2010 June | Rob Aquatics Masters Swimming Blog

No Crabs in Maryland, But I Found One in Avila!

I pinch

So I go all the way to Maryland which is famous for crabs, spend like 2 1/2 hours in the Chesapeake, and never ever see a crab. Tonight I take a quick mile long shot around Avila and see my first non-hermit type crab that I’ve ever come across in California. How does that work? It’s all very suspicious… maybe the crab people are following me. If I see another one this weekend in Colorado I’ll know what’s up :)

I was a little worried about tonight’s swim for two reasons… 1, my body is still feeling a little rough from this weekend 2, the move from 70+ degree water back to mid 50′s really sucks. At least there was one other dude going wetsuitless tonight so someone else would be feeling my pain. I was pretty slow getting in the water and I was the last person to actually start swimming. Our first leg was down the left side of the buoy line and by the end of it I caught a couple of the other swimmers. On the way out the water was really killing me… my muscles were really tense and the cold was cutting pretty deep. Niel measured it at 57 degrees which would usually be fine but after playing in the Chesapeake this past weekend my cold water tolerance is all off again. At least I didn’t have to resort to wearing a wetsuit this time.

From the end of the buoy line we decided to aim for the end of the pier and then we’d probably split into two groups for the rest of the swim. I started feeling a lot better on the way out to the pier, but it was still pretty chilly. I did run into a few clumps of plant life on the way that scared the crap out of me. I was really jumpy tonight for some reason.

At the end of the pier we decided to send one group down the pier to the beach and the other group would do the right side of the buoy line and then swim in. I decided to swim straight in. I was just out for a good swim to stretch out my muscles. We probably swam a little less than a mile. Afterwards I hung out on the beach for just a little bit and then made my way home. The pool in Santa Maria is closed this week so I’m not sure what I’m doing with Thursday, and then Friday I’m off to Colorado for my 6k!

A Quick Chat with Open Water Adventurer Karen Rogers

In a little less than a month my friend Karen Rogers is going to swim from the Farallones Islands all the way into San Francisco’s Aquatic Park. This is a really gnarly 30+ mile swim that’s only been accomplished by a few and never by a woman, but as Karen will tell you she’s the right girl for the job!

Karen is having a fundraiser hosted by Bob Roper June 27th in San Francisco to help with the expedition. It’s a $25 donation at the door, runs 1pm-6pm, and is taking place at 1000 North Point, Fontana Towers Conference Room in San Francisco. All the info is available here on Facebook. If you can’t make it out to the event but have a soft spot for bold aquatic adventure like I do, you can also make a donation via PayPal on her website: karenmrogers.com (it’s down a little bit on the left hand side)

I had a chance this week to ask her some questions about her upcoming swim, check it out!

Why the Farallones Islands? It’s a pretty bold choice! What drew you to this particular swim and how long have you been dreaming about taking it on?

I am a hometown girl that doesn’t want to travel too far to challenge myself. There is so much great open water swimming in California that I can’t quite get myself to think about anything else. The Farallones is one of the last big open water challenges that hasn’t been conquered by a female and I am just the girl for the job.

When I was in 4th grade my class took a trip to the Farallones. I am not sure who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to take a group of kids out there because everyone including my teacher was sea sick. As we started to head back to SF I thought to myself that it would be easier to swim back. That is the first time the thought crossed my mind.

The Farallones Islands are well known as being “biologically diverse,” what’s the plan to mitigate any trouble with the locals?

I like your term “biologically diverse”, in other words you are really asking about the white sharks. I had the honor to meet and talk with Scot Anderson, biologist and white shark expert that lived on the island for many seasons. He told me that in all of the time he spent on the island there were no shark sightings in July. They are still on vacation near Hawaii or starting their trek back to the Farallones. The rest of the sea life that inhabit the area I deal with during every training swim. I truly believe that I am not very evolved and do not belong on land myself. So, when I am in the water I feel at home and at ease. When I come in contact with my fellow sea creatures it does not bother me.

Spending that much time in the water is a major mental feat on top of being a major physical accomplishment. What goes through your head on a swim that long?

