Lake Issyk Kul Swimming Federation doctor and observer, Olesya, sent me a batch of great photos* from the swim challenge held on 6 August 2017. Thought I’d do a post with them as many of them are perfect to show you how beautiful this lake and country are. Take a gander.
*All photos by the incomparable photographer Giovanni Casini.
Managed three days at the lake over this wonderful 3-day weekend, 9.12 kilometers. Even better was that I had company each day! Open water is definitely more fun with others.
On Saturday and Sunday I took my friend Jen back to the lake. She’s a glutton for punishment, having done three days of “boot camp” (basically CrossFit horror), which made her sore all over, and a day of pool swimming, then two days of lake swimming with me. Saturday was way colder than last week, with the water probably in the 16-17C range. But the sun was out which was nice. As usual, within a minute or so of swimming we didn’t feel the cold.
That’s our Saturday. We hung by the coast there in the south, so much so that we ran (swam?) aground at one point. I knew we were in trouble when I looked to the right and saw a fisherman about 5 meters from us standing in the water…water up to his knees. Looking at us like we just ruined his fishing. So of course I said good morning and we went on our way. By the time we headed back, he was no longer at that spot. Done or moved? No idea.
There were tons of folks out that day as it was so pretty out. As you can see above, the air temp was 21C, which is warm enough even for Russians to be out in bathing suits and bikinis sun-bathing. Even saw two people (!) in normal skimpy suits swimming! Say it isn’t so! My daughter came with so she could get a long run in, and Jen and I remembered to get a pic by the water.
Sunday the weather was crap. At least in the morning. Cloudy, windy and kind of cold, about 12-13C air temp. We both were regretting our decision to go swimming. As usual we walked in our suits from parking to the lake, getting looks along the way. And it was quite breezy. We brought sweatshirts for after.
Toe-dip thermometer, however, reported an increase in water temp since Saturday. It actually felt like it was 19-20C. Very inviting. In fact, by the time we were done, we didn’t want to get out as it was way warmer in the water than out! Anyway, Jen wanted to do at least an 1:15, so we went a little farther than Saturday. As we were turning for home, we didn’t go straight in. There were some fishermen whose lines we wanted to avoid, plus we thought we’d have to swim past our entry point to get to the full time. Turned out we’re either slow enough or misjudged our speed because as we got close to the start, we had had enough time so took a sharp turn left and swam in, as you can see below.
Sunday we spent less time gabbing and stopping for boat-watch, so our “moving time” average was 2:00 per 100 meters, which I’m very happy with for an OW practice session. I’m also getting a bit better at sighting as the summer progresses, which might help at the end of the month when we swim in Sochi.
The weather got better later in the day. But during the swim, it was cloudy and overcast. Very few people at the lake and no one without a thick jacket (Russians get cold when the air temp falls to 60F). We did manage to get a pic of ourselves in front of the “Swimming forbidden” sign.
Labor day! Jen had other plans, but Sabrina, our teammate for the upcoming 3 x 1000 in Sochi, wanted to go to the lake, so I had another partner! She is a triathlete, so I honestly figured she’d swim with a wetsuit. I was happy to see she didn’t bring one! Actually, turns out she doesn’t even have one, so that’s a good sign.
We did the same route as Jen and I on Saturday, basically. The water was a bit colder than Sunday but not that bad, maybe 18C. And the sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds, which was nice. We even had some of those MChS (Russian coast guard) boats go by, but they didn’t even care about us. Most likely that’s because I listened to them a month or so ago when they said to not swim through the middle of the lake!
Sabrina’s shoulder was giving her pains, so once we got back to the sunken houseboat, we bee-lined it straight back to the shore. On our way coming in, I stopped to let her catch up and I saw a passel of grandmas and grandpas (babushki and dedushki) with their little charges up on the shore staring at the strange people in the water. I yelled to them “good morning” and waved, and they all waved back, the kids laughing. Very sweet and very Russian. My daughter went running again today and got a picture of us swimming in. (And that’s it on pics, as I forgot again to get one of us by the lake.)
