy. But even on the day of the assessment... I worked out I needed to leave at 0800 hrs to get to the assessment on time... at 0755 hrs I was still smoking a cigarette deciding to go or not to go. I even rang Laura Joanne Roberts to ask if she thought I should go.. we both came to the conclusion I should go to at least find out about the process if I didn’t I might regret it. "I attended the well ran assessment day and listened and took notes.. and of course swam. I remember hoping that I hadn’t got a place.. then I could tell myself well I would have done it if I made the cut 😂. "At work I received the news that I had secured a place.. and promptly decided I should take myself to Hamstead Heath ponds and do a few laps ..I took my wetsuit and by chance channel 4 were filming an open water documentary .. not wanting to be the only person in a wetsuit on TV I did a very fast lap of the pond in skins and climbed out. iT dawned on me that this was going to be a slow process of overcoming my fear of the cold. Being all or nothing in approach I ditched my jumpers walked round in T-shirt’s, tore off the bedclothes ran cold baths and thought I was the next Wim Hoff and accomplished nothing but a cold 🥶 . "I was lucky enough to meet the most chilled out man in NATO who soon became my training partner (Kev) we started attending parliament hill lido for swims and giggles (who knew temps of 6 degrees would make me laugh). I think the first time we went we did a length and thought we were ice swimmers ! Kev forgot his towel and stepped into a what he thought was a warm shower but turned out to be a cold one when he didn’t warm up 😂 "Trips to the beach became a regular feature on the agenda albeit for ten minute swims -all I could manage without being scared of losing my dexterity - more Googling! I decided to rejoin Orpington Ojays Masters squad which was the club I swam for in my childhood .. I gradually developed some endurance and even managed to move to the middle lane, it was great seeing some familiar faces but I never got as far as the elite lane home of Kirsten Iddiols-Bunclark and Steve Morris. "I was now armed with the fact I could swim for an hour with out stopping which was nice!. Aspire have an excellent training programme in place which comprises of three boot camp type weekends at Dover Harbour .. (we had since learnt who our team mates were and looked forward to more bonding .. after our first meet in London). "Covid 19 hit and we were faced with the reality that we wouldn’t be able to have the scheduled weekend training sessions and at times with changes in regulations we were unsure if any crossings would take place at all. Coupled with the closure of swimming pools I reverted to pounding the pavements and attempted to retain my new found cardiovascular fitness (I had given up smoking at this juncture) by running. Apologies Bromley council for any cracks in the pavement. "After the lock down restrictions were lifted myself and my training buddy went to various beaches and slowly ...very slowly increased our cold water acclimatisation and fish and chip consumption ! The next challenge was to achieve our two hour qualifying swim in less than 16 degrees before July. Surprisingly the day before the non planned attempt I had only managed 30 mins. To say i was pleased was an understatement! "I roped my mum into writing me session plans to follow ..she said at 80 she didn’t remember how to d them until she went to bed and she had a dream about what to do and remembered 💖 although I think she may have thought I was Jo Mullins as they were tough ! "From various training venues I met some amazing people Joanna Wood who had me in stitches and of course made excellent lemon drizzle cake Aaliyah Roughley said it was better than mine ! "Due to Covid planned fundraising events were shelved but I was overwhelmed by the generosity of everyone who donated thank you. Sadly my mum passed away during the pandemic but being a swimming coach, I like to think she had my back in the channel yesterday particularly when I landed in the dark with tinted goggles on (school girl error)😂on fraggle rock! "This post is now taking on a life of its own .. so if you have read this far and not fell asleep well done! This has been an amazing journey...having the privilege of raising money for an amazing charity, meeting my awesome team mates Jill Hill Andrew Short Neil Young Chris Lovett Luke Collins Dave and boat leader Catherine Hamilton-Plant. The budgies Sarah Hicks Dani Cameron Caroline Rudge Gemma Bloor @Joanna Wood. "Big thanks also to Tracey Edwards for telling me to Breath and Jackie Singleton for Dog sitting Sue Sheeres for the offer of accommodation. He says I could have done it without him ..but I suspect training wouldn’t have been half as much fun without Kev and I thank him for his patience, wit "And listening to all of fears associated with this challenge 💖."

Photos
Vicky's JustGiving Page for Aspire

Gina Wins in the Sea

Monday 14th September 2020

Congratulations to Gina from Masters Squad, who travelled to Folkstone at the weekend to compete in the Channel Triathlon. It was her first time competing in the sea and thankfully she had nice calm waters. Gina finished first in her category and the females and was thirteenth overall in a time of 01:30:49. Sadly trophies were not being handed out due to coronavirus but she got a lovely medal.

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