Not much goes through my head on a marathon swim. That is the beauty of this sport. On a daily basis, being a wife and a mother of two teenage boys, there is not much time in which someone doesn’t need me or something from me. When I am in the water it is the complete opposite of my daily routine. All I hear is the water rushing past my head and the rhythmic sound of my breathing. It is a working meditation. I cherish every moment that I am in the water and my mind is blank. The disassociation is my favorite part.

Since the swim is taking place in San Francisco, the water isn’t exactly tropical. What do you do to build up a tolerance for the cold water?

Actually the water in the bay feels tropical to me compared to the water out near the Farallones. The bay at this point is a warm 56 degrees while the water 10+ miles out of the Golden Gate is holding steady at 49. In the past 3 years I have learned that I have an incredible tolerance for cold water. I am not bothered by 49 degrees. I prepare for these temperatures by staying acclimated to the cold water year round. The San Francisco bay is the perfect training ground for cold water swimming.

What’s the frostiest water you can tolerate?

The frostiest temperature I have swum was Lake Tahoe in January 2009, 41 degrees for a 20 minute swim. It was exhilarating.

A swim like this is a pretty big undertaking, what kind of a crew did you need to assemble to make this swim (and all the training swims) happen?

I feel that I definitely have home field advantage here.You are right that this swim is a big undertaking. There is no way that I would be able to do this swim without the help of the South End Rowing Club and its members. The South end has been around since 1873. Some of the south enders have been members for many generations, passing down valuable knowledge about the San Francisco bay. These key players are invaluable to the success of my team.

I am blessed with the help of the great Bob Roper. He organizes all of my training swims. He has worked countless hours helping me because he believes that I am the right girl for the job. A big part of my team is Chris “El Sharko” Blakeslee, experienced English Channel swimmer, surfer and all around great guy. His job is my safety. Sharko is in charge of me when I get in the water, how fast or slow I need to go and he has the ultimate call if I were to be pulled. Additionally I have kayakers, a few pacers, feeder, communications, navigators and a medic on my team.

We’re less than a month out from the swim now, but the date could be anywhere from July 2nd to the 7th. What’s the best way for the rest of us to follow along at home and know which day you end up going for it?

We will know at least 24 hours in advance when the go date will be, all is dependent on wind, fog and waves. Once we know exactly the day, my facebook page, twitter page and website will be updated. Once in the water I can be tracked live via my SPOT GPS in almost real time on google maps. A link can be found on my website. www.karenmrogers.com

Have you picked out the next big challenge yet, or is that still in the works?

Still can’t get my head out of California after this swim, I would like to swim Catalina and the Santa Barbara channel. All of those are stepping stones towards a much bigger goal I have had for many years, swimming the coast of California. Point to point swims along the coast, educating people about the delicacy of our coastline as we move down it. I would like to have my entire team on a bus, eating local food. Really just looking to have a epic California adventure with all of my friends.

2010 Chesapeake Bay Swim Wrap Up

**Chesapeake Bay Swim Results are posted here

getting a face full of Chesapeake Bay water while trying to take a mid race glamor shot

I swam the 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim today and I gotta say, this is a great event! Fun, challenging, and well run. Me and my buddy David got into the parking area on the Eastern Shore around 6:30 this morning and hopped on a bus back across the bridge to the start. On the beach we got our packets with timing chips and caps and then proceeded to get comfortable and hang out with the other people that were already there. I finally got to meet Glenn Mills from GoSwim in person, Alina from Maine who writes Swimming for ME, and I ran into my friend Abby from NYC out in the bay before our wave started racing. It’s nice to be on this side of the country and know so many people. I recognized some folks from the 1 Miler I did in NC, but I didn’t see Coach Patty and her SwimMAC swimmers although I knew they were out there somewhere.