So it was a great swim-weekend. Great swim week as a matter of fact, since I swam Tuesday and Thursday as well. Not a lot distance-wise (13.8-ish km) but good in-the-water time. And since the 26th of August, 24.2km. I’ll take that!
…I almost swam around Manhattan. Let me explain.
Yesterday I started the 20 Bridges marathon swim, an iconic swim 28.5 miles around the island of Manhattan. This swim is historical. It used to be called the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, but had to be picked up by another organization, the incredibly organized and run NY Open Water. This swim is also a part of the Triple Crown of Marathon Swimming, sharing that title with the English and Catalina Channels.
The swim is not a race. Swimmers start at different times based on their average one-hour pool swim distance. My distance was in the 3600-yard range in my weird tiny Russian pool. Rondi Davies figures out your start time based on that. My start was 0715. The earliest start was 0655 and the latest was 0720. These times are all figured so that you catch the tides and swim around the island with Mother Nature’s help.
My kids, Sam and Maggie, were my crew. We met our kayaker, the incredible Agnes M., and observer, Hsi-Ling, got the requisite jump photo, and got on Paul’s boat, the All Aboard.
(Henceforth, all times and distances are estimated. I need to get back to Moscow so I can sync my Garmin and see the data.) I went out too slowly, obviously. At my second feeding (1:30) my kayaker told me I had to pick it up. So I went into overdrive…as much overdrive as I can anyway. Same thing at the second feeding (2:00). During this time, two (of two!) jet skiers came by and spoke with Agnes. Hmm…
I breath right-side only, despite preaching and sometimes practicing bilateral. Can’t help it. So for this swim, I knew I wouldn’t see anything of Manhattan, only other parts of NY and NJ. That’s fine. And this turned out to be great. If I had seen…
So at my 2:30 feed, jet skier Ed told me we had to have a talk. I had to decide whether I wanted to quit or be moved and have an assisted swim. Then he and Agnes pointed to my left side. I saw the wall she had me swimming next to, and I was very quickly moving backwards. Apparently, for some unspecified time I was making no progress. I learned later that one of the jet skiers had told her I had 55 minutes to go 50 city blocks, and I managed only 20.
Well when they ask you if you want to quit a mere couple hours into a swim you’d been training for for months or get moved up river a bit and be disqualified (but still get to swim!), of course you respond “I’ll take the assisted swim.” Ed and Agnes both cheered. I got on Ed’s bladder torture board on the back of his jet ski, and got on my boat, while Agnes paddled like lightning to get to bridge #5 (Ward’s Island footbridge). (I had passed bridge #4 maybe 200-300 yards earlier.)
I apologized to my observer and my boat driver. They brushed it off. I thought about asking Hsi-Ling how my stroke count was prior to getting pulled, but decided against it. I made the decision there and then that the minute I started up again in the water, I’d stick to the rules again. Just because I DQ’d and am doing assisted, doesn’t mean any other part of my swim needed to be assisted. I wouldn’t hang on to the kayak or boat or anything like that once Agnes and I started up again. When Agnes was just about ready I jumped in, peed (ah, relief) and got back to work. All negative thoughts left my brain and I just concentrated on my swim.
(When I got back to the AirBNB last night after a wonderful dinner with family (more on that below), I pulled up Google maps and did some elementary mensuration. Turns out I got pulled a little over 6 miles and then from where I restarted to the finish was a bit over 21 miles. So really what I did yesterday instead of swimming all the way around Manhattan was do two marathon swims with a ~25 minute break in between.)
The swim from here on out was, at least for a few hours, awesome. The Harlem is very thin and not so deep. I’d see a bridge coming up and then zoom, I was past it. As the river got thinner, I’d see the walls zooming by. I felt so fast. Feeds came and went. It was lovely.
I had two mantras during this (these?) swim(s): Swim to the next feed. If I ever felt blah, or wanted to quit (often), I’d just think swim to the next feed and reevaluate. Repeat.
