An English Channel adventure - Hemel Hempstead resident takes on relay challenge

An adventure a year in the making...

This time last year Claire was contacted out of the blue, by her Australian cousin, Ben, who messaged asking if she wanted to be part of an English Channel relay team - Channel Attack 2023.

"Hell no!" was her first response, but very quickly she changed her mind and grabbed the exciting opportunity. "I remembered I was soon to be 50, and if I didn't do it now, when would I have the chance again?" says Claire.

A year later, having swum a lot of miles in the pool, sea, rivers and lakes, and taken advantage of all her open water and wild swimming friends who have kept her company, the swimming 'slot' is fast approaching. The Channel Attack 2023 team will commence their swim between 13th September and 21st September. The actual date and timing of the swim depends on the weather conditions and the times of the tides, and this decision is made at the discretion of the accompanying boat pilot.

A channel relay involves a team (in this case 6 adults) taking it in turns to each swim for an hour, until they cover the 22 miles from Dover to France - aiming for the shortest distance at Cap Gris Nez. While not swimming the rest of the swim team will be aboard the Sea Leopard Charter, piloted by Stuart Gleeson and his experienced crew, and their coach who will navigate them through the busy shipping lane.

Whilst Claire lives in Leverstock Green the rest of the team are further-flung from different parts of Australia. "We have a coach, himself a 4 times solo Channel swimmer, Mike Gregory, based in Melbourne, who sends us all weekly training programmes to complete, and has also arranged training camps for the Australian part of the team. But it's up to me to make myself complete the training each week and report back with my feedback and times."

Claire's training consists of pool sets 3 times a week usually fitted in the early morning before work, or evenings and weekends and an open water swim to make sure she is acclimatised to the colder water and different conditions. "I have completed most of my training at the Everyone Active pool in Hemel Hempstead, but for the long 10km training swims I go to Letchworth Outdoor Pool which is 50m long, so I only have to do half the number of lengths (200 instead of 400), and that feels a lot better mentally. I also use waterproof headphones so the music helps with the monotony of the longer swims. I have a few very fun open water swim friends and have made them accompany me on lots of additional river swims, usually in the Jubilee River, I feel like they have been on this journey with me!"

For a Channel swim to qualify everyone must participate in only standard swimming costumes or trunks, no wetsuits are allowed. It's important that all swimmers are accustomed to swimming in cold water and know their limits of what they can withstand. For this reason all athletes have to carry out a 2 hour (6 hours if attempting a solo crossing) ratified qualification swim in the sea in temperatures of less than 15°C, and also undergo a medical examination before they can be certified fit enough to participate.

Claire is raising money for 2 very important charities.

The first is Kids for Kids - a charity transforming the lives of children, families and whole communities in war-torn Darfur. You can read more here:- https://www.kidsforkids.org.uk/

The other is Hector's House, a charity based in Berkhamsted - a close friend of Claire's lost her husband to suicide this year, and this charity not only aim to prevent suicide and promote mental health awareness, but has provided support and counselling to the family, You can read more here:- https://hectorshouse.org.uk/

However the rest of the team are all based in Australia and are also raising money for 2 Australian based charities - How's Ya Mate and Lifeline Broken Hill Country to Coast - https://ben-and-brendans-channel-attack.raisely.com

"When I'm swimming through jellyfish, and dodging ferries (and I don't even want to think about what else) the thought that each stroke is helping contribute something to these charities will be really inspiring and keep me slogging on," says Claire.