Glenn and I pre-race

Abby and I made up a portion of the wetsuitless minority today

As race time drew nearer I got my suit situated and decided to wear my rash guard to keep the sun off me during the swim. I figured like 85% of the field was wearing wetsuits (in 71 degree water!) so I could wear my rash guard. I made sure to spray down all my contact points (neck, back of head, armpits, suit seams) and for good measure applied some bonus body glide on the back of my neck/head. All this over lubing seems to have worked since I walked away chafe free.

contemplating the distance to the other side

I spent about 10 minutes just floating around in the water getting used to the feel while waiting for my wave. The water in the bay isn’t salty at all and if I didn’t know better I would have said it tasted like a lake. The first wave was made up of the slower half of the swimmers and they were in neon green caps. My wave had neon pink and went 15 minutes later. Most of the races I’ve done recently send off the fast guys first, but this one did it the other way around for a couple of reasons, tides and cut off times. To do this swim they need to temporarily shut down a pretty major shipping channel so we only had so long to clear each mile marker before they would have to pull you out to let the boat traffic get back at it. The race itself was timed pretty well as far as the tides were concerned, but we were warned that towards the end it would pick up and be a major thing to contend with and keep in mind as you chose your line.

wave 2 getting ready to go

When it was finally my time to start I picked a thin spot to the outside of the big clump of swimmers down on the edge closest to the bridge. This race is pretty well known for the craziness of the start and I didn’t really want to get pummeled right at the beginning of a 4.4 mile race. I did get knocked around a little bit in the first 500m but not too bad. Once we crossed under the bridge we all started to separate out. There are 2 parallel bridges that marked the course. Essentially as one guy stated it on the beach, they’re the biggest lane lines in the world. I aimed for the middle of the course and hung there as much as possible. If you passed underneath a bridge you were DQ’ed and I didn’t want any part of that.

the view from mile 2

I got into a rhythm during that first mile and was pretty content with my swimming. I could tell I wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire speed-wise, but I was swimming my own race and that was basically my whole plan for the event. The water itself was pretty active. Lots of waves from boats and chop from just being a big body of water. I felt pretty at home in it, but I can imagine a lot of people that trained in lakes and pools for this were pretty uncomfortable with it. At mile 2 they had a boat set up where you could stop and get something to eat or drink to keep you fueled up. I was still holding a line dead center inbetween the bridges and had no desire to swim out of my way for a snack. Instead I stopped and ate the GU packet I had hidden away in my suit before the race. I also took the opportunity to snap a couple pictures really quickly. The view from down there between the bridges is pretty surreal and I figured a picture would spell it out a lot better that I could in writing. I started to cramp up a little bit in my left hamstring while treading water and decided that was a good sign that my break was over. I put my head down and started to make moves towards that 3 mile buoy.

one more bridge shot for good measure

After I passed the buoy marcating the end of the third mile I heard a nearby kayaker yell at me. I picked up my head to figure out what was going on because frankly I wasn’t really expecting to have a conversation right now. Here’s how our little chat went…

K: hey you want some banana?
M: huh? (thoroughly confused)
K: banana, you want some?
M: hell yeah I want a banana!

The kayaker broke off half a banana and threw it to me, it’s fair to say that was probably the most delicious banana I’ve ever had in my life :) Mile 3 had another support boat, but again it was too far off my line so this was a really nice accidental encounter.

Mile 3 to 4 was a bit of a grind, we were officially passing into the furthest I’d ever swam in one pass and my body was starting to protest a bit. I had random almost cramps in my legs and the back of my left arm just above the elbow. Nothing was failing, but a few pieces wanted to let me know they weren’t fond of what was going on here. A little ways past the mile 4 marker is where the current picked up and became a player in the swim. It was pushing pretty hard to the right and my line was now much closer to the bottom of that bridge. I was swimming at an angle to the left in an effort to keep it straight. Intermittently I would pick it up a bit to get further away from the bridge and if possible I would try to keep another swimmer between me and the bridge as a buffer. Eventually the plan was to pass under the bridge (on purpose at a buoy marked spot) and make our way towards a beach finish, but those last 300-400m got progressively harder to not get swept under early. The current wasn’t overpowering, any reasonably good swimmer with the appropriate amount of perseverance could get past it but having that thrown in at the last minute of a very long race was a pretty good test of what you had left in the tank. If you wanted to finish legally you had to earn it, no free rides after crossing mile 4!

