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My Channel Challenge

Welcome to my new Blog! Where I keep everyone up-to-date about progress towards completing my latest challenge.

 Fundraising link https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/victoria-gilbert2
Those of you who know me will already know I like a Challenge. Some more welcome than others though. One such Challenge, that sadly wasn’t chosen but needed to be faced head on, was the diagnosis of aggressive Stage III breast cancer is December 2016 (you can read more about that Challenge here)

Shortly before the diagnosis I had completed a pool swim over 12 weeks that was equivalent to the distance across the English Channel i.e. 22 miles.



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Training

I’ve been mostly training on my own, when time allows. I’ve got up to 2 miles in the pool. But I’ve also had some great Lake swims with some of my buddies - Joe’s first swimming teacher and super amazing triathlete Jane Suggitt at Allerthorpe near York and my Channel Buddy Ruth. We did a rather chilly swim in April at Stanton Lakes brrrrrrr! Not to mention of course my fab team The Hammerhead Sharks; Fran, Peter, Liz, Hannah & Sam. Definitely not forgetting our super supportive and kind Boat Leader Dirk, a Channel Relay Veteran! We attended our first Dover training weekend mid May. We did 4 sea swims in total, amounting to about 4 miles. I realise for me it’s actually the logistics of entering and exiting the water, especially from the beach and no doubt in time from the boat, that proves the most difficult and not the actual swimming! Also it causes the most stress and anxiety. I guess though where’s there’s a will there’s a way, as the saying goes! I haven’t yet ‘accli...
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Boat Practice

We were given the opportunity to go out with a pilot on one of the boats to do ‘a trial run’. As the rest of my Team (Hammerhead Sharks) weren’t doing it (some have done a relay before) I became an Honorary Sea Dragon for the day! This was especially nice because my swim buddy Ruth is one and we travel down together and share accommodation so it made it much easier. For me it was causing a lot of anxiety as to how I would manage getting on and off the boat, into and out of the water via a small ladder and especially in choppy seas. I’m sure it was also making the Aspire Organisers a little twitchy, as safety is of course paramount for them. On the day we were up early checking our kit lists and did remarkably well with the relatively small amount we had packed for the boat, considering it looked like Ruth and I had filled the car with everything but the kitchen sink! We had climbed aboard 'Anastasia' in Dover Marina by 10am and were briefed by our pilot Eddie and ...
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