NYC Swim

Check this out.  http://www.nycswim.org/  Swimming around the Statue of Liberty?  Swim around Manhattan.  OK, so I'm not Kramer, but I think this is  a pretty cool group & they have some awesome races.  I volunteered last night helping out for the Liberty Island Swim today.  I hope they got the swim in, we had some bad thunderstorms tonight.

I'm hoping to register for the Governor's Island Swim.  I think it's about 2 miles & then the Liberty Island Swim next year.  Gonna have to put a lot of time in in the pool.  Enjoy!

Taking a Break

Home from San Francisco for two weeks now & I have been taking a bit of a break.  I did want to start swimming more this week, especially since the outdoor pool at the gym is open now. 

Monday night I was psyched to hear that the pool was open later in the evenings, so I headed over there for a swim.  Bad move.  I left my stupid earplug at home & now, 3 days later & a trip to the ENT, I have a terrible clogged ear.  So annoying! 

I've decided to take the rest the month off (just one measly week) & rest a bit & start training for the Jersey Shore Half Marathon at Sandy Hook this October.  Wait, that's a pretty lousy birthday gift to myself, training for a Half Marathon!  Duh!

Here's the link to the run course http://jerseyshorehalfmarathon.com/images/JSHM%20Course.pdf

I've got my running plan all ready to go & I think three months will be (hopefully) enough training time for me.  We shall see.  After my super shitty run at the George Sheehan 5 Miler this weekend (still under an hour, but dammit I want to break 50 minutes!) I hope that I will make it. 

In other news I don't have too many races planned this summer.  A few of my friends did sign up for the Belmar 5 in three weeks.  Please don't let it be as hot as it was in Red Bank last weekend.  Sheesh, cut a girl a break already!

Tonight I am off to volunteer for the Liberty Island Swim Race.  A race that I am totally signing up for next year.  You get to swim around the Statue of Liberty, yeah I know insert your own "Kramer swimming in the East River joke" here.  But come on?  How many people can say they've swum around Lady Liberty?  Not too many!  http://www.nycswim.org/Event/Event.aspx?Event_ID=2104#

Hero 9/11 firefighter’s spirit keeps giving

Hero 9/11 firefighter’s spirit keeps giving

The Run

Let me start by saying that the "run" was really an 8 mile obstacle course disguised as a run.  To be fair, the first two & last two miles were flat & on gravel/pavement.  The 4 miles in between were anything but.

I ran through what seemed to be an old Army or Navy fort/barracks, through a small tunnel up some stairs, up a hill & then along a dirt path along the cliffside road.  The cliff was probably about 100-200 feet to the bottom with some great views of the Pacific Ocean.

I guess I didn't realize that part of the run would be along the beach.  Beach running is not my favorite & honestly, I suck at it.  & that is unfortunate because I am lucky enough to live close enough to the beach to practice running along the beach.  Oh well, live & learn.  After my mile run on the beach....this is what I had to look forward to....the sand ladder.

Not the easiest thing I have ever done, but I made it.  I think it's 453 steps from the beach back up to the dirt path along the roadway.  This was right after the turn around spot at mile 4.  After this, I knew that I would make it.  It wasn't my best day, but I knew I could finish it.  & here's the proof!

Course map.  A little blurry, but you get the idea.

The Bike

Ah the bike.  Where to start?  Perhaps I will start with the fact that I didn't have sneakers to run to the bike transition area after I finished the swim.  This was annoying & made me lose so much time.  It was my own fault, I was given some bad info & I should have paid better attention, but I didn't.  Learning curve.

By the time I had gotten out of the water & on to the bike probably a few hundred people had passed me.  I couldn't run, my feet would have been torn to shreds from the pavement & gravel, so I just sucked it up & walked.  As I was heading out for the bike portion I see Andy Potts, probably one of the best, if not the best triathlete in the world heading back in to go out for his run.  Can you say humbling?  I mean this guy just finished an 18 mile bike ride in the time it took me to change out of my wetsuit & get to the bike transition area.  Not really a big deal though.

As I headed out wondering what the hills of San Francisco would be like, I felt ok.  I was wet & slimy, but feeling good.  That didn't last too long.  I have to say, I probably could have used some more bike training, but Good Lord there are some humongous hills in California.  It was a tough ride & I was doing ok, it made me feel a bit better to see others struggling along with me, but not so good to see another biker crash on part of the windier part of the course.  Parts of the bike & an ambulance were right in the middle of the street.  Gulp.  Please please please let me stay on the bike.  I have a fear of broken collar bones & missing teeth.  As I made my way out to the Great Highway along the Pacific Ocean I came down this ridiculously huge hill.  I was grabbing the brakes as hard as I could.  It was scary & then I had another awful thought, I am going to have to come back up this hill.  GREAT.

