Things have been hectic. I'm supposed to do the Brooklyn Bridge Swim tomorrow. Nothing else on the plate when I got the "Guess what...You did get into the Maggie Fischer Great South Bay Cross Bay Swim email". The Brooklyn Bridge is "just" a K so no problem there but suddenly I gotta ramp up the training. I started ramping up because of the 10K Lighthouse swim in September but suddenly this is here...
Again, Brooklyn shouldn't be a problem but suddenly my Wednesday long swim is L-O-N-G! It used to be medium on Monday, long on Wednesday and short/hard/sprint on Friday. Now, my medium Monday is long, my long Wednesday is huge and Friday is Friday.
My last 4 Wednesday's have been over 6,000 yards. This past Wednesday was 7,000! At 6,850, my calf cramped up. At 6,900, they announced the pool is closed. I begged the lifeguard (don't know her - she's new) to let me do just 1 more 100. She looked at me like I am nuts but said ok. Ended up sprinting it. By the way, 7,000 yards is 3.97 miles or 280 laps in our 25 yard pool. What that means is that I got the Maggie swim covered.
So, here's the schedule for the next 2 weeks...Tonight I have the Maggie swim meeting. Tomorrow is the Brooklyn Bridge swim followed by a day in the city with the family from Israel. Sunday will be regular training. Next week Friday is the Maggie swim with Saturday being a family day in PA.
A little crazy. So basically tonight, I go to a meeting regarding next weeks swim. Gotta plan that out but more importantly gotta plan out tomorrow...
Ok...Now for just Brooklyn stuff. Gonna be fun. I've swam in the Hudson quite a few times now but never did I swim in the East River. They have always done this race going from Manhattan to Brooklyn but this year it will be Brooklyn to Manhattan. They also have a "battle of the boroughs" thing going on but I don't care for it. I'm not submitting an essay why I should be on either side where I don't really care about Brooklyn or Manhattan.
Here's a course description fron the nycswim.org website:
Course Description Swimmers will enter the water at the pebble beach at Brooklyn Bridge Park immediately west of the Manhattan Bridge. Keeping all buoys to their right after making the turn around the first buoy (which is to their left), they will swim southeast past Empire-Fulton State Park toward the Brooklyn Bridge and then turn right (yellow mark), crossing the East River on the east side of and or under the bridge at all times. After passing the bridge's stanchion on the Manhattan side, swimmers will follow the marks to the finish which is at a small clay and sand beach at Dover Street in East River Park. A combination of buoys, support boats, and kayaks will mark/monitor the swim route to help swimmers remain on course. Please note: The orange buoys are guide marks and should remain on the swimmer's right the entire time. The yellow buoys are turn marks - first left then right.
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And the best part? Family is coming...Not sure if they will be there with me at the start or come late but hopefully, they will be there during the swim. The bridge is nice to walk on.
Almost 2 weeks ago, there was a fire in the sewage treatment plant and they had trouble containing it. This was (of course) during a crazy heatwave that we had where it was over 90 in the a.m followed by a record of 104+ temperature. Swim cancelled? Well, they promptly closed off all beaches and the East River and the Hudson to swimmers and kayakers and ??? Well, they finally contained the fire and restarted the treatment plant and mother nature took over and they started opening beaches.
Here's the news from nycswim.org:
GOOD NEWS! The water quality advisory is being lifted, beaches are reopening, and recreational activity can resume in New York Harbor. The Brooklyn Bridge Swim is ON.
OK!!! Excellent.
So, the swim is on and I'm happy but gotta plan it out. The choices:
I don't know. Things are open and unfortunatly, I have got the Maggie Swim meeting tonight...
Got an email from Adelle who finally(!!!) signed up for this. She wants to know why the hell is John Scalzo in the first and fastest waves while she and I are in the 3rd wave of 9. I asked him (email) and he responded with "What?!? Oh my Gosh. I hope no one runs me over". He gave in his triathlon swim times which are usually courses which are not measured correctly and OOPS! First wave. Told this to Adelle and also thanked her for not questioning the fact that I am in the same wave as her. I don't belong there....She is faster over distance and belongs up ahead.
Anyway, went to sleep later than I wanted but such is life. Still, the family is coming with and that's cool.
Left (10 minutes late), got to the city and found parking. Elizabeth and I walked while the kids scootered to the bridge. Jessie decided to walk from that point on because it was uncomfortable to scooter on the wood planks on the bridge. Jeremy scootered. I don't know how much the kids appreciated it but I did. I remember walking across the bridge with my father when we first came to this country. It really is a nice bridge. They were failimg a movie or a tv show there so maybe we will see ourselves on tv or in a movie one day.