I ground out the last leg of the swim to the beach and made an effort to pick a few people around me to beat in to the finish. I had some people taking some really squirrelly lines and criss crossing back and forth in front of me and decided I didn’t want any part of that. I picked up the pace for a while and tried to aim as straight as I could for the beach finish once I figured out where it was. I managed to drop the people I wanted to beat (because I had to feel like I raced somebody after 2 hours of swimming in my own little world) and crossed the finish line in a time yet to be determined. I have a really bad habit of not looking at clocks when I finish races so I still have no idea how long the 4.4 miles took me.

View of the finish from up on the beach

At the top of the ramp I got my goody bag and grabbed some granola bars and Gatorade that they had set out for us to eat for free. My buddy David that did the swim with me had a weird fluke injury during the race and was waiting for me up there. After I got all my stuff together and talked to a few people around the finish we split to get him taken care of. Later in the evening I ran off to have dinner with Glenn from GoSwim and talk shop for a while. Monday morning I’m back on a plane flying home to California. Overall I had a really good time in Maryland and I’m glad I decided to come out and won a spot in the lottery for this swim. A big thank you to the crew that put on the Chesapeake Bay Swim and David for putting me up at his place for the weekend! Next week, 6k in Colorado!

everything I white I wore into the bay came out brown! wonder how long I'll have Chesapeake Bay grime in my beard?

0-3… Victory Remains Just Out of Reach

Today was round 3 of my Summer of Fly Lap Swim Showdown with Mike at the Santa Maria pool. Despite high hopes he smoked me yet again. We got going about 30 minutes into warm up and had one of the guys swimming with us do the send off. My start felt pretty decent, but there’s a definite feel thing that I need to get used to when racing without a techsuit. He was a little ahead at the first turn, but I pulled pretty close at the 50. Mike didn’t pull away so much on the 3rd lap, but that 4th one was all him. He hit the wall around 1:01, I came in at 1:03. At least I didn’t lose by a fraction of a second this time, that’s almost more frustrating.

after the race... I'm all smiles despite my beating

Afterwards I pretty much just coasted for a while as a warm down. I’ve got a bunch of travelling and a big race this weekend so it seemed the thing to do. A few lap swim people talked to me about our race, apparently it’s quite the crowd pleaser to have the crazy masters people go at it off the blocks!

Tonight I have to hurry up and pack, work all day tomorrow and then hop on an airplane for Maryland. See you guys on the east coast!

the flying viking ship suit upside down

Super Sessions with Rich Abrahams and Bob Strand

Me & Bob at this year's Rose Bowl Meet

I got an email from my buddy Bob Strand about a clinic he’s putting on with Rich Abrahams and although I’m going to be in the wrong time zone that weekend I figured some of you guys would be interested in checking it out.

For those of you that don’t know who these guys are, Bob is a beast of a breaststroker and a really focused competitor. He’s about 35 years my senior and still hands my ass to me on a pretty regular basis. Rich Abrahams is the dude who broke 50 seconds in the 100 free at 65 years of age!!! He was recently featured on the Morning Swim Show (embedded below) and everybody has been asking the question, how does this guy do it? Well Bob and Rich are going to be talking about it in person at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center.

Date: July 18th, 2010

Time: 9am-4pm

Location: Rose Bowl Aquatic Center

Cost: $125

Checks: Robert Strand

488 E Claremont St

Pasadena, CA 91104

Contact Bob at R1Strand@aol.com for more information

From the event announcement:

Rose Bowl MastersPresents: Rich Abrahams Robert Strands’ Super Sessions

Rich is the fastest sprinter in the world for his age (65), and might be the overall best sprinter in the world. Bob has dominated breaststroke for 20 years and was recently elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Between Rich and Bob they have set over 100 Masters World Records and 150 National Records. These sessions will concentrate on “preparation and execution” of your prime race objective i.e. nationals, regionals, or your backyard grudge match with your kid!!!

The program will feature in pool race work, starts and turns with video, dryland weight training, topics such as “maintaining excellence over time,” race strategy discussions, nutrition, “confrontation of the aging process,” race day focus – what works for you and how to find out, major Q&A and in classroom study with highlight video swims. Each swimmer will receive a CD with highlights of the day and a catered lunch from noon to one o’clock.