The other mantra I’ve adapted from something David Barra, incredible marathon swimmer and founder of NY Open Water, said, and I paraphrase:
The most anyone can hope for during a marathon swim is to come to a general understanding with the body of water you’re swimming in.
So yes, your former atheist returned Catholic did, several times during difficult parts, ask for the river’s help with a push. I know the Harlem listened, wasn’t sure the Hudson did until the end, and didn’t start asking the East early enough.
After the Harlem we turned into the choppy Hudson. Very wide, with only one bridge very early on and very tall. It also went by pretty quickly, so I assumed I was still getting a push, but hard to tell with such distances. At the first feeding in the Hudson, I asked Agnes if that was bridge 19. She said nope, it’s the last one. That made me feel great! Only…I failed to remember looking at the map weeks ago. That bridge comes quickly and then there’s still something like 11 miles after that. Ugg.
The Hudson was tough. I wanted to quit several times. The water all around was slightly salty, but still too salty for my liking, and I was starting to hate the taste. I can’t say I ever got queasy like in Issyk Kul the first time, but a few times I thought “I think I’m gonna puke.” A couple times I was hoping I would puke so I could stop thinking about it. But then I’d change up my feed and hope for the best.
My feeds were water with Crystal Lite and Justin’s Nut Butters. I had also brought along small bite size pepperoni and baby bell cheeses. When I asked for one of those (“Agnes” stroke stroke “pepperoni” stroke stroke) she actually smiled. I think she must have thought it odd for a swimmer to bring those types of foods!
I grabbed a pepperoni, switched to elementary backstroke, and enjoyed the tangy taste. Same, later, with the cheese. Wonderful switch from the nuts.
Agnes had me in some fast water. I’d start to view buildings over in Jersey and watch as they were first at 1 o’clock relative to me, then quickly 2 o’clock and then I’d zoom by them. I was very thankful. But suddenly she gave me the sign to swim away from her and she had me take quite the angle away. I was very confused when I saw some pilings. Wait! There’s no turn in the Hudson. What are we doing.
The NYPD boat had us get out of the middle of the Hudson because a cruise ship was backing up and departing. They pushed us to an isolated cove where some folks were learning how to kayak. Agnes got me up to date. She continued to follow my rule of not telling me how far I’ve gone or how far I’ve got, thank God. I asked her for some cheese and pepperoni. “Yeah, might as well have a picnic while we’re here.” In a few minutes (five?) the cops told us we could continue.
I knew at some point I’d see coming into my 1 o’clock Lady Liberty. Yet, at the same time, I really didn’t want to look for her. I was afraid she’d be so incredibly tiny that I’d know I still had a long way to go. Thankfully, it was so choppy I really couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to see her as the waves were blocking anything small over there. So I just stuck with the buildings abeam of me and kept stroking. One more time, who knows how long after the first time, they pulled us over again, this time for a ferry, so I ate and gabbed. More quickly we were back on it.
My crew, my kids Sam and Maggie, took tons of pictures, as did Agnes. I figured I was passing historical stuff. I didn’t want to look. I just wanted this over with. At one point, as the island curves to the left, I caught a glimpse of One World Trade Center. Pier 25, where we loaded the boats in the morning, is right there at that building. And it was still far away. Ugg. Dammit. When will this swim be done? Why not just quit?
No! So I kept stroking. At one of my later feedings I took a glance to the left, and One World Trade Center was closer, grand and tall. Thank goodness, that means I only have a little ways to go. I waved off the next two feeds and just kept going. I had enough liquids in me as I was peeing once or twice between each feed. Let me finish this!
It never seemed to end, but I knew I was close as Ed was back with his jet ski but this time smiling. I started to hear cheering and thought it was nice of those folks to cheer for the last place guy. Then I heard my sister-in-law’s whistle (incredible!) and knew it was my family. Then a horn went off, Agnes smiled and raised her paddle and I was done.
Sure enough, my family (20+ folks!) were all there, along with dozens of others wishing me well. It was awesome. I got on Ed’s bladder torture board and he took me to my boat, where I immediately emptied the rest of my bladder.
