DETENTION: The 8.5 Hour Swim

Alice didn't like the Zoo Start and said she was out for piloting the portion west of the Gate. Unfazed, I blamed Discovery Channel induced hysteria and told Elizabeth to buy sea sick pills.

My husband didn't like it either. What, suddenly I am going to start listening to him?

Then the Swim Commissioner said forget about it: Its the Bay or nothing.

Okay, well, I had nothing on that one.

Its like the cashier at the coffee shop told me when he saw how crestfallen I was that they ran out of my favorite cookie: "Best to practice non-attachment". Thanks, kid.
And so it was that poor Cap'n Blue Balls had to rewrite his master plan & his vision remains just that, a vision.
Feeling somewhat castigated, we thought up a course in keeping with the mood:
The Detention Tour.
There are so many lovely detention centers dotting the Bay that are well worth swimming by, if you are only willing to spend the time.
We started our tour from the beach at Aquatic Park.
With me on the A Squad: Jim Bock & Elizabeth Glass
Not two feedings in, we realized I must have forgotten to pack the Motrin. Special.
The longest training swim and I forgot the pain killers!
Impressive.
I also forgot my favorite goggles and my nylon bikini, but managed to steal Alice's goggles and dug up a moth eaten one piece out of my locker.
If not prepared, at least I can claim to be resourceful.
Moving right along...
First Stop: Alcatraz
Once an exceptional swim destination, its long been over run with triathletes and obsessed Bay swimmers alike. Sure its fun, but why the fixation on racking up this particular swim?
Hey, San Q has real live prisoners!
With no time to waste, we headed on towards Tiburon, a right through Raccoon Straights and there on the right, our first stop: Angel Island.
Angel Island boasts not only its status as a former detention center for undesirables; lovely Ayala Cove was also a fumigation center at one time for quarantined immigrants. Fascinating.
The crew told me to swim laps around Ayala Cove while they hit the restroom one at a time.
Three small laps and Elizabeth is back on the dock. She takes the helm, while Jim heads up to the facilities. Three laps. Still no Jim. Five laps. Jees - this guy is constipated or something, hope he's okay?..sixth lap and there he is at the dock, two lattes in hand!!
Apparently, Ayala Cove has come along way in terms of amenities.


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Then it was off to San Quentin. As we came closer, Elizabeth reported that the B Squad was in route from Aquatic Park to take over the second portion of the swim. After some time spent weaving in and out of the start of a sail boat race, Elizabeth hopped in to swim the final leg up to the prison.
The B Squad arrives; Joe Butler and Alice Wong in the relief zodiac.
I swam circles around the two zods watching as they attempted to accomplish several things at once, all without being able to dock.
Elizabeth is hoisting herself up on the zod.
No easy feet when you are wet and the boat is slippery.
The A Squad offloads all their crap into the relief zod to take back with them.
The A Squad briefs the B Squad as to the situation with gas, the course & vessel traffic.
The B Squad transfers their supplies into the Spicer for their leg of the journey.
The B Squad boards the Spicer & the A Squad boards the relief zod.

Insert gratuitous Life Aquatic line here:
"Listen. You may be on 'B' Squad,but you're the 'B' Squad leader."

All this needs to be done with two zodiacs which the current in spinning in circles as they idle and are only being kept together with the grip of the crew.
No one fell in, but it was still pretty amusing to watch.

Once that was done, the two squads parted ways (see ways parting picture) and Alice and Joe took me towards China Camp. I was hoping China Camp was another detention center, but a little online research reveals that it was actually a shrimp fishing community & was settled voluntarily.
Ah well, three is a pretty good days work.
On the way their we swam underneath the very low portion on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.That's another notch for the lip-stick case; a new bridge! How low did we go? Insert video clip here:






The water got swirly and strange on the other side of the bridge.
Likely due to the trolls that live there. If you've never been, its hard to fathom, but Alice took this clip of Bay trolls in action. See them off to the left?





I spent an eternity (that's distance swimmer lingo for the last few hours of your swim) trying to make it back to the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge, but the ebb wasn't much help.






Along the way, a tanker came by - and rather rudely stirred up a surge of freezing water that must have been camped out below the depths since May. It was that cold.
When they told me the tide was reversing directions & had me turn around, I thought I had the time figured for sure! I knew the ebb would start around 3pm, so clearly it must have been around then. Alice was up to some trickery though, because our poor heroine thought she still had an extra two hours to go. Evidence of possible cruelty posted below.

And finally the 8.5 hour swim was over. And so you would think the adventure was over, as well. But the real fun came on the ride back! Joe at the helm took the brunt of the spray as we hit wave after wave.








Luckily, he had on his high performance wicking fleece. Made all the difference, as you can tell in this video.



Finally after lots of tail bone abusing bumps, we made it to the South End dock. I headed straight to the shower to warm up. I timed it carefully, so that I wouldn't have to help out putting the boat away and when I came out Elizabeth was serving up the piping hot Zachary's Deep Dish!


Hooray!!!