Short and Frosty Swim in Avila

making decisions at the end of the pier

I think my body has ceased to find this random jumping in water temperature amusing. In the last 2 weeks I’ve been in everything between probably 53-77 degrees and holy crap is it hard to go backwards after you’ve had some time in warmer water! It’s incredibly fortunate that my Alcatraz swim came before the 68 degree waters of Lake Del Valle because I was hurting today in what was measured at 57 but believed by no one (I’m saying 55 at best).

Besides the whole frosty portion of the swim, it was a great night to be out. We were 8 swimmers deep and I was really excited to see Dave in the water, he’s a super legit open water swimmer and someone whose brain I’m hoping to get to pick in the near future over a Pismo to Avila swim this summer. Me and Dave went wetsuitless tonight but everyone else went with the rubber which in all honesty was probably the better idea.

The initial plan tonight was down the left side of the buoy line, up to the top of the pier and then see what happens. The swim down the buoy line was pretty easy, but the leg out to the pier was against some really short choppy water. We were swimming at just the wrong angle and getting the full brunt of it. I kind of liked it though :) It kind of fascinates me how little effort is involved in the ocean letting you know just how insignificant you are to it.

my friend Dani at the end of the buoy line

Out at the end of the pier the group was splitting in two pieces and I wasn’t sure which one to swim with. One was going straight in, the other to the right end of the buoy line and back. Between wanting to conserve some energy for this weekend and the seal that surfaced and breathed really loudly like 10 feet behind me, I decided to just swim it in nice and smooth and easy. All told it was probably about 3/4 of a mile.

On the beach I got dried off quick and hit the road. Normally I like to hang out for a while but I had places to be. Tomorrow I’ll be hitting the pool in Santa Maria and racing stage 3 of my fly showdown with Mike, we’re up to the 100!

this view is pretty much unbeatable

Savoring the Short Stuff

Today was thankfully a short sprint kind of day. I took Monday off to recover a bit from the 5 1/2 miles of racing I did this past weekend. I definitely needed to swim but a huge freestyle set was not on my list of things to do. Luckily Mike was feeling like fast 25′s to get ready for our 100 fly showdown on Thursday.

After a few of us spent entirely too long on deck avoiding getting in we got going with our stock warm up. Then a little IM action and finally a bunch of all out 25′s with fins on. I did the first round fly and the last two freestyle

200 swim
200 kick
200 pull

8 x 50 IM Switching @ :55

Repeat x 3
8 x 25 fast with fins @ :30
200 kick

2200 yards total

The 25′s hurt in that sneaky way that only 25′s can. We were all huffing and puffing pretty good out there. Luckily they’re easy to recover from.

smoked at the end of round 1 of our fast 25's

I found a dollar on the bottom of the pool! (it was actually mine so it's good I found it)

My next big race is the Chesapeake Bay Swim on the other side of the country. It’s a pretty popular swim and I’ve heard it’s fairly challenging. There’s a guy out there who has done the race the last 13 years in a row who has compiled a how to guide for the swim. You can check it out over on GoSwim.tv, if you’re in the race I highly recommend it!

I also heard some pretty bad news today… a swimmer that had a stroke during the 1500m at Mission Viejo over the weekend has passed away. My friend Jinxi reflected on things over at her blog and it’s worth checking out.

2010 USMS 1-3 Mile Champs Wrap Up from Lake Del Valle in Livermore

Preliminary results for the .75 mile swim
Preliminary results for the 1.5 mile swim

I had two more races today and one was a USMS National Championship race! Even though my body was pretty beat up and all I really wanted to do this morning was sleep I packed up the car and split from San Francisco around 6:30 in the morning to make my way out to Lake Del Valle. I was running a little later than I wanted to, but at least there was no traffic in the city and I made good time out to Livermore. The lake is set out in some rustic, very classic California Wine Country. Burnt out grass on big hills lined with grape vines. Very pretty… and very hot!