Back at Pier 25, we alighted from All Aboard, thanking Paul for his help. I thanked Hsi-Ling for her help today, and proceeded to the bathroom to change. Along the way I met another swimmer that started with me (sorry, can’t remember your name!) and his observer (Patty) and we gabbed a bit about the swim. After I was changed we went and found Agnes, running into Rondi along the way. She was telling me she was sorry about me not getting past Hell’s Gate (that should have clued me in, that name!). OMG, Rondi, not your fault! The fault was all mine! You were amazing!
Agnes gave me back all my stuff, we hugged many times, got pictures (no jumpography, this time), and promised to stay in touch. (I can 100% recommend her for anyone doing this, or any other NYOW swim.)
The kids and I took a taxi down to Pier A where my family all were waiting for me. Felt great to see them all, get and give hugs and kisses (we’re a very touchy family…Italians) and then proceed to the Pier A Harbor House to try and find room for 21 people to eat. We found 3 tables that covered 16 of us. The table next to mine had two men at it with beer. I offered to buy their next beers if they’d give the table to us. They refused the beers and said no problem, they just needed to pay their bill then they’d move to the bar. What wonderful people New Yorkers are!
We ordered and ate. I hardly tasted my tuna burger. For the first time ever I was unable to finish a Brooklyn Brewery beer (Summer Ale). I think it was the salty water, but my voice was like I’d been shouting all day and nothing tasted right, especially that beer.
We finished up, my family and I started the 2.3 mile (according to Google) walk to the house, and the rest of the family went to their rentals up by Times Square. I agreed to the walk when my sister told me “You’re only staying a mile from here.” About 15 minutes into the walk, when I still didn’t recognize anything, I asked my sister-in-law, “This is a long mile.” She said, “No, we were 2.3 miles away.” Ugg. So I can add a 2+ mile walk to my list of stuff I did that day!
All in all, great and difficult experience. My sincerest thanks to the wonderful people of NY Open Water: Dave Barra, Rondi Davies and Alex Arévalo. Thanks to Hsi-Ling Chang for observing my swim, to Paul Stone for piloting the boat, and super big hugs to Agnes Michalek for getting me around the island and through some tough spots, both physically and mentally. Finally, love, hugs and thanks to my crew-kids Sam and Maggie who didn’t mind getting up at 0400 to spend the next 14 hours with their dad, instead of seeing more of NY. I could not have done it without you all!
A year ago today I successfully swam across lake Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan. I became the first American and second person to cross the lake, also the first person to swim across the historical route, on the western side of the lake, between the villages of Kara-Talaa in the south and Toru Aygyr in the north.
Since my crossing, Peace Corps volunteer and FIU swimmer Sarah D’Antoni also crossed the lake, becoming the first woman and second American to cross the lake and simultaneously destroying my time by about 1:20, setting the course record of 4:43.
My hope after my crossing was to show the Kyrgyz people how wonderful their lake is for open water swimming. I have a dream that sometime in the future there will be an Ironman-length triathlon held there. There already is a marathon held along the lake each year. Once they finish repaving the road encircling the lake, the bike route will be safe enough for a 112-mile race. And we already know the second largest alpine lake in the world has plenty of water for a measly 2.4 miles!
But my greatest wish is that some locals will start crossing the lake. And it looks like that is going to happen! On July 16th this year, five swimmers will attempt to replicate mine and Sarah’s crossings, following all the same rules that we did last year. [Edit: Within two hours of composing and scheduling this post for publication, my friend contacted me and informed me that these swimmers have decided to change the date to 6 August and to wear wetsuits.] The news of the Lake Issyk Kul Swim Challenge, when I read about it on 3 July, excited me so much, it was a little embarrassing. Like a little kid Christmas morning! I hope to be able to bring you, dear reader(s), good news on 16 July about five new names in the Lake Issyk Kul Swimming Federation database. Good luck to all the swimmers!
