[I wrote most of this Sunday afternoon, but there's an update with final race results, etc, too.] We survived the
five mile swim race today! It had been quite rainy for the past few days, with many thunderstorms, so we were all a bit concerned about the race, and there was a bit of a chance we might not have even gotten to St Croix because the Seaplane doesn't fly when the water is rough.
Yesterday we went on a snorkel trip to Buck Island (where the race starts) and we met a few other people doing the swim race too. We met some very interesting people who have done some really great swims as part of a team - including the marathon (26 mile) swim around Manhattan, a similar 24 mile earth day swim in Tampa Bay, the Catalina channel and even the English Channel. We met a lot of lawyers and even a judge. Going out to Buck Island on the snorkel boat, I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't look nearly as far from shore as it did last year. Dave brought the underwater camera. It's really fun to see the expressions on peoples' faces when they see it. He seems to make lots of friends when he's got it out. The snorkeling on Buck wasn't as great as I'd hoped - it's a national monument and there is an underwater trail, just like on St. John. But the hurricanes that hit the USVI in prior years have killed a lot of the coral.
After we picked up our race bags and shirts, I met up with someone I'd met online. My stories about the swim last year convinced her and her kids to do it this year. It was fun to meet all of them, though I felt a bit responsible and hoped they'd have a good race! At the prerace meeting, the race organizers gave a presentation on a computer using Google Earth, to show everyone the race course. It was VERY well done and looked really awesome. We participated in the pre-race buffet dinner this year, which we enjoyed as we got to spend more time with our new swimmer friends. We also re-met a woman from St. John whom we'd met during the Beach to Beach swim there in May. St. Thomas and St. John were much better represented this year than last.
This morning we woke up to clear skies for the race. The water was much more calm than last year coming across the two mile channel. Unfortunately though, we encountered a LOT of jellyfish. I think just about every participant (of about 100) was stung during the crossing. It's not exactly easy swimming across a channel to start with, but when you add in stings on your arms, legs, face, neck, etc, it can make for a most unpleasant swim. The worst stings I got were on the inside of my arm near my elbow and my neck. I stopped swimming enough to yell "Ow!" and wonder how long I could take it before I'd be ready to call it quits. I thought about trying to find someone to draft too since last weekend Dave and I got stung, but he got the worst of it (presumably) because it got him first and was all worn out for me. I didn't see a mark on my arm, but when I finished the race the red lines were swollen and started hurting again. Vinegar was available at the finish to apply to the stings. Five days later and I still have red marks!
The channel crossing seemed much easier this year to me, aside from the stings. At the first water stop, I heard that some swimmers had seen dolphins! Neither of us saw them, however. After a quick water stop, I was actually starting to think "it's too bad this is only 5 miles, it'd be nice to have a real challenge." But that feeling went away when I had about a mile to go. The final turn buoy was visible for probably a full mile, maybe even a mile and a half. It never seemed to get any closer though. If we do this race again, I'm going to try to convince myself that there are still 3 miles left when that final yellow buoy becomes visible. Mentally this was the toughest part of the race. I kept thinking I should pick up my pace, but then I'd swim faster for awhile, get tired, and feel like I didn't get any closer to the finish.
It's hard to compare race times from one year to the next in an open water event because so much of the race depends on the conditions - the currents, the wind, the waves, etc. But I finished in 3:35 last year and hoped to do it in 3:00 this year. I picked that time because a man from St. Thomas did the 5 mile race in 3:01 last year, but I beat him by 5 minutes in the 2.4 mile race on St. John. So another goal was to just be within 5 minutes of his time this year. I found him at the 2nd water stop and we swam close enough to keep an eye on each other for awhile. After 20-30 minutes, he swam over to me and drafted me. It didn't bother me since I knew him and I had to swim anyways so what did it matter if it helped him. During one of the "the buoy is closer, I should swim faster" moments, I started kicking more, and got a bad foot cramp. I promptly stopped and he almost ran into me. He let me swim in his wake for awhile but I wasn't even able to catch up and pass him as my foot hurt a lot and I was mentally worn out. I did try to sprint after the last turn and finished just barely with my 5 minute goal of him.
So how did we do? Race results are
online here. I was disappointed with my time, finishing at 3:22, but I did beat
my time from last year by 13 minutes. The entire improvement came from the channel crossing, which I did 12 minutes faster this year - last year the current helped carry us along for the last 3 miles but not this time! It turns out basically everyone who did it last year was at least 5 minutes slower this year. So not a bad improvement. Last year I finished third from last, and this year I came in 70/87.
Dave did super awesome! You can see his strong finish in this photo. He finished in 10th place overall, 7th among the men. His time was 2:12, 10 minutes faster than last year. Sadly, we had to catch the seaplane back and didn't get to stay for the awards ceremony, but my drafting buddy picked up Dave's award for him. Dave won a
Caribbean Hook bracelet for coming in 10th overall. He definitely deserves a lot of cheering and clapping and pats on the back. So as you read this, pretend it's the awards ceremony and give him a big cheer. YAY DAVE!!!
And how do we feel? One of my eyes got swollen again from wearing goggles for so long. It's amazing how hard it is to lift your arms high enough to wash your hair after such a race. Our mouths had a weird taste and texture for a day or so, due to all the salt water. Now that we're experienced open water swimmers, we knew to use vaseline on any area where you'll have rubbing going on in the water - the salt water is like sandpaper. I have just a little scab from one of my swimsuit straps and the very bottom of where my swimcap was on my neck. Dave had a small mark too. Not nearly as bad as the scrapes and scabs we got last year. My shoulder joints ached for a day or two and now I'm only a tinsy bit sore - and that could easily be attributed to sitting at the computer all week at work. Lucky for Dave he didn't have too many kayak tours this week. I think it's probably easier to recover from a long swim than running a marathon!
The race organizers had a
photography company take pictures, and pictures of us finishing are now online.... here's the
best one of me. You can click on the photo to see the not best one of me, where I pretty much look how I felt. There are four pictures of Dave finishing, although in this
first one you can't really tell it's him. Once you're on the photo page, click next to see the other photos. He finished
with a smile!