When I got to the lake I was impressed with how nice it all looked. There were a ton of swimmers already there, but I was on time to get all my stuff for both races. Registration was a 4 step process: Get your registration card, get your race number drawn on, get your timing chip, and get your goody bag. And while we’re talking goody bags, the bag itself was probably one of the best bags I’ve ever gotten, I was really impressed with it. It’s a reusable tote sort of thing they sell at a lot of stores now for you to use instead of plastic grocery bags… dark blue with the race logo and the sponsor logos on it… anyways, back to swimming :)

getting marked up

First up was the .75 mile race. In theory this was my Alcatraz recovery and 1.5 mile swim warm up. I just wore my Rob Aquatics drag suit for this on and saved my B70 for the main event. Out at the start line I was playing with my camera a bit when I heard “hey is that Rob?” “It must be he has a camera!” It was my friends Katelyn and Sarah. Sarah’s the one I have the ongoing breaststroke grudge match going on with (I’m up 2-1 btw, she’s still about a second faster than me in the 200 breast), and this was her first Masters open water swim!

Sarah and Katelyn at the start of the .75 mile swim

From the get go I could tell that this “race” wasn’t going to be pretty. Most of my heat separated itself from me pretty quickly. I was dragging ass. My stroke was ok, I just wasn’t as strong as I was yesterday. Luckily I had a perfectly calm lake instead of the churning waters of the SF Bay to contend with. The first two turns were uneventful, but the long stretch back down the lake towards where we started was a little more exciting. From the beginning of that leg I couldn’t sight on anything. The glare on the lake pretty much erased the course for me. I had to just chase the people in front of me and hope that they were going the right way. Half way down I saw my friend Sarah pull along side me, normally I can’t really tell who is who out there but I recognized the goggles. Seeing as we have an on going make believe swim feud in progress I figured right now would be a good time to not be slower than her! I held even-ish with her until the last turn and then I took off for the beach. I figured I needed to do a quick section anyways in this warm up race and this was the perfect opportunity. I turned up the kick and made my way into the finish chute, she turned up maybe 30-40 seconds later… phew!

After the race I wandered around on the beach a bit to find friends and catch up a bit. Even though I’m swimming almost every weekend this summer a lot of it isn’t in California so I have to take these opportunities to see everyone when I get them! I also made sure to drink whatever I could get my hands on and down some energy gel packets so I’d have something in me for the 1.5 mile race.

en route to the start of the .75 mile swim

Before the 1.5 mile race they gave another race briefing and I walked down onto the beach to listen and get a full idea of the race course. I had a pretty good idea of where we were going but I wasn’t 100%. Once the announcer was done we didn’t have much time before the race actually started and I was in the first heat, yikes! I rushed back to my pop up tent and got my B70 zipped up and had my girlfriend rub some body glide on me where ever my suit might end up chaffing me. From there I had to book it back into the water and to the in water starting line. I made it with maybe 8 seconds to spare! The yellow flag was down and I could see the official in the boat holding the green flag waiting for the word to wave it in the air.

The swim to the first buoy was ok even though it was a little demoralizing to see the really fast kids break away so quickly from the rest of us. Around the turn I got kicked real hard in the hand just past the buoy. Someone in front of me decided to breaststroke kick in a big clump of people and I was the lucky winner of that transaction. It bent my fingers up and backwards in a fun way, but despite not feeling good at all everything was still working so I kept plugging along.

After the next turn it was a long shot all the way down the lake. I settled into a pretty decent rhythm and did a little better job sighting now that the glare from the sun wasn’t quite as bad. I did hold a line a little off to the right of a lot of swimmers though, that happens to me a lot on counter clockwise swims because I’m a right side breather and tend to list to starboard in these situations. During this leg I also picked up a really aggressive drafter. Regardless of my line he followed me. After getting kind of pissed off from repeated tappings/slappings/pokings of my feet I put my head down and tried to drop him. I increased my pace for maybe 100m and veered off to the left a bit to throw him off my trail. It worked, or so I thought. A few minutes later we were back to me getting poked in the bottoms of my feet. Grrr. I’ve done enough open water to know to expect a little contact during a race… I’ve been kicked in the stomach and punched in the head, but this was pretty obnoxious. It’s one thing to draft, but don’t keep reminding me you’re right there please! While I was busy being distracted by my drafter I was the lucky recipient of another breaststroke kick to the same hand. This was one even harder and even more on target, hooray! I decided that once we got the the next buoy I was going to turn wide and stop for a second just to get out of the situation so I could go back to swimming my own race without dragging along someone else. At the buoy I pulled out and my drafter took a few strokes and stopped to pick up his head and see where his ride went. Wow. Anyways he picked another target and I was left to swim in peace. (Going back and reading that last paragraph I sound like a whiner, but having someone swim up your ass for a half mile isn’t really my idea of a good time.)

