Doo-B-Do-Over

As the self appointed Chicago branch of the Sewickley SeaDragons, I’ve been receiving Bill White’s excellent workouts via email on a daily basis.

Bill was on holidays over the recent Christmas break, though, so I was in a bit of a panic until Vlog the Inhaler stepped in with the Jimcentric “B” level mediocre workout. I received this fabulous looking workout on Dec 28th and was so excited that I raced to the pool two days later to do it.

About 10 minutes into the swim, I was ejected from my lane by a noodler class consisting of 4 ladies. A polite plea for compassion from the instructor resulted in “YES WE NEED 2 LANES FOR THIS CLASS YES OF COURSE WE DO!!!!!!”. Said instructor then moved 2 of the women into the second lane so as to occupy it and I had to wait until a nice man offered to share his swimming lane.

Anyway……I was very grumpy and, although I got to finish the workout, I didn’t enjoy it as much as I should have.

So yesterday I did a do-over!!!

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The Importance of Being Earnest

Chicken O’C rides again!!!!

I was lucky enough to land a spot in the 2010 Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (www.nycswim.org). 

This year I’ll be raising money for the American Macular Degeneration Foundation (www.macular.org), an organisation that raises awareness and supports research into the disease that took my grandfather’s eyesight and, only a few months ago, a great deal of my mother’s.

I won’t start begging for donations until about April, but in the meantime my training has begun in earnest. Poor Earnest.

Not one to suffer alone, I plan to document my entire training process in painfully boring detail on this blog, including sudoku breaks, cups of coffee consumed, and visits to the loo.

Youtube provided my inspiration tonight, and I’d like to share the motivational interlude I found. This is how three nautical chappies see New York in just one day.

I hope I can also see New York in just one day on June 12th!!

Voyage of the Endurance

It seems that taking time off swimming is much more conducive to stress and exhaustion than regular swimming ever can be. My period of idleness and morbid reflection is finally over.

Having only swum very sporadically since Indy, I had a hard time dragging my atrophied body to the Ohio St Beach this afternoon. With the aid of a tall skinny latte, I finally made it and set up a base camp beside the little walkway that leads down to the water.

The weather in Chicago has been pretty ordinary of late. We’ve had nothing but drizzle and 40-50’s temperatures for the last week. The skies were very grey and the air temperature was 54degrees. The water was like glass and registered 62-63 degrees right by the shore (it’s colder out further).

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I set off feeling like a million bucks! I wore a nice orange suit and my favourite pirate cap. I did something to my neck a month or so ago while mountain biking and can’t even lift my head to sight. That hurt a bit but at least sighting to the side is ok for Ohio St.

About 50 yards short of the half mile turnaround things changed, and I went from feeling great to feeling terribly cold in the space of about a minute. Yikes! I had to get back to shore as soon as possible. Although I was parallel and quite close to the shore there was no chance of getting out as the ladders have been removed. Also, running down the bike track in a wet suit in 54degree weather may not have been a good idea 🙂

Six months ago 62 degrees would have felt tropical, but it seems going from 70 degrees to 62 in the space of 6 days was enough for my body to lodge a protest.

Although I was trying to sprint, I started to feel a bit lightheaded and my stroke was falling to pieces. The last 10 minutes really sucked and I had to look at my HTFU wristband for comfort. Rapidly slipping into delirium, I had visions of Jimby freezing and wet in the wilds of Idaho. I felt certain I was going to die in about 4 feet of 62 degree water, and that would be a highly embarrassing way to go. Better to be eaten by a bear!

Somehow I made it to the beach and put on as much clothing as I’d brought with me.

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Of course just as I was nearing the shore the rain started again and was torrential by the time I reached basecamp. Soaking wet, shivering, raving and hyperventilating, I made it to the toilets at Navy Pier. Camped out in the handicapped stall, I dried off and drank some hot coffee out of my little Stanley. Still shivering, I made a run for for the car through the crowds of Navy Pier. I’m pretty sure I pushed a bride over on my way. After 10 minutes in the car with the heater on, I was on my way, laughing.

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No part of this blog is exaggerated. I never exaggerate.
Also please forgive the terrible writing and complete lack of grammar. The blood still hasn’t returned to my brain and probably never will.

Better late than Never!

2nd time’s a charm!

My first attempt (in June) at the Manhattan Marathon swim was unsuccessful, but my second attempt at the Manhattan Island Marathon swim (my “quiet” swim) went perfectly 

Those of us who were pulled from the original race were offered a second chance by the NYC swim organisers. At 9am on Friday July 24th, Cara McAteer, Steve Autry and I set of from Manhattan’s Pier A to swim the entire 28.5 miles around the island of Manhattan. anticlockwise.

8 hours, 36 minutes later all three of us arrived back at the same place, within a minute of each other!

Here’s the view from the start:

statue of liberty

Conditions were great and the current was rip-roaring up the East River. The water temperature was about 70-75 during the swim and mostly very smooth. Sweet.

I think this is somewhere on the East River:

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The last few miles down the Hudson were a little rough, but that’s a lot easier to take when the end is so close!!

This is the George Washington Bridge, just after we were spat out of the Harlem River and into the Hudson:

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Here’s me at the finish. Not sure why I’m not smiling because I was really really really happy!!! maybe I was contemplating the swim back to my boat….

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My crew and official observer, Maria and Dahlia at North Cove.

Throughout the swim, Maria prepared a perpetuem/water mix in sippy bottles attached to strings. My kayakers, Jack and Kevin passed me the bottles at regular intervals. That took care of the nutrition! I also asked (and received) Maria’s supply of Coca cola during the race. Sweet stuff tasted good!

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My boat Captains who apparently took a great deal of care of me!! They were very excited when I finished 🙂

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Thanks to everyone at NYC Swim, my boat Captains, crews and kayakers from both attempts!!! I’ll definitely be back next year if I get a place 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shhhhhhhh

Those of us who were unsuccessful in the original Manhattan Island Marathon swim in June have been offered a second chance!

The organisers have been generous enough to allow us another go at the swim on July 24th. it’s called a “quiet” swim, so shoosh please.

I’ve decided to take them up on their offer, as I know I’m capable of this swim.

Of course it means I’ll miss the Kingdom Swim in Vermont 

Kingdom swim looked like such a fun weekend with friends that it was VERY difficult to decide. But, well, I’ve done such a lot of training and am sure I can do it, one day…..

So, with 3 weeks to go until #2, I did my last long swim. I was in the water 6 hours, although this included toilet breaks. My white board was so brand spanking new I refrained from noting my toilet breaks out of respect, but here goes..

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Ok, it’s not much yardage for a 6 hour swim but I wasn’t swimming continuously. I did a few of my favourite workouts and tried to keep my 100 times as consistent as possible. Consistently slow, that is.

To my friends Chaos, Gretchen and Kim doing the Kingdom Swim in Vermont..

“Harden the f%#k up!!” haha

good luck and I hope to swim with you guys soon!

Chicken.