I was terribly excited today to see a notification pop up in my FB account. Someone uploaded a picture to the Lake Issyk Kul Swimming Federation.
Turns out my local doctor from my crossing has been talking up the wonderfulness of swimming across Issyk Kul with some triathletes and swimmers at World Class Fitness in Bishkek, and these guys have decided to try their hand at crossing the lake!
My doctor friend is getting more info from the guys attempting this and will pass it on to me, so I’ll do another blog entry after I learn more. What I have learned so far is that they’re going to follow the rules that I followed: no wetsuit, no touching the boat, dry land to dry land, same route I did almost a year ago (6 July 2016).
So glad to see this beautiful lake get some love from swimmers. Oh, and they intend to do this every year, so perhaps this’ll be on Iron Mike’s schedule next year!
So, this just* happened: Seems yours truly has been nominated for Solo Swim of the Year (male) as part of the 2016 Global Marathon Swimming Awards. I was nominated by Jaimie, probably one of the most incredible non-professional marathon swimmers out there, with dozens of seriously long-distance swims to her name.
These awards are different than other similar marathon swimming awards in that only members of the Marathon Swimmers Forum can vote. There is no way for a nominee to enlist family and friends to go join the forum and vote for them as there are deadlines for membership and forum participation requirements, both of which remain a mystery to all of us. Any of us members can nominate someone, and the top 3-4 in each category (based on “likes” received) move on to the final voting round. For that round, each forum member is emailed a special voting token that can only be used once. Compare this to another well-known marathon swimming award and their “vote early and vote often” rule, and you’ll see why the MSF Global Marathon Swimming Awards are much more respected by marathon swimmers. And what do you get? Absolutely nothing, but the most important award possible: the respect and acknowledgement of your peers.
What an honor! I never expected it. I was nominated for my Issyk Kul crossing in July. I never thought a measly 8.5 mile swim would get me nominated. In her nomination, Jaimie said
Although it may be one of the shorter swims nominated in this category, this is a meaningful, challenging, and beautiful swim. Swimming at altitude is always tough unless you live at altitude, and this is a swim that had never been done before so logistics and planning were relatively difficult.
It truly is an honor to be nominated and I have no expectation of winning. (Just look at my competition. Oy!) What I do like about this, though, is the exposure Kyrgyzstan and lake Issyk Kul is getting. It is my sincere hope that this will inspire one or more swimmers out there to take the leap and go swim in that beautiful lake among the incredibly hospitable Kyrgyz. (And my Guide to swimming the lake is available here, if you’re interested!)
*It didn’t “just” happen. I was nominated earlier in the month and voting started about a week ago, but I’ve been debating on whether or not to even write about this. Vanity won out.
For two days now, FOR TWO DAYS, I’ve been following my friend Sarah Thomas as she swims 82 miles (yes…MILES) in lake Powell in Arizona.
EIGHTY-TWO MILES. For my non-swimming friends, that’s 50-60 hours STRAIGHT. Yes, she’s swimming without sleep or rest for more than two days.
At publication of this blog post, she’s already been up for almost 51 hours, she’s swum 117.5 kilometers. She still has 11-odd miles to go. AND SHE’LL DO IT. She’s simply incredible.
Once she’s done, she will have swum longer, unassisted, than anyone else. Ever. She’s following English Channel rules (one cap, one pair of goggles, one non-porous suit), unlike another famous (infamous?) swimmer out there.
Simply unbelievable, Sarah. You are a wonder.
NY Magazine recently did a great article on marathon swimming. More specifically, the article was about the phenomenon seen in marathon swimming with respect to men’s vs. women’s times for major-distance swims. It appears that when you add distance (and water), race results are quite contrary to common “wisdom.”
When you talk running, even ultra-distance runs, men are still about 12% faster than women. But when you add water and time (basically we’re talking races of 6 hours or more), then “on average, the best women were 12 to 14 percent faster than the best men.” Researchers looked at the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS), a 28.5 mile tide-assisted marathon around, you guessed it, Manhattan.
