This past Saturday, I had accidentally double-booked myself for the Queens Half-Marathon and a 1K open water swim from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Until pretty much the last minute I was on the fence about which I would do. On the one hand, I needed the Half-Marathon as a qualifying race for the NY Marathon next year, however, I didn't want to do the NYC Tri, 8 days later, on tired legs, and knowing myself, I wouldn't have been able to treat it like an nice and easy ride.
And then there was the swim. I was pretty sure I would do it, at about 2 weeks out, but then there was a fire at a sewage treatment plant on the West Side, which led to spillage of raw (untreated sewage) into the Hudson River. Yes, the very same Hudson River in which I will be swimming this weekend. That spill not only compromised the Hudson, but also the other waterways around Manhattan, including the East River in which the Brooklyn Bridge swim was held, and the DEP had posted warnings against swimming, kayaking or fishing in those very same waterways. Those warnings were posted all through last week. Not only did the facility need to get their plant operational and stop dumping raw sewage into the Hudson, but the rivers needed to cleanse themselves enough for the DEP tests to come back as safe. Finally on Friday, the day before the race, the tests came back as safe, and the swim was on!
Going in to it, I knew that I wouldn't be swimming for time, but for sighting/open water practice. I didn't do so well in my previous experience (huh, didn't post that one either, did I? I'll try to get around to it), and wanted some more practice before the NYC Tri. I also decided to swim it without a wetsuit. Although the NYC Tri has been wetsuit legal for the past many years, I thought that one open water swim without a wetsuit would be good practice, Just. In. Case. (I've become a boy scout at the ripe old age of 39 - who knew!?) It turned out that the no wetsuit thing was wise - almost everyone there was swimming without one as the water was a nice 74 degrees. It was really easy to identify the triathletes as the only ones WITH wetsuits!
I was in the 4th group out of 9, so I had a chance to see the first 3 waves in front of me. This was an in-water start - we swam out to the first buoy, and and started from there - first a quick left after about 50 meters, swim to right under the Brooklyn Bridge (also pretty fast), and then parallel to the bridge to Manhattan. It turned out that sighting was not an issue. I used my tinted goggles, and had no problem seeing the buoys. Maybe I got too caught up in swimming and didn't sight often enough. But that wasn't my issue in this race. What WAS my issue is that about 1/3 of the way to Manhattan, there was a very strong current pushing me north. I probably didn't notice it quickly enough to start compensating when I should. When I did notice It, I tried to swim south west, toward the big buoy on the Manhattan side, but was making very little progress. I could see that the current was strong, and wondered if I was strong enough to push through it. Looking around, I noticed that other people had also been caught up in the current. While it was a stupid mistake on my part, unlike Stars and Stripes, I wasn't the only one making it. Though I was concerned, I didn't panic. Instead I reminded myself of my training. Of my swim strength. There were several kayaks around, and I knew that I was safe, or would be saved if there was a problem. I took a couple of strokes of breast stroke, and swung a hard left, directly south toward the bridge. If angling didn't work, I'd cut south, then west. That worked like a charm. Pretty soon, I was on the Manhattan side shore. Not bad for a little morning dip. SLOW time, 26:51, but valuable mental lessons learned. All together a successful effort, with lessons that should translate to future efforts.
(I will TRY to remember photos, but it feels so silly pulling out my phone sometimes! Plus our bags were checked in over 1/2 hour before my wave went)
No comments:
Post a Comment