The Leap

Before I forget the details, I’d like to jot down a very brief account of my very brief attempt to swim the Catalina Channel. This is mainly for my records.

I didn’t make it all the way across this time.

Personally I’m actually very encouraged by my experience, but I feel bad for my crew who went to enormous lengths to help me out on what turned out to be a short swim.

In brief, I think I only swam a little under an hour and a half.

Although the water was about 63 (my guess), glassy, and the air about 60, I got very very cold to the core. I can normally warm myself up after an hour, but was unable to do so even with the warm feeds my wonderful crew was throwing at me. I started shaking uncontrollably after an hour, something I’ve never experienced in act of swimming (after getting out is another story). It scared me. I couldn’t kick properly, which for me means I couldn’t swim. I really didn’t think I was going to be able warm up at that point. I am sorry to say that I bailed. All I wanted to do was go home and see the kids.

I know now I probably would have been ok if I’d stayed in and swum hard for another half an hour. “What ifs” are a waste of time though.

I regret getting out of the water, but I’ll never regret getting in.

I’ve had a pretty rough year. Those close to me know why. Although everything has turned out well, I’m exhausted and still recovering from a lot of stress. I’m not sure if it made any difference, but I experienced several sleepless nights with night sweats prior to my swim. These are not excuses, but possible contributing factors to my not coping with a temperature that I could normally settle into for a good, long swim. I don’t like to analyse too much, but my guess is that my mind, body and heart had just had enough for 2011 and chose a really expensive time to let me know.

My swim:

Prior to the cold part, I enjoyed a very unique and wonderful swim from the Bottom Scratcher to the shore at Doctor’s Cove on Catalina Island and back again.

For those not familiar with channel swims (myself until very recently!), the swimmer most often jumps from the pilot boat, swims to the nearby shore of the starting land point, clears the water, then begins the swim by reentering the water.

Jumping in was easy, but then I’m the person who jumped off a bridge in New Zealand about five minutes after bungee jumping was invented, just because I had a crowd chanting “jump” at me.

I knew I was jumping (well, flopping) into a thick sea of kelp. It was very clearly visible under the full moon and I knew to expect it. The kelp was interesting. I thought I’d be afraid, but it felt good. The weed was so thick that I swam head up towards shore, getting used to the experience. The stems wound themselves around my arms at each stroke but were easy to unravel. I used the kelp to pull myself forward many times. I could see a dancing shadow on the shore (the pilot boat had a spotlight on the beach) and thought perhaps it was a sea lion. I said as much to my kayaker, Beth and we agreed, but then had a laugh when it turned out to be the shadow of her paddle.

The water felt lovely. Not cold. Very soft and welcoming.

I swam to the shore at Doctors’ Cove, walked on the smooth pebbles until they were dry, raised my arm and then walked back towards the water. It was dark but only one night before the full moon. There was sparkling light everywhere. When I reached the waterline I dropped my arm to indicate the swim had started.

My swim began. I was facing the moon and the shining water. Once the Bottom Scratcher turned off the spot light I felt like I was in an aquarium. There was nothing frightening about it. It was simply wonderful. I had time to consider what I’d do if I were to become afraid. I followed the advice of fellow Point Swimmer, Ted Erikson and closed my eyes. It didn’t make any difference because I wasn’t scared. I had no need to sight because Beth’s kayak was festooned with glowsticks, but I chose to do so on a few occasions because of the beauty of the water in front of me.

The best part of my swim was the chance to see some friends that I’ve really missed lately. I also made new friends. Swimmers are without doubt the best people I know.

Thanks:

Evan Morrison: I treasure you. You have no idea.

Robbie D: the best warmer upperer of sobbing swimmers ever! I’m sorry if I snotted your beard. xxx
ps I feel like bailing a swim again just so I can have a cuddle.

Michelle Nelson: came all the way from Florida to help a friend. much love from Chicago xxxxxxx you are doing an extraordinary job with your kids

Sue Free: thanks for coming all the way from San Francisco!

