Despite the intense competition, I was awarded the coveted assignment as ground reporter for Alice Wong's Manhattan Island Marathon Solo (from here on snobbishly referred to as "MIMS" ).
Per the Manhattan Island Foundation, this is the "longest and premier event of the season, a full counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the island of Manhattan." The course is 28.5 miles through some water nasty enough to turn the stomach of even the boldest of SF Bay swimmers.
I had hoped to be able to post to my blog as I relayed the updates to her fan-base via email & forwarded their messages to Alice's crew on the boat.
Alas my mother had the brilliant idea that the family would spend the day hungover painting my aunt's fence in the blistering Riverside heat, so I reported most of it from my crackberry in the shade of a lone juniper tree, paint brush in hand. Not exactly CNN, but hey..
For those of you who don't know, Alice has been my mainstay training buddy through the last winter. She lives maybe 5 blocks from my apartment and together we've toughed out the day to day battle against the snooze button for morning dawn patrol at the pool, as well as many a not so exotic adventure in Lake Del Valle. (I promise an entire posting dedicated to "Del Valle - Jewel of Livermore" in the future - there's so much to say, I can't find the starting point!)
Anyhow, Alice kicked some serious ass and finished the swim in the unofficial time of 8 hours 23 minutes!
In case you are wondering how these things work, usually one crew member on the boat is in charge of relaying the updates to the swimmer from the communications person on the ground. So Alice's people emailed me their messages and I texted them to Jessica on the boat and she would put them up on the whiteboard for Alice to see.
For those of you who don't know, Alice has been my mainstay training buddy through the last winter. She lives maybe 5 blocks from my apartment and together we've toughed out the day to day battle against the snooze button for morning dawn patrol at the pool, as well as many a not so exotic adventure in Lake Del Valle. (I promise an entire posting dedicated to "Del Valle - Jewel of Livermore" in the future - there's so much to say, I can't find the starting point!)
Anyhow, Alice kicked some serious ass and finished the swim in the unofficial time of 8 hours 23 minutes!
In case you are wondering how these things work, usually one crew member on the boat is in charge of relaying the updates to the swimmer from the communications person on the ground. So Alice's people emailed me their messages and I texted them to Jessica on the boat and she would put them up on the whiteboard for Alice to see.
Below is my favorite encouraging message - penned by moi...
"VB" is short for "Victory Beer" - a key motivational tool for the endurance athlete.
"VB" is short for "Victory Beer" - a key motivational tool for the endurance athlete.
I am not sure how the hell a Coors was nominated to such a lofty position, but then I have never really spent much time in New York.
I can only speculate "tapping the Rockies" has a bigger appeal over there...
1 comment:
Thanks for the great description! Onward to Catalina, with this training partner in tow
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