A big thank you to the crew:

Jim Bock
Elizabeth Glass
Joe Butler
Alice Wong

also to the best boat hoister ever,
Jonathan Maier.

Econo-Swim: 7/12/08

Ever the supportive hubbie, Nat brought me my coffee at 4:30 a.m. (ain't he sweet?), so I was up - but despite the early rise I didn't enter the the water until 7 am. I swam the the perimeter of Aquatic Park three times; quick and easy.
I used to think doing coves alone was boring & even a little creepy, but something's shifted since I've been training. It no longer matters where I am swimming. Even with the most exotic course, the view is always the same to my right: my pilots. This is why above all else (attitude, sense of adventure, loyalty, etc.), the most important quality to look for when selecting a crew member is good looks.
Back to the swim, Elizabeth launched the rowboat & we headed East. Elizabeth is such a bad ass, she can manage mixing my feed, watching for traffic and steering me all while manning the oars. We cruised for two hours before turning back towards Aquatic Park. I spent most of that portion working on guessing her mother's name (hint: 8 letters & the name of a state).
Just about there, a loud loud horn sounded. I just about jumped out of the water. The WWII warship, the Jeremiah O'Brien was letting off steam. We didn't know if it was going to move as well, so I sprinted ("Swim for your life!!!") for a very exciting 10 minutes. Back to the dock for a feeding: Hour five!
At the shift change, Alice came out in the kayak to take me West to finish the second half. Elizabeth had given her the name of her sister, which I was working on (hint: starts with a J).
Alice was seriously equipped: marine radio, her new waterproof digital camera & who knows what else all hanging around her neck - probably her pager & cell, plus all my feed between her knees. You have to hand it to the gal, its no easy task being on call for work 24-7 AND being an open-water enthusiast. Try finding coverage for you no-show employee, all while directing your swimmer, manning your kayak and keeping your fancy work-phone from getting wet - just one week after swimming a marathon. Impressive.
By this point my tongue was so swollen, I could feel the carmel from the last snickers bar on my bottom teeth, but try as I might, my tongue just couldn't get at it. Cursed Sea-Tongue! It must be the idea of the snacks I enjoy, because I couldn't taste much either. The rather brilliant idea came to me to have Nurse Alice measure my tongue before & after a long swim with some kind of medical calipers, so we could get an idea how much a tongue really puffs up. I got a look at it in the mirror immediately afterwards and it was all wrinkled in the middle- pruned up just like your fingers after too long in the pool.
Here's a clip staring my Sea-tongue.

I know what your asking: Do I really swim that slowly? It was almost hour 7 when this was filmed, but September 4th is going to be a very very long night, if that's what it is going to look like! It is a brand new camera, maybe Alice just needs to fix the speed setting or something...yeah, that's probably it.
I started working on a brain teaser one of my lane mates Kathy had given me last week:
you start from 100 and continually subtract 7 all the way down. She called it a dementia test - I'm not sure if that's because it determines if you are crazy, or it makes you crazy. Anyhow, it really helps pass time.
Before I knew it, we were headed back to the cove - I did a final two laps around and it was done! My crew was cheering on the dock and asked me how I felt:
"Strong Like Ox!!"

As it was an Econo-Swim, (read: I stuff my mattress with money, rather than spend it. How do you think I became this wealthy, in the first place?), we celebrated by drinking VB's in the women's locker room, instead of Fiddlers.There's something really fun about drinking beer in a locker room with a bunch of tough dames. The conversation seems to go places it couldn't in a pub. Ehem.

Alright -next up, "Three Bridge Swim" with Jim Bock at the helm this coming Saturday:
4:30 am ready & launch boat
6am start at the zoo
9:30am Get to GG Bridge (6.7 NM)
Cross GG Bridge depending on vessel traffic (.6NM)
Head into Raccoon Straights and on to victory. .
The objective is to drop me in some chop and let me log some time slugging it out.

West Coast is the Best Coast

Open water swimming is fraught with dangers.

No, I am not talking about sharks.

I am talking about SEA LICE!!!

Sea lice plague the waters of New York like scabies plague Phish-fans!

(Are you scratching yet?)

Alice came over last night to show me her battle wounds.

Ever the medical professional, she would want me to mention that its

technically known as "sea bathers eruption".

The date-night lingerie will remain in the dresser this week.

Yep, sea lice almost always go for the breasts

(mean little bastards!),

so I had to make do with a picture off the Internet.
You thought it was just my California snobbery,

but I knew there was a reason I haven't bothered with the Big Apple.

7/5/08: Alice Dominates MIMS!!!

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.

Below is my favorite encouraging message - penned by moi...
"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...

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!

Our Team Includes...

Elizabeth Glass,

Head Pilot...

our professional photographer,

unfailingly at my side

since a drunken promise

one fateful night after Happy Hour;

Alice Wong,

Chief Medical Officer,

about to swim around Manhattan;

Morgan Filler,

X-Pro Marathon Swimmer, Training Advisor &

All Around Bad Ass;

Dryland Dan O'Loughlin

Expert in the Art of Torture;

Cap'n Nathaniel

Good Looking Husband.