December 28, 2007
By: Anna Sonstegard '11

Our travels began with some swimmers meeting in Boston and others met at JFK for an overnight trip to Dublin. While our sleeping pills were wearing off, we arrived in Dublin before sunrise and set off for the hotel. With little time to explore the hotel's wonderful accommodations: dining area, wireless Internet, cable television, etc.; we were off to the pool for our first practice. Walking the 5k (2.3 miles) to the pool was refreshing, but when we realized that that was our only form of transportation, most weren't happy. Luckily Jim masterfully arranged transportation for the following day. While waiting for our time slot to use the pool, most collapsed on the floor to take a quick nap, others observed the obscure Irish swimmers (all wearing swim caps) swimming through massive waves due to the lane rope. After a nice loosen up swim in the diving well, we took another nice short walk to find our lunch. Afternoon practice started off hectic when a few divers were no where to be found, but eventually they were tracked down. Practice ended up being a nice aerobic set followed by a great dinner at the hotel.

December 29, 2007
By: Jonathan Panzl '11

The day began on a positive note with a van ride to the pool rather than walking two miles in the rainy Irish weather. After our morning practice, the team got some surprise chocolate santas and headed back to the hotel for breakfast. Most people chose to take the bus back to the hotel but two foolish freshman decided to attempt to run back forgetting that, being Ireland, they would eventually be caught in the rain and forced to take the bus the rest of the way back. After breakfast some of the team napped while others went into Dublin to check out the town. Afternoon practice started with drylands including some leap frog and piggyback races. Relays were held between the classes with the Irishmen joining in. Sadly the Irishmen won but the freshmen team touched out the juniors for a second place finish. After relays a new "underwater club" was formed for those elite members whom could make it the whole fifty meters underwater. On a less exciting note, KOH was next with Porter '09 winning for the second time this season. Dinner was at the hotel again followed by sleep and/or a night out in Dublin to round off the second day of the trip.

December 30, 2007: Happy Birthday, Liz!!!
By: Virginia Selden '11

We began our third day in Ireland with another early morning practice. After our fantastic bus driver Frank took us to the pool, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that our one practice of the day wouldn't be a massive or boring set but would instead be shorter and involve lots of social kicking. Two impressive get-out swims by Liz and Gordon ended the swimming for the day and ensured that we all made it back to an enormous breakfast at the hotel in good time.

Instead of an afternoon practice, we got on a double-decker bus for a tour. We drove through Phoenix Park and ended in the city near Trinity. The team split up for lunch and then had some free time to explore Dublin. After spending the afternoon shopping and visiting sites such as the National Art Gallery, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, and Dublin Castle, we met at a pub for dinner. We were hungry enough to eat a huge meal of traditional Irish fare. We eventually made it home after a somewhat tumultuous quest for the bus stop and a seemingly endless ride back to the hotel.


December 31, 2007: New Year's Eve
By: Marco Chu '11

We woke up to a bright Irish morning and Jim's beautiful, shining smile. After our usual morning practice and breakfast at the hotel, we slept all day to get ready for a late night. We had an excellent New Year's dinner of pizza at the hotel and then split up for the evening. As you can see it was a pretty standard day, even though it was New Year's Eve. As midnight approached, the men's team headed into Dublin for their surprisingly eventful New Year's celebration. After ordering cokes at a bar, the freshmen took pictures with random Dubliners and were then showed up by Cary, who managed to take better pictures in a much shorter time.

January 1, 2008
By: Maddie Steiner '11
Title: Happy New Year; Dublin Style

The men of Dartmouth swimming kicked off the New Year in downtown Dublin with our beloved driver Frank and friends. After a delicious breakfast we got onto a tour bus with a loquacious Irish man who shared a plethora of attention-grabbing stories that lasted the seven hours of our excursion. We toured an Irish national park and ancient monastery in the picturesque countryside of Ireland and then replenished our energy source at a traditional Irish pub with hearty bowls of Guiness stew. We returned to the hotel at 4 p.m. when junior Katie Morrison promptly fell asleep for the next thirteen hours. The seniors enjoyed a private dinner with the coaches while the rest of the team stayed in for a wonderful evening of room service and video games.

January 2, 2007
By: Dan Hochman '11

2:15am, Captain Andrew Berry woke Doug and I up talking in his sleep. It was mostly gibberish but at one point he did ask me if I thought he was being funny before falling back to sleep. Murmurings have started about Jim Wilson leading an exorcism for Berry's night demons.

We rolled over to the National Aquatic Center for morning workout. The practice was pretty tough, a 7,000m strip set. About halfway through, I started hallucinating about the raspberry pastries at breakfast.

After practice and breakfast, the team crashed to rest before the afternoon workout. I was particularly content after the pastries and we all slept for a few hours. On the way to evening practice, Alex Fidel decided to run across a grassy field covered in hundreds of birds. As they took to the sky to avoid Fidel, Jesup was one of the unlucky (or perhaps lucky, depending on superstition) recipients of bird droppings. We think Fidel's set was probably harder after that. Nevertheless, the coaches had warned us about a 'monstrous dry land' set before the PM practice so we were all prepared for the worst. Instead of dry land, we ended up spending the afternoon at the water park on the water slides, lazy river and wave pool. It was a very nice surprise. Of course, we still had a 4,000m kick set afterwards. After the kick set, there was a set of relays that the underclassmen made quite a showing at, winning easily over the wily, though slower, veterans.

We finished the day with a nice Chinese dinner in the bustling central business district of Tyrrelstown. The team was in great form as we all enjoyed good food courtesy of Jim, who was sporting his $2 Ireland shirt, proudly purchased at the 'pound store.' After dinner, everyone settled back down to prepare for morning workout the next day.

January 3, 2008
By; Allie Lau '11
"A Day of Firsts"
Quote of the day: "I'm done."

The eighth day of training trip began exactly like the others: the sound of Jim's melodious voice at 6:15, rolling out of bed and dragging our weary bodies to the lobby at 6:20. We knew the day was bound to be interesting when the vans to take us to practice actually came at the same time, especially when Jim decided to take his hand at the wheel of one. An "epic" IM left us sore and a litle cranky but our fatigue was remedied by yet another wonderful breakfast. Alas, no epic naps to follow, as is generally the norm. Instead we spent the day in Dublin.

Some started by touring Christ Church Cathedral, others perused the city streets and ducked into cafés to seek shelter from the biting wind. At noon the whole team congregated at the Guiness factory to tour the facility and learn about the history and creation of Ireland's premier stout. However, we all passed up our free pints at the Gravity Bar for sodas due to training trip dry policy and soaked in the magnificent view of Dublin from its highest point. We took a brisk walk to the Porterhouse- another lovely pub known for its extensive number of beers on tap- and ended up eating in shifts, as our waitresses had a little trouble getting everyone's food up the three daunting flights of stairs. After lunch, we went about our separate ways- either traveling back to the hotel in Jim's van or hoping to come across some viable form of transportation. Unfortunately, rush hour, combined with the first snow Dartmouth swimmers and divers have ever encountered on a training trip (brought over from Hanover perhaps?) meant traffic and subsequently tardiness to afternoon practice by several swimmers and (gasp) the coaching staff. Fortunately Chris Hamilton, who had our prescribed workout handy as a precaution, saved the day and got us into the water on time for warm up. Thanks Chris!!

We swam from 6 to 8 and upon returning to the hotel, trekked through the snow to feast on Godfathers pizza and prepare for our last day in Dublin.