6/21/08 Six Hour Bay Swim

The Course:

Aquatic Park to Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge back to Aquatic Park

Crew Pit Stop: Swim a Flag and Out
Aquatic Park to Candlestick

The Crew:

Joel Lanz
Cool, calm, collected, single.

Joel single handedly kayaked me across Tahoe for my solo last year. Seven hours thirty eight minutes and he was pure enthusiasm the entire way across.

The man is pure class.

Alice Wong
Chief Medical Officer, specializing in fluid management.

Alice is a marathon swimmer and crewed for Jessica Sullivan's Channel Solo last year. With the combination of her nursing background and her swimming experience, she's an amazing asset to any crew.

Joel handled the boat and the radio. Alice did all my feedings and carefully monitored my "fluid outtake", as well. Peeing turns out to be nearly as important as taking in enough liquid, so just about every feed break involved Alice asking:

"Have you peed yet?!!"

"Yesss Alice!"

"Was it a good amount?!

"I think you'd be satisfied!"

When we arrived at the club, that morning there wasn't any gas, so Alice and I grabbed some cans and hit the road trying to find a gas station. This proved to be somewhat challenging, but we persevered and returned to a great parking space in front of the club.

Joel called in the course over the radio to Vessel Traffic: Aquatic Park to the Golden Gate Bridge for a turn East to Candlestick.

We heard Vessel Traffic relay the course over the radio and the response that came back over was, "Wow. (Pause) - Roger".

You do this kind of thing often enough and are surrounded with folk of similar ilk & its easy to forget you're doing something other people find impressive. Thanks, Vessel Traffic.

The zodiac didn't hit the water until after 8:30 am. The wind picks up as the day gets later and I had some chop to deal with - something I'd best get used to. I swallowed some serious Bay water - but only had about six bad gagging incidents. No retching to date, but going on fellow swimmers' experiences, its only a matter of time.

This time I requested the crew not tell me what time it was or more importantly, let myself ask: How much longer do I have to keep swimming?

I need to get over that and just accept the fact that its seemingly endless. I wrestled with the demon a few times, but all in all I did pretty well not tracking the time.
I like games out there. First I worked on guessing Joel's middle name, then his mom's first name.
Maybe a little more than half way through I got envious watching Joel and Alice eating all that tasty solid food up in the zod and started obsessing about eating something real.
New game: If I could have a bite of anything I wanted out here, what would it be? I decided what I really wished for was a bite of a Snickers bar. I'll have to pack one next time. I ended up settling for jellybeans first round. After that each time I fed, I'd call out what solid food I wanted for the next feed and it gave me something to get excited about for the next twenty minutes.

I tend to have pain in my left arm and shoulder - probably because my form leaves something to be desired, but this was one of my stronger swims and I only called out for Motrin once. Alice told me I was over the five hour mark, so I spent the last thirty minutes organizing just what I would eat first once I was on the zod and wrapped snug in my parka. Salami and cheese and crackers. One entire odwalla orange juice. Pirates Booty. Jelly beans. More salami and cheese. Chocolate covered espresso beans.

Alice snapped an amazing shot of me swimming past the Financial District - I'll post it here once she figures out how to download it off her phone. She also took some film footage - the first time I'd seen myself in action & could see the technique issues I'm contending with.

All in all, I'd have to say it was my strongest training swim to date.

Hopefully I can say the same after my 7.5 hour swim this coming Sunday!