Gerry (Kerry's Dad and a proper swimming coach) came along to, so I'll leave him to explain how it went. As for him never having seen people shake so much - Gerry's yet to see me in action!
"Four of the swimmers ( Mike, Tom, Jen and Kerry)attended the Dover training session on Saturday 31 May. They were joined by Kerry's Mum and Dad, Diana and Gerry) who offered encouragement, hot drinks and took some photos and videos.
The swimmers were set the challenge of swimming two one hour sessions, by Freda The Dover Channel Swimming Coach. The air temperature was about 20'but the water temperature was only 13'. The first session was good with Jen and Kerry managing to do the full hour and Mike and Tom managing about 55 minutes. The hard part is getting warm when you get out and the challenge of getting clothes on and having a hot drink is almost beyond the swimmers. It really does make sense to have someone there to help with the dressing process and to pour hot drinks. However, very little of the hot drinks actually get swallowed and I have never seen people shake so much that most of the drink ends up on the floor. The Mars bars did go down well and it is important to both eat and drink before getting back into the water.The next challenge was getting back into the water and all 4 swimmers managed about 30 minutes. This is good for this stage of training.
Gerry had an interesting experience when the first person he met on the beach was someone from his home town in Northern Ireland. Jim Boucher has swum the channel twice, once as part of a team and once in a solo swim.He managed a 3 hour training session. He was pink when he got in the water and blue when he got out. Something for the team to look forward to.
Overall the team of Tom, Mike, Jen and Kerry were very impressive in technique, endurance and perseverance. This bodes well for a successful swim."
Gerry also took pics of the team in hats and hoods:
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