I was doing ok at this point, keeping up with a few people & getting to the turn around point.  Then, as I was headed up a decent sized hill, & trying to change gears, my bike chain falls off.  I was about ready to call it quits at this point.  I have no idea why either because it had just fallen off, it hadn't broken.  Now I'm off the bike, staring intently at my chain.  I am reluctant to touch it, why you ask?  Well, it's dirty & I don't like being dirty.  But then I had to laugh because here I am, almost 2 hours into the race, sweaty, wet & covered in algae from the bay & I am afraid to touch a greasy bike chain.  Duh.  After 5 minutes & trying to find something besides my clothing to wipe my hands on, I opt for my hair & I was back in action.  What?  A little bike chain grease is good for the hair, right?  Better than my new running pants.

At this point, I am starting to think about the run, wondering what it will be like, how long 8 miles will take me, when I reach the dreaded hill.  About 10 people were also on this hill at this point & not a single one was on the bike.  When in Rome.....& I am sad to say I walked my bike up that hill.  It was impossible to stay on the bike for me, so I made the best of it.  After this hill, I knew I only had about 5 miles left to go, I was starting to see people on the running course & I knew I was almost back to the transition area.

There weren't many major mishaps after this as far as the bike was concerned, but I was a bit disappointed in myself at this point because I definitely had not trained for such huge hills.  As I pulled back in & racked up my bike, I grabbed a quick drink & was off & running!  Kinda.  :)

The Alcatraz Swim

Whoosh!  I was in the bay.  Holy shit I thought, I'm underwater.  Normally when you start a swim, you do a few dolphin dives & you're off, but when you drop 10 feet into the bay from a moving boat, gravity tends to pull you down.  Who knew?  Duh.

One of the things I did notice, was the armada of kayaks & wait, what's that, a Coast Guard Cutter?  Uh oh, why would we need that?

Coast Guard

View of the swim finish & Golden Gate Bridge

So now I'm underwater & praying that someone doesn't jump in on top of me.  As soon as I hit the water, the cold hit me, but it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated.  I thought it would be like ice cubes, like when you stick your toe in the ocean on the first 90 degree day in June when the water is still 50 degrees.  The wetsuit definitely helped, but I wear a sleeveless wetsuit, so my arms were more exposed than others.  I was ok though, the main thing now was to swim!

The bay, which looks clean from far away, is a strange phosphorescent green color.  Earlier in the week, someone told me to make sure to wipe my face when I exited the water otherwise I'd have bay beard.  Bay beard?   What the hell is that?  Ick.  As I started across the bay, I remembered the one piece of advice that I heard from others on the boat - aim for the radio tower.  

The radio tower, high on the hill in San Francisco, was probably the easiest thing to site from the water, which is very helpful as my land sighting skills, well, they suck.  I knew where the swim finish was located, I could see certain large buildings & landmarks, but the big challenge was to keep swimming straight when you really think you want to swim to the right.  The good thing is that as long as you keep swimming, the current keeps you moving.  

One of the main things I remember reading in the Escape newsletters was to watch for the kayaks.  If you could see them to your left, you were too far left, see them to your right, too far right.  I did prefer to be to the left, but seemed to find myself in the middle the entire time.  Being to the left meant I wouldn't be dangerously close to the bridge.  Middle, however = good.  Middle = not being swept under the Golden Gate.

Usually, in a triathlon, there are so many swimmers in the water, you're usually getting kicked & slapped while swimming.  In the bay though, there seemed to be plenty of room.  I didn't think about the sharks, or the sea lions, but I did get some seaweed in the face, bleck!  & it was easy to stop & float & site certain landmarks & check my watch.  At one point I had followed behind a guy for a few minutes, then he seemed to veer off a bit to the front of me.  This is when I saw my blogger friend Perry floating around with his video camera (in all honesty, it wasn't until after I saw the video that I knew it was him) I originally thought - who is this nut just floating around out here?  Watch the video from my earlier post, it's an amazing view!

A few strokes later & I feel someone on my feet.  I stop & look over my shoulder, hoping to give way to a fellow swimmer, when I realize that I am alone & no one is behind me.  No one is on either side of me either.  EEEEEEKKK!  What the hell was that I think to myself?!?!  I don't even want to know - I put my head down & swim as fast as I can towards the swimmer in front of me.  There's safety in numbers & clearly something had brushed over my feet.

