Dover Take Two!

Hello! Last weekend was a chilly but very successful training weekend down in Dover with the rest of Team Seal and the other Aspire swimmers!

We swam...

...got out and got warm...

 ...got back in and swam...

 ...and were reunited with our fellow Seals...

...all of them!

It looks so inviting until you see the number of coats we're wearing! The water was about 13 degrees, which after May's 10 degrees felt much more pleasant, especially as on Saturday the harbour was a bit of a washing machine, and we weren't really thinking about the temperature, more about how the waves were crashing over our faces every other breath. Nice!

 

In between swims, the Seals were also the poster team for Zoggs (thanks for the costumes and goggles, Zoggs!)!

When Sarah was off fetching the snack bag (more of a snack holdall really), the rest of the Seals decided it would be a brilliant idea to try the 2-hour qualifier, and after 2 hours of the shakes, teeth-chattering, incoherent gabbling and swimming with the infamous Claw, sheer damn stubbornness dragged three of the team through the qualifier!

Which earned us a certificate from the legendary Freda Streeter...

...and a telling off for warming up with a hot water bottle - 'toughen up' were her words!

Soph completed her 2 hour qualifier today in Bristol, with similarly hideous symptoms, so Team Seal are now two thirds qualified to swim the Channel in August! This is also the first year that Aspire swimmers have completed their 2-hour qualifiers in June, which is a definite confidence booster for the swim!

 

If you haven't yet, please please support us on our JustGiving site. Thank you so much for all the donations so far, including those from Kathleen, Margaret, Lily and Kiran! 

We also received an incredible donation of £250 from EBS - many thanks to everyone at EBS, and in particular Penny for arranging this donation.

Your donations and another tabard-sporting bag pack at Horsforth Morrison's yesterday have helped us raise a whopping £3257.70 so far - that's 93% of our target! This money could be used by Aspire to:

- buy a complete set of easy to hold crockery for one of their houses 

- pay for an Independnt Living Advisor to spend a day in a Spinal Injury Centre offering advice and support to newly injured patient
- buy SmartNav technology for a PC to enable someone with a high level spinal cord injury to use a computer
...so thank you all very very much!