Beth Barnes: SO glad I got to sign the paddle!

Lynne Driscoll, Anne Cleveland, Liz Fry, Randy Nutt, Leigh Ann Doherty, and many more… have been so lovely and helpful. None of this is lost, despite the DNF.

I’ll be back for another attempt. i might try something else next year just for a change, but I’ll be back.

The Captain’s Log

On Wednesday, August 24th I was privileged be part of the crew for Evan Morrison’s (Evmo’s) solo swim from Catalina Island to the mainland.

It was the first time I’d ever crewed for a swim and, with my own Catalina swim just around the corner, a great learning experience. In the incredibly short time it took Evmo to swim the channel, I was able to familiarise myself with the pilot boat, the Bottom Scratcher, and see first hand the work that goes into putting on a successful (or unsuccessful!) marathon swim.

Most of the swim took place in the pitch dark in some fairly lumpy seas. I was pretty queasy and didn’t take many pictures until the sun rose. Here’s my view of what went on:

Congratulations to Evmo on an amazing swim, and thanks for letting me be a small part of it!

Promontory Point

This morning I drove my eldest daughter to school, checked my grades for my College of Du Page paralegal course, made pikelets for brekkie for number 2, checked grades again, vacuumed the house, played with our new cats, checked grades, fed cats, fed dog, walked dog, then drove to Chicago, to Promontory Point, to swim.

The weather forecast was pessimistic, but I wasn’t. It was warm and hazy when I arrived at the Point.

Aside from the New Year’s Dip, I’ve only swum in the lake once this year. EVMO and I swam last Friday at the Point and the water was 49-50. A trifle cold.

Not so today. I measured 56 by the rocks at the ladder!

promontory point

Wonderful!

I got in, gradually. About 100yds from shore the water suddenly became quite cold. A shock, but swimming back into 56 degree water after being in colder water felt like a dip n the hottub.

I swam for 30 minutes, about a mile for me, and felt like I was in Heaven.

I had to be getting home, so got out after only half an hour, to the applause of a man who was eating his lunch and watching me the whole time.

He said “you should do races”,

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I love Promontory Point

It rubs the lotion on its skin

It’s been a long winter.

Desperate to leave the frigid suburbs of Chicago, I recently signed up for the Open Water Safety Conference to be held in San Francisco on March 18-20.

I confess I probably wouldn’t have chosen to travel to this conference if it weren’t in one of my favourite places in the world. Also, I really really want to swim in San Francisco Bay!!!

With the help of Leslie Thomas of swim-art.com, Chaos, RobbieD, E-H2O, myself and several others (and anyone else who wants!) are planning a swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to Aquatic Park on Friday morning the 18th March.

The water will probably be in the low 50’s, so it’ll be a challenge for my pool bound self.

Although I’m still spooked by the life threatening neoprene allergy attack I experienced in Tampa in January, and know I can’t swim in a wetsuit, I’ve found the perfect alternative!!!!! I’m sure one of the Fisherman’s Wharf sea lions will offer its life to ensure my warmth. I might even get a pair of pants out of one of them if I cut carefully.

Neoprene Dreams

Thank you to all who supported me for the Frogman swim. I ended up raising about $250 for the Naval Special Warfare Foundation. Better than expected!!

The swim itself didn’t go as expected, but then, what ever does?

I tried on a loaner wetsuit from my friend Dani the night before the swim and was surprised by how easily it went on and how comfortable and stretchy the material was. The wetsuit I have at home is a few years old (I wore it somewhat successfully in IM Wisconsin 07), but is made of what feels like cast iron and is very thick. Although I’d previously decided to go naked, I was very easily persuaded to give the newer wetsuit a try the next morning.

The water was 62 at the starting point, which felt like a warm bath compared to those horrible cold baths I’d been having for a few weeks. I believe the water was low 50’s in the middle of the course and warmed up a little towards the finish. Cold. Definitely doable without neoprene, but chilly.