The last 1/2 mile of the swim was tough.  I could see the yellow buoys ahead of me, but no matter how hard I swam, they weren't getting closer.  Shit, this is the finish, I thought, I just want to get this over.  I look up & notice, wow, the Golden Gate is a lot closer than I thought & that is when I see the beach, to the right of the swim exit & about 100 swimmers opting for this exit.  That's my plan!  As I swam over to the beach I kept trying to stand up, nope too deep, still too deep, then finally - I could stand - swim over!!!!  I've never been so relieved.  As I got out & ran along the beach, I found the exit ramp & made my way up the stairs.  Here's a pic of me at the finish - gross huh?  Luckily the camera didn't get the pic of me with my Bay Beard, as I was covered in a nice brown algae from head to toe.  Gross!!!!  

Little did I know that this part of the race would be the easiest of them all.  Stay tuned for the crazy bike portion!

Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon or BUST!: My Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon Swim Video

My blogger friend Perry videotaped the swim. He's hysterical! If you watch, you can see me at 2:15 holding on to the window. I'm in the green bathing cap wearing the sleeveless wetsuit.

Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon or BUST!: My Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon Swim Video: "I decided to video the swim this year. Definitely created a bit more of resistance having the camera strapped to me, but so fun to have it ..."

I Escaped!

It's over & I can finally say I escaped from the rock!  Wow, what a journey it has been & I can tell you it was the hardest race I have ever done.  I don't know where to begin & I hope I don't bore everyone with too many details, so lets start off with some pictures.  Here's the view of Alcatraz from Fisherman's Warf.

Here's a picture of me the day before the race.  We decided to take the tour & get a bird's eye view of the  swim course from the ferry.

Guess this is what you would see every day if you were incarcerated.  But if I had to look at this every day, I would have definitely made a break for it!  It wasn't that far!

Another view.  Come on, you could definitely swim across!

But wait, this does seem to be a major shipping channel & that is a pretty big freighter.

But I knew that even though there were sea lions, sharks & jellyfish in the water, people have been swimming this race for 31 years.  That's a long time.  & last week I read about a 10 year old boy that made the swim.  10!  I'm wasn't going to be outdone by a 10 year old.

The first full day we were in San Francisco, I got up at 5:00 (8:00 NY time) & went out for a run.  It was a good 4.5 mile run & I was really glad that I did it because during my run I discovered the transition area for the race.  It wasn't very far from our hotel & it made me a bit more at ease to actually see the San Francisco Bay & realize that I knew I could swim across it without any problems.  I went down to the water & stuck my hand in & thought, it's not that cold!  Swimming in the Navesink must have paid off because I was no longer afraid of being swept out to sea.

The morning of the race I gathered up most of my stuff & made the ride over to the start.  It was a bit confusing, as I had missed the pre-race meeting the day before due to the terrible downpours.  I was just going to have to make the best of it.  Apparently, this was a mistake.

My goal was to finish the race, but in the back of my head I really wanted to finish in less than 4 hours.  I think I should have stuck with my one & only goal of finishing, but we'll get to that later.  As I get ready to get on the boat, Mike snapped a quick picture of me in the transition area.

For some reason I brought 2 pairs of sneakers with me.  Normally I don't do this, but it was the best thing I have ever done.  If I hadn't, I would have never finished the race.  As I got ready to get on the bus to get to the boat, I was standing with my wetsuit, goggles & my race cap in one hand.  In the other, was my transition bag, that was supposed to be ready for me at the end of the swim.  Due to bad info from someone collecting bags, I was told it would be ok to take it with me on the bus.  This was a huge mistake, which I wouldn't figure out until I got out of the water.

Boarding the bus, I started to really get nervous.  It was about a 10 minute ride to the pier & then 2,200 people were loaded on to the boat.  Everything after that seemed like a big blur.  I was sent downstairs (in the under 40 group) to start the race.  People wearing wetsuits & funny colored bathing caps were everywhere, all getting ready to start.  As we approached Alcatraz, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.  Not only did I look miserable, I looked really scared.  & no matter how much I tried to smile, I just couldn't.  But then I met a girl from Iowa that told me it would be a snap & something inside just clicked.  Suddenly there was an announcement, 1 minute to the start.  Uh oh.  Here we go.

My big fear is that I wouldn't be able to jump off the boat.  It wasn't a little jump either.  Most of the pros dove in, show offs, but as the rest of the swimmers went in, they just basically jumped in.  As I got closer to the door, I knew it was time to get in the water.  Believe it or not.....jumping in was so easy.  It's just like what my mother always used to say - if all your friends jumped off a bridge would you?  Yes, absolutely mom!  & that was it, I had plunged into the San Francisco bay along with over 2,000 escapees.

Read all about the swim, with more pics tomorrow!!!!!