I swam the last couple turns by myself much happier :) Overall I wasn’t as fast as I should have been, but I figure my 3+ mile race the day before was an excellent excuse! Towards the end there were few people from the heat behind me that passed me on the way to the finish. Whoops… I wasn’t the last person in my heat to finish, but I definitely wasn’t towards the front! I think this really added up to a good training swim and a very good excuse to play with my friends at a random lake tucked into the mountains. I gave it what I had, but I was pretty much running on empty at the time.

I spent about an hour on the beach afterwards talking with people and capturing some video for a project I’m working on. I also hung out for the awards portion. They started with the .75 mile race and I got a 3rd place medal for my age group (I don’t think anyone finished behind me though!). After waiting through all the other age groups up into the 70′s it became apparent the 1.5 mile results were going to be a little while. I hung out for a bit but ultimately I had to split before they handed them out. I’ve been away from home since Friday and there was about a 4 hour drive waiting for me. I’ll find out for certain later what my place and times were when they post results.

talking on the beach after the 1.5 miler

Even though I was a little grumpy in the middle there and I wasn’t as fast as I would have liked I still had a really good day in the lake. Lots of my friends were there, the water was warm (to me anyways) and I got to swim 2.25 miles worth of open water. Tri Valley Masters put on a really good event and I’m glad I made it out for both races. Next weekend I’m making my way out to Maryland for the 4.4 mile Chesapeake Bay Swim! It should be a good (long) swim!

2010 Swim Around the Rock Wrap Up

**Results have been posted here

Swim around mystery fog island

That… was a hell of a swim… this morning I did the Swim Around the Rock held by Water World Swimming. It was an out to Alcatraz, then around, and back which adds up to about 3.25 miles. I got to the beach around 6:15am and soaked in the view which consisted of a solid sheet of fog just past the mouth of Aquatic Park, uh oh. When I was signing in and getting my race number there was talk about how the race course might have to change depending on what the Coast Guard would let us do. Option A was the full around the rock, Option B was touch the rock and turn back, and Option C was a one way crossing from the rock back to Aquatic Park. While I was out on the beach I saw my new Rose Bowl friends and my buddy Tony from the SCAQ blog dropped in as well. He’s swimming the one way race tomorrow and he wanted to come see me swim.

contemplating the swim... whichever one we ended up doing

rocked the drum soloing viking suit today under my jammer for good luck :)

After waiting for maybe 15 minutes past 7 we finally got clearance from the Coast Guard, they were going to let us swim the full thing! Yay! There was a short scramble to get everyone assembled on the beach and ready to go. I wanted to get in early to get used to the water real quick but that wasn’t on the menu. They sent us off and me along with a few other dudes in the skins kinda took our time getting in. I didn’t want to dawdle too much because there were only 30 swimmers and I at least wanted to be swimming with people for the first part of the swim. After a few minutes the water temp mellowed out and I was blissfully unaware of how cold it was.

surrounded by a sea of wetsuits

saying goodbye to the feeling in my below the waist region

making our way out of Aquatic Park

I felt pretty good on the swim out of the park and was happy to see a ton of kayakers waiting for us just outside. I think there were as many kayaks as there were swimmers, plus zodiac boats and other craft floating around. As I made my way into the bay the swell and chop started to pick up, but in a fun way not a scary way. I had a swimmer on either side of me for the first 15-20 minutes, but after that it was quite a while before I saw anyone else in the water. The way out to Alcatraz was deceptively far. The island looked like it was right there… forever. It kept getting bigger and I kept not getting there! After lots and lots of swimming I finally got up to the Rock and started to navigate around it. It was cool to be right there up on it and I really wanted to take some pictures but I kinda had work to do :)