It wasn’t to be, though. I just couldn’t breathe. Every time I turned onto my stomach to swim I felt like I was being garroted. Hyperventilating, I’d turn on my back and scull for a while then try again. Same thing. Over and over. Deep breathing, relaxing, laughing. Nothing worked! I ended up feeling a little lightheaded.

I’m not superstitious, but the whole thing might have been because I wasn’t wearing my CIBBOWS cap. We were given rather nice colour coded silicon caps to wear according to our wave. Some would say the RobAquatics suit I was wearing had a curse (blessing??) and can’t abide being touched by neoprene. Of course it may just be that, as one should train in the cold to swim in the cold, one should also train in a wetsuit to swim in a wetsuit 

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Anyway……eventually all the other swimmers were out of sight so I took off the wetsuit, handed it to my nice but bewildered young kayakers and had a nice swim back to the start. I think I swam a total of 500 yds in 50 minutes. I was relieved to find Ron Collins and his wife Rebecca at the start and hitched a ride with them to the finish point. I believe Ron took a wrong turn and was separated from his kayaker. This made me feel like slightly less of a loser. Hehe, actually it was worth mucking up the swim just to meet them.

Aside from meeting the Collinses, something else of value was gained from this swim.

While swimming back to the start, I designed a new line of wetsuits which I believe will eliminate the choking, claustrophobic attack I experienced. I’m currently in negotiations with Butterick Patterns to sell them my designs. I think my designs speak for themselves.

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The Cowl Neck, Bootleg
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The Plunging V-Neck
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The Pleasant Peasant
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The Dirndl

And my personal favourite…

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The Bibless Brace

To conclude: the Frogman swim was really a lot of fun. It was probably the best supported swim I’ve ever done. Great cause. Great organisation. I would love to do it again next year. It’s really not mandatory to wear a wetsuit, as long as you let the organisers know beforehand (I had). A very fun day!

Here’s the website.

Scrambled Eggs

This morning I decided to join the guys from Openwaterchicago.com at North Avenue beach for a dip in the lake.

This is the sight that greeted me!

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The bright orange thing is the ladder we normally use to climb up out of the lake 🙂

There were 4 of us there, including one real, honest to goodness Channel swimmer whose name I can’t remember. The Channel swimmer, claiming to be hung-over, took a flying leap into the lake and started swimming. Shamefaced, the remaining 3 of us jumped in.

The water was quite nice, really. About 60 degrees, which was quite a bit warmer than the air temperature.

Not all the waves were this big:

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I bobbed around and swam a little bit. The exit worried me, but turned out to be pretty easy. Just ride a little wave in, grab the ladder and cling!!!!

Here’s some video of the others having fun after I’d made my escape.

All in all, a fun morning.

I’m in New York State of Mind

I’m thinking about friends doing the Little Red Lighthouse swim in New York tomorrow and wishing I was there.

I hope everyone has a great time! Good luck to Chaos, Evmo and Rondi and everyone else swimming (I haven’t checked the roster lately). It looks like the course is going north under the George Washington Bridge, so you will get the opposite view to what we had in MIMS.

Here’s a little bit of video saved from MIMS 2010, not long before I swam under the GW. Someone had just jumped from the bridge, which was very sad and disturbing. I wasn’t able to find out any details about the incident afterwards, except that it’s very unlikely one would survive a jump from that high.

Here’s me and my crew.

Not a huge fan of Billy Joel, but this is a great song:

3 hours in

Although I lost the 15 minutes of video of me finishing MIMS this year, I saved some of my footage!

This is early in the race, about 3 hours in. I’m in the Harlem, and the water’s finally gotten warm, brown and nutty. Conditions couldn’t be better, but I’m feeling a little sorry for myself because of the screwdriver someone has inserted into my lower back and is twisting with every stroke.

The swimmer next to me is Rachel Golub. I think Mo Seigel is just ahead. There’s also a 2 person relay around. We were all fairly close together the whole swim.

I think we had just passed, or were nearing Yankee(sp?) Stadium…