Now, dear reader(s), we’ve talked about MIMS before, most recently when discussing integrity (or lack thereof) of a certain well-known (to marathon swimming history/spirit/rules illiterates) personality/celebrity/”national treasure.” As MIMS is tidally-assisted, it is hard to compare things like “fastest man” and “fastest woman.” Where this article and the referenced study excels, though, is that the study researchers looked at 30 years of MIMS times. When n=about 500 swimmers (or more?) then things like tide are factored out. Another study looked at 87 years (!!!) of Catalina Channel swims, and the results were that women, on average, completed the 21-mile channel swim 52:54 faster than men.
But you know what this article and all these studies really show us? The importance of rules, standards, record-keeping! It is because of rule-following and record-keeping that we know DN lied on her FB or Twitter or whatever that picture is that I linked to in the last post. It is the reason why I founded the Lake Issyk Kul Swimming Federation. It is the reason more swimming groups are springing up around the world now.
Anyway, it is a great article, even though it misnames the MSF. Give it your 3-4 minutes to read, and pass it around your friend-circle. Thanks Melissa Dahl for a great article.
Yep, she-who-cannot-be-named-without-owing-a-beer-to-your-fellow-swimmers has reared her head again. Just days after NYC Swim closed its doors, shifting responsibility for the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS) to the able hands of New York Open Water, Diana Nyad posted the above to her FB. Right there in black and white she states that she was the first woman to ever swim around Manhattan when, in 1975, she completed the swim in 7:57.
Only problem? She was beat to the “first woman” title 59 years previously by Ida Elionsky.
For those of you with eyes like mine, here’s the article zoomed in:
Not only was she wrong by decades, but she wasn’t even the second (or third, or fourth) woman around the island. In fact, she was the seventh. What she was absolutely honest about in that post (from only a week ago…keep that in mind) is that she did beat all the men (and women) with that sub-8 hour time. (But what most marathon swimmers understand is that MIMS is a current-assisted swim, so times don’t really reflect the speed of the swimmer; you could have a good current day or a bad current day.)
Nyad’s FB post disappeared when some commenters pointed out to her how wrong she was, but thankfully it is preserved by the magic of the internet. What’s most telling about her, integrity-wise, is this old blog post of hers, that she has also deleted from her blog but is still alive in the Interwebs:
The most important parts of her blog post is at the very beginning, where she blames her misunderstanding upon the NY Times and other publications. (Later she became a journalist…ponder that.) The BS part of this statement is that anyone who’d gone through all the work to set up a solo Manhattan swim, talking to the Coast Guard, for one, would of course research to see who else swam around the island and how fast. She’s stated many times that she’s a feminist, so one would expect she’d ask the “have any women swum around the island” question, also.
Even more important in the above is the date she posted that in her blog. Five years ago she admitted she was not the first woman to swim around the island. So why the recent FB post saying she was?
Because she’s a pathological liar! The founder of NYC Swim interviewed the boat captain for Nyad’s 1975 swim, who stated that Nyad held onto the boat during the swim. That is a clear violation of marathon swimming rules, not to mention contrary to the spirit of marathon swimming. She has a history of lying about her swims, which is why those of us with integrity are always skeptical of anything she claims to have done.
The rare times my interlocutor even knows what marathon swimming is, s/he will invariably bring up Diana Nyad. Usually the look on my face tells him/her what I think of her. If you want to understand my puke face at the mention of her name, all you have to do is read this short thread at the MSF forums. (There are other longer threads about her if you search her last name.) This thread explains why integrity is so important to those of us in the marathon swimming community. At the very least, read the first post and the definition of integrity from Sarah Thomas, marathon swimmer extraordinaire. It is worth your time.
Dear reader(s) already know my friend and former crew-mate Sarah. She’s the Peace Corps volunteer here who helped me with my recent crossing. As you know, she’ll be swimming the same route at the end of this month.
Well score one for Sarah and the Peace Corps art team. Her announcement is awesome!
Isn’t that cool?
Here’s the rest of her announcement:
Good luck Sarah!