Swampscott's Tommy Gainer Swims the English Channel

SWAMPSCOTT— Three hour swims in fifty-degree water. Weight training twice a week. Spending a Saturday swimming 11,000 yards. These were just some of the things Tommy Gainer, 40, did in training to swim the 35 kilometers of the English Channel.

The Swampscott resident began training two years ago when his friend Andy Jones from the YMCA North Shore (YNS) Masters swim team asked him to join him to train. On Aug 14, at around 2:30 a.m., Gainer plunged into the water on Samphire Hoe beach near Dover, England.

Gainer was registered with the Channel Swimming & Piloting Federation (CS&PF), one of two governing bodies for English Channel swimming.

"My mom put me in the water when I was six months old," Gainer told Patch about how his love for swimming began. After being in swimming leagues as a child, he competed with U.S. Masters Swimming while living in Chapel Hill, NC.

When he and his wife Lindsay moved to Swampscott several years ago, he joined the Charles River Masters, and later became a part of the YNS Masters team. He had wanted to swim the Channel for a long time, but was waiting for when the time was right. That happened to be when Jones asked. He said, "I thought it was a fascinating thing. I love open water swimming." He said of training with Jones, "We trained for over two years. A lot of it at first was in the pool with the Masters team five days a week, and I did two days of weight lifting. In the summers, we did open water swimming in Swampscott, Marblehead, and Nahant." This winter, training became more serious. Over the Spring, three-hour swims became five-hour swims.

Gainer said, "We started to go outside and do training. One weekend in a pool, we did 11,000 yards, and the next day we did 100 x 200 meters long course freestyle. That was pretty excruciating." Local ponds and oceans with 50 to 53 degree waters got Gainer used to swimming in colder water, until he and his family took off for the United Kingdom on July 25. Gainer had a window, through organizing with a certified boater called a "pilot" to swim between July 29-Aug 6. But the rough waves prohibited swim crossings, and his slot was moved back.

Eventually, Gainer was able to swim on Monday, Aug. 14, leaving from the Dover Marina with his pilot and crew, which included his wife, Jones, another swimmer, Anita Goyos, and Paul Rowe. The Channel Swim governing bodies require official gear to be a bathing suit that doesn't extend past the knees, a single swim cap, and goggles. Gainer was also able to wear lights attached to his goggles and suit, because of the darkness of the water. Lindsay put Vaseline on his chin, shoulders, and inner thighs to prevent chafing from the rough saltwater. Then it began.

Gainer started on the beach right behind the water line, with an observer watching from a boat to make sure he complied with the rules. He said, "I started at 2:30a.m. It was a beautiful night, a couple clouds in the sky with a half moon. I positioned myself next to boat on the left side." The first two hours were rough on Gainer, as he did not realize how choppy the water would be. "I actually inhaled water. I thought of aborting the swim." he said. After moving to the other side of the boat, Gainer found his rhythm, stopping every half an hour to an hour to "feed," or drinking out of a Nalgene bottle tied to the side of the boat filled with maltodextran, tea, and occasionally flat Coca-Cola.

He fought nausea, muscle spasms, and shoulder pain after several hours of swimming. At one point, a small jellyfish stung him. Gainer told Patch, "I got stung by a jellyfish on the wrist. All of a sudden the pain in my shoulder went away, and my wrist hurt, so I guess it worked out better that way." He was stung four times.

For the entire swim, Gainer knew not to ask his swim time, having heard that this could be discouraging from other swimmers. He said "I just thought, every stroke is one stroke closer to finishing. I could see France, France was there, and it was there, and it felt like it would never get any closer."

Then suddenly, his crew yelled down for him to pick up the pace, and he knew he was near the end. Two of the crew got in the water to swim behind him, which was allowed. He landed at a boulder on a cape called Cap Gris Nez, France, and was told he needed to raise his hand up, to make it official. "It was a phenomenal feeling," Gainer said. His final swim time? 12 hours and 56 minutes.

Photos courtesy of Tommy Gainer