Week 20: Tracktastic week!
A team effort to find a pebble coloured earplug!
At last a break in the weather and the tracking season has recommenced.
There was a real buzz on the beach this weekend as we welcomed back successful soloists and had Sarah Thomas join us on the beach.
All in a weekend of wall to wall sunshine.
Lovely!
Your pod leaders’ observations
Post rescue services
A lot of what DCT stands for is unwritten, our values are acted out rather than confined to paper.
We saw our values vibrantly alive this weekend as we welcomed new swimmers, celebrated success with regular DCTers, chatted with visiting swimmers, chatted through dreams and aspirations, and saw the excitement as people looked to the week ahead for their big day.
I love what this group stands for. Each and every one of us shape it by our actions.
Shout outs (training)
This week I’d like to give a shout out to:
Kevin Beale for 5 hours
Andrew Freeman for 4 hours, returning to fitness from illness & injury.
Jill Tipping & Ros Hardiman for 4 hours
Hayley Brant for turning 2 hours into 4 hours
Gerry Cepelak for turning 3 hours into 4 hours
Nicola Budgen for 3 hours
Channel swimmer on the beach!
Swims to call out this week:
Tony Ferguson for his English Channel Solo on 6th September in a time of 16 hours 23 minutes.
A boatful of Emmas English Channel relay including 2021 DCTers Steven Boyle, Patrick Tschorn, Kristen Smith, Jon Southey, Emma France and Julian Critchlow on 6th September in a time of 11 hours 55 minutes.
Ady Brown for his Round Jersey solo on 9th September on 11 hours 11 minutes.
Water Warriors English Channel Relay including 2021 DCTers Pavlina Jackson and Michelle Winter on 6th September in a time of 14 hours 49 mins
Kirstie McArthur for her English Channel Solo on 7th September in a time of 16 hours 45 minutes.
Claire Webster for her English Channel Solo on 7th September in a time of 13 hours 42 minutes
MENCAP Marvels - Beech Hall School English Channel Relay including 2021 DCTer Ben Pope on 12th September in a time of 13 hours exactly.
SwimTayka Team Brazil English Channel Relay including 2021 DCTers Sophie Franks, Amanda Bowden, Lorna Clark, Clare Widdop, Johnny Saunders on 12th September in a time of 12 hours 37 minutes.
St Albans Sirens English Channel Relay including 2021 DCTers Allie Park-Crowne, Tamsyn Clark & Leanne Sheldon on 12th September in a time of 12 hours 20 minutes.
Well done to all swimmers each week, wherever you trained. We enjoy tracking you. 😊
Apologies if I missed anyone - there are a lot of swims going on all over the world!
If this week was not your week, we’re here to to chat if you want to talk it through and decide what to do next.
Tony Ferguson - channel swimmer
Kirstie McArthur - channel swimmer
Thank you
Thank you to our pod leaders, beach crew and all volunteers who helped this weekend.
Weekend Stats
Note: Water temperature taken during the swim session in the harbour. The lowest recorded reading is shown here. Air temperature, wind direction & wind speed taken from the Port of Dover app.
Saturday:
Swimmers: 21
Water temperature: 18.4C
Air temperature: 18.7C
Conditions: F5 SW. Cloudy to start, sunny later. Choppy as tide rose, and also a slappy chop at the start due to wind against tide.
Sunday:
Swimmers: 18
Water temperature: 18.8C
Air temperature: 17.2C
Conditions: F3 SW. Sunny with a bit of ripple. A bit of chop near the ferry wall as the tide rose.
Dates for your Diary
End of season get together
Instead of a BBQ, we are planning an end of season picnic. Bring your own packed lunch (that makes it more Covid friendly) and let’s still enjoy each other’s company one last time before the season ends. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate all the successes you’ve had.
To give it another little twist, how about each pod creates their own theme? Which pod will win? Not in a pod, then either join the fun of one of the existing pods or club together with other pay as you go swimmers and create your own theme.
And how about a bake-off? In recent weeks you’ve shared some pretty impressive baking and there will be plenty of people willing to run the taste test - no soggy bottoms please (unless you leave your swimmers on under your trousers).
Those of you who came to our intensity week will have experienced some fun games along the way - it could be fun to do something like that too after lunch has settled.
2022 Dover Intensity Week
Looking a bit further ahead, our 2022 intensity week will run from 6th-10th June. Will you be there? More details will be on the website in the next few weeks.
Paddlefish Ponderings: Where are you?
As we make our way through the final month of the training season (not necessarily the swimming season), I thought it was worth reflecting on where you find yourself now?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve found myself up and down this flight of stairs over the years.
It could be easy to assume that those of you who have achieved your goals for the year are on the top step, and whilst that might be true for some, my experience is that it’s not always true for everyone. Sometimes our sights move on and new plans are created, almost as if they had always been there. Depending on what that plan is, it’s possible to move back down one or more steps.
And so the circle of dreaming, planning and training continues.
Our sport is made special because of those of us who dare to dream and dare to believe.
Photos
A few photos from the weekend….
Spotlight in the shop
We had a flurry of activity this week following the announcement of the end of season blow out sale and some products are now in limited stock. Pre-order or get your favourite product today to avoid disappointment.
Use the code CLASSOF21 to get 15% off all your goodies now.
Reminders
Remember to book your sessions online. Bookings close 24 hours before the session, it would be a massive help if you booked by Thursday morning.
The system doesn’t arrange automatic refunds, so please message me if you cancel ahead of these deadlines and I’ll arrange a refund.
You don’t need to sign into the website to book a session - just pop your email address in to the booking system and it will remember you. Remember to click into the discount code box if you are a subscriber and it will auto complete your discount code. If you are a pay as you go swimmer and are also a member, remember to use your discount code to get your membership price.
Petition
John Tierney is looking for support from each of us for his petition to stop sewage companies discharging sewage into our waterways. You can find out more and support the petition here.