Out on the other side there were a few kayakers waiting and 1 started to follow me and another guy back towards the city. I had a hard time distinguishing anything on the shore to navigate off of. I remembered my buddy from Rose Bowl mention the green of Fort Mason and I looked for a big green patch. That was pretty easy to stay on top of. I kept that to my extreme right to compensate for the tide that would much rather see me take a tour of the Golden Gate Bridge. After a little bit I asked the kayaker for a little guidance because I couldn’t really make out the non-wooded portions of the shoreline between the fog and my lack of glasses. He told me to shoot for Coit Tower, the water was moving faster than expected and a lot of people had been blown way off course. I took that and made my line for Coit best I could. I was feeling fine in the water and it felt like I was getting stronger as I went. Maybe a little more than half way back a boat came and scooped me up. It already had another dude on it. I looked at the nearest kayaker and asked him if I was way off track or something and he said I probably had the best line of anyone out there. I asked what the deal was when I got on the boat and they said they were taking everyone out and repositioning them (edit: turns out about 4 wetsuited swimmers made it in before they picked everyone else up, the guy in the boat said everyone and I assumed that meant everyone… congrats to you guys that made it! I’m very impressed!). I was bummed that I had to hop in a boat, but you don’t argue with the man in the boat. Currents, time, and boat traffic were all working against us and this was a safety inspired maneuver. The few minutes I was on the boat I enjoyed the view and watched the other boats full of swimmers make their way closer to Aquatic Park.

a random swimmer on the way in

on the boat wondering what's up

my view of another boat full of swimmers from the boat I was on

Once I was back in the water (which had gotten way colder in the few minutes I was out of it!) I jammed back through the mouth of the park and tried to really hustle to the beach. I was kind of out there by myself and figured I was way behind. I put my head down and finished strong. I swam way up to some real shallow water and could hear all kinds of cheering and a cow bell. I stood up to run in and promptly fell down into the water again… heh, whoops. I smiled and gave a little fist pump as I got back up and crossed the finish line. To my surprise there weren’t so many swimmers back on the beach yet. I wandered the beach a little bit wondering where Heidi was (she was way out on the breakwater) and watched swimmers come rolling in. I also made my way over to the incoming kayakers to thank them for keeping us all safe and on track in the bay.

saying hi and thanking one of the kayakers that paddled along with me

Once everyone was on the beach we started to do some awards. They worked from the bottom to the top and gave out separate awards for skin and wet suit swimmers. Inexplicably I was the first swimmer to hit the beach not in a wet suit and something like 4-5 overall. No way! I got a really awesome award for being first for the guys and then they gave an overall award for skin swimmers that was even awesomer! Totally unexpected but totally cool. I’ve never really won anything like that and to get such a cool couple of awards for it was just really fantastical for me!

All told it was a really good event, the crew was great, and the kayakers did an excellent job. I felt safe the whole time I was out there, even when I couldn’t see anybody in any direction, and everyone was really friendly. Hopefully one of these days I can pop back out in the bay with guys.

holy crap! I never win anything!

After the awards portion of the morning I made my way next door to the South End Rowing Club to meet Karen Rogers who is getting ready for her big Farrollon Island swim next month. We’ve been friends online and chatted back and forth before but never met in person. She gave me the quick tour of the club and we got to talk for a few minutes before she had to run off to a meeting with her swim crew. You can check out what she’s up to over on her swim’s Facebook page.

Tomorrow morning I’m off to Livermore for the 1-3 mile open water champs… hopefully my body agrees with me on that one… I’m starting to feel that swim a bit!

Birthday Dip in Aquatic Park

Drove up to San Francisco today because I’m doing a big swim around Alcatraz tomorrow. I had a pre-race briefing over on the Presidio around 5 and me and Heidi walked there from our hotel in the Fisherman’s Wharf area… that walk turned out a little longer than intended! At least we found it, the google maps directions on my phone were a little dicey. The briefing was good and gave me a much better idea of what I’m in for tomorrow morning!

Afterwards we caught a ride back to where our hotel was from some super nice people from Rose Bowl Aquatics. I like Rose Bowlers and I seem to find them everywhere I go!

At the hotel I grabbed a cap and goggles and we ran down to Aquatic Park so I could get in a short swim just to get a feel for the water temperature and keep my shoulders loose. The water is 57ish which is perfect for me and I felt really good in the water. I did two laps of the buoy line before I hopped out.