Before we left, I spoke to Adele. She was subwaying it and I offered her a ride but it was too late for her. She's neurotic like me and needs to get there early. I prefer family so tradeoff.
Got to race site by 8am. Check in was from 7 to 8:15. That's fine...
Got my number and got double teamed with the body markings. Cool. Went to the porta-potties where John Scalzo suddenly came tearing through and cut everyone. It's cool too. They had 5 porta-potties for 450 registered people. Not smart but line wasn't that bad. Later when I checked in my bag, the line was HUGE!
The kids and Lee read a little and also said hello to a huge English Mastiff named Roman. Truly a gentle giant. Very cute dog. Loves the water but can't swim. Apparently, his owner had to close the bathroom door when she showers because otherwise she gets an unexpected guest.
Listened to the meeting and started lining up. Said bye to the family and took my spot. They were pretty good about sending each wave off every 2 minutes. Waves 1 and 2 were off and it's our turn (wave 3) to make it in to the water. Morty (RD) mentioned there are some sharp rocks and to be careful. As I tried to make my way into the water, trying not to get cut up like at Tobay, I saw what looked like a 6 inch crab in the water. Between trying not to fall and the crab, I decided it would be easier to just dive. Dove right in and things felt right. Adele stayed in the rear of the group while I went to the front and to the right side. We needed to make a left turn and I didn't want to get squashed. Forgot what it feels like without a wetsuit. You actually need to tread water. No biggie.
Forgot to mention that I checked in my bag without using the anti-chafe. There's a lesson there for later.
Swim started and I was one of the first few to the first buoy. No problem. Took it wide and kayaker there brought me back to the course. Probably was the right thing for him to do at this point. Unfortunatly, I scraped my hand against his paddle. No biggie. Swam to the next buoy (right turn) and the thing was going nuts. Kept trying to go around it. Finally gave up and went right without going around it. At this point, I was swimming fine and close to the bridge. The kayaker again got in the way. Actually, he caused a swimmer to crash into him so he can tell us to go right away from the bridge. I think that was wrong. The current was pushing us away from the bridge (we later found out) and if he would have left us alone things would have been fine. As is, he pushed us to our right. The current did it's job and we were massivly off course. Water was also choppy at times. Fun stuff. Not sure when, but I got punched with a left hook. Maybe not that bad...more like a graze but never had the sensation before.
Well, kayaker realized we were in the wrong place and brought us back to Earth. Unfortunatly, damage was done. Had to swim diagnolly left back to the bridge. At one point, I was about 6 feet away from the Manhattan side stanchion. I would have thought they would want us away from it. I mean, the waves could have pushed us against it? But who cares. Made the left and tried to outsprint this dude. Finally left this woman who I was constantly trading positions with.
Sighting and sprinting and I look up and oops! Blown off a little and heading to a wooden dock with the guy on the beach yelling at me. Minor course correction and I am on the beach and crossing the timing mat. I wanted to continue running but he yelled to me "You're done number 224".
Got my water, medal and food and saw Adele. She already came in. Nice. This year, they gave out pedicure slippers so we won't hurt our feet walking to our stuff. Ok. Our stuff was at the beer garden at the seaport (pier 17). Can't find my guys but I figure, I'll get to my phone. Adele, John and I walked, got our stuff, rinsed off in water colder than what we swam in and got dressed. One guy screamed out, this water is like the water in prison. Why would you say that? Stupid...
Called my guys. They took a taxi but weren't sure where to go so they went to the car. Couldn't get the car because I had the ticket but since it was hot, the guy let them stay in the car.
Met up with them and the rest of the family and did a lot of walking. Walked on the Highline and then in the city for lunch and then played ping-pong before heading back.
I was beating myself up thinking about how in the Hudson I did 32 minutes for 1.6 miles and here it was 23 for a K but when I think about it...Thinking about the IM and the yardage in the pool AND then add the current and chop - I'm ok.
Sunday was very tired. Scrapped the whole 60 bike and long run and only rode 28. Went to the 106/107 and back and spent the day with the family.
I'm annoyed at myself that I didn't ride more but I know it was the right thing. Ended up napping in the car in a confused state and then later in the afternoon crashed on the floor for an hour. Apparently Jessie tried to wake me up several times. At one point, she put the alarm on her Ipod and left it on for 2 minutes. All the she managed to do was to annoy Jeremy and Elizabeth but not to wake me.
Had a nice Sunday and all is good again.
Stats:
Overall 136/319 finishers Age 14/30 1 DNF 17 did not finish signing up 80 did not start 15 Withdrawn Adele was 1/28 age or 27/319 Scalzo was 34/35 age or 297/319 finishers