This is my first race with CIBBOWS (Coney Island Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers ) and I figured would get my feet wet with them sort of speak. They seem nice enough and have other interesting races but it seems like for "real" swimmers. I truly don't know if I belong in that distinction but it's "just" a mile.
Nah. I would never say that especially after what we had during the Maggie swim or maybe I should call myself a real swimmer after the Maggie swim. In any case, the bottom line is I got truly beat up during that swim. There's no other way to say it. Adele was nice enough to say we all got beat up but I don't know if that's true. She did say she was a little sore after Maggie so ... In any case, I suprisingly wasn't sore. My normally troubling left shoulder didn't hurt.
So, 2 days after Maggie we again woke up early and again Adele was at my doorstep with her car and this time an old friend.
The drive there was easy and uneventful. Found parking easy enough. It truly does pay to get to a place early. The check-in was at the finish line, at a YWHA, as it was a point to point race. They wanted us to use the rest rooms at the start but clean indoor plumbing was calling me and I found them. Check in was easy and uneventful. I wanted to walk to the start to see the course, we did have plenty of time, but Lily wanted to take the shuttle so we did that instead. Got there and had time to kill.
The water was beautiful although initially a little cold. Lily, an ex-ocean lifeguard went in for a warmup. Adele eventually did to. I did my usual, which is talk to people.
One of the swimmers there, I think his name was Rob, also did Maggie and he also found it to be a rough swim. His swim coach was the overall male swimmer. He was the one who told me about the "friendly fire" incident. Oi.
In any case, quick meeting, double check-in and line up. Sand start so as soon as the "gun" went off we all launched ourselves into the water. Adele didn't want to get hit so she started a little toward the back. I wanted to make the first left as soon as possible to avoid the congestion so as soon as the gun went off, I ran in hard. I was one of the early swimmers making the left. After that, it was basically traffic passing me by. It's ok. Story of my life in races.
I stayed on the inside of the pack because I figured we will have to make a left eventually and wanted to avoid being to far out and having to come back in.
There were only 2 buoys in the water. As we first started, you make a left at the first buoy and go parallel to the shore. When you reach the second buoy, you again make a left, this time to go to the finish line.
They told us 3 landmarks we can use to judge where we are (cyclone I think and 2 others) but I didn't see anything. In fact, it seemed like I was just going on and on and on until finally I saw the second buoy. I was a little too on the inside so had to go out a little and sharp turn and on way to the shore. As I rose from the water, I started to run up the sand to the finish line when I hear "Go Elik!". A male voice so it wasn't Adele. I thought maybe my new friend, Rob but in the little glimpse I saw, it didn't seem like him. Turns out it was Mark Dempsey from Maggie. Nice!
The finishers medal was both a little lame and kinda novel. It was bead necklaces. Someone (I think it was Adele) said to me later something like, "you got your own beads and you didn't even have to bare your chest for it". Haha...
Better yet tho were the huge beach towels we got. Food was okish. Mexican style I guess. They took their sweet time about awards so I laid in the sun and took a nap. Later I realized I was dehydrated. Just didn't drink (enough).
The swim was easy enough. The temperature was great both in and out of the water. The ocean was great especially after Maggie and sighting was easy. I wish they would have had more buoys tho to make it easier to track progress tho.
I think Adele got 4th for age which while great kinda sucked because she was with 3rd for age for a while. She missed it by 12 seconds!