SCAR 2023 Recap

Part 1: Saguaro

On Tuesday April 25th, I arrived in Phoenix Arizona for the SCAR Swim Challenge and my kayaker Jax picked me up at the airport. We headed out to the Saguaro Guest Ranch, which would be our home for the next few nights. The ranch was located about 30 miles outside of Phoenix and about 5 minutes from the meeting place for the first day of SCAR. Jax and I shared a lovely, cozy, stand-alone cabin in a circle of 20 cabins across a dirt road from the ranch’s horse stable. After settling in at the ranch and prepping my feeds for the first swim, we headed into Mesa to attend the pre-race welcome dinner at the race director Kent’s house. At the dinner, Jax and I shared a table with my training buddy Kerianne and her wife Deedee and Kerianne’s other kayaker Christine, my bay area friend Cat and her kayaker Sarah, and my new friends Erika and Kim. There were so many swim-world-famous swimmers at the dinner and it was so cool to be a part of that community and atmosphere. 

On Wednesday morning we left the ranch and drove 3 miles down the road to check in at the Saguaro Lake boat ramp. At check-in they marked our number on our hand in sharpie (I was number 1) and told us which of 3 waves of swimmers we were in. I was assigned to wave 1 on this particular day. After check-in, we lined up by wave on the dock and waited to board the boats to motor to the start. Erika, Kim, Jax, and I ended up on a pontoon boat while Kerianne and Deedee waited to board the next boat. The pontoon boat was slow and it took a while to get to the staging beach. Although Kerianne and Deedee left almost 30 minutes behind us, they were on a much faster boat and arrived at the staging beach just after we did. By the time we got to the staging beach we had only a few minutes to get ready because we were the last boats in and while many parts of this event were very hurry up and wait, getting fully ready and greased up for a marathon swim in about five minutes was very stressful.

Kent started calling everybody’s names, so we knew we had to get on the boat and I still hadn’t greased up so I grabbed my tub of grease and got on the boat. All the swimmers helped each other finish putting on sunscreen and finish greasing up on the boat. We took two pontoon boats out to the dam and it took maybe 5 or 10 minutes on the boat past where we had been doing the staging to get there. When we arrived, Kent told us it was time to jump so he checked everybody’s names, and then once he was sure he had checked everybody off he told us to jump. 

I hate boat jumps, I am not sure why but I do. I jumped in and the water was cold. We swam to the dam and we were supposed to put our hand up when we were ready to go so after we did that we waited for a bit and then Kent said go. I knew it was gonna take me a bit to find Jax, so Kerianne and I had planned to swim together for the first part but we ended up with another swimmer between us and we got separated. I just focused on stretching out my stroke and feeling relaxed and not worrying about it being cold.

 It took me about 30 minutes to find Jax and she gave me a feed almost immediately. My shoulders felt kind of creaky and I hadn’t known what to expect from my left shoulder going into SCAR because it’s been bothering me for about six months now, but they seemed OK just a little creaky. This first swim was going to be somewhere between 7 and 9 miles so I was expecting it to take me 3-4 hours. Coming up on 2 hours, I was definitely sorer than I would’ve liked to be at that point. But I made a conscious choice not to worry about it and just keep pushing forward. There were also a few points where I had to remind myself to stay relaxed because I still had 3 more swims coming up so I had to play the long game.

Finally found a cactus

Around 3 hours, we came around a corner and started hugging the left shore. We had been seeing groves of cactus all around us for the whole swim and I realized that we were coming to the end of the swim and I hadn’t taken a picture with a single cactus. All I wanted at this point was a picture with a cactus and suddenly there were no more cactuses!  We came around a corner, and suddenly I could see the dam 200 yards away. But I could also see a huge perfect cactus, so I made Jax stop and take a picture of me with the cactus. After I got my picture, I started sprinting and got to the gym and went and touched the dam and then got back on the pontoon boat, and waited to be taken back to the dock.

The pontoon boat took us back to the dock where we had started and we unloaded and helped load the kayaks back into a Uhaul. There was a cart serving burritos so we grabbed food and sat at a picnic table to discuss our swims.

Part 2: Canyon

We had to get up a little bit sooner the next day to drive to Canyon because the drive was longer, and we also had to pack up everything and check out of the ranch. We drove on the highway through the desert and arrived at the parking lot for Canyon Lake. We parked at the upper parking lot and then got all of our stuff ready and walked down to the water where we lined up again by wave. This time I was in wave 2, so we stood around for a long time on a metal boat ramp, letting all the wave 1 swimmers go . The lake was beautiful except that there were hundreds of dead little silverfish in the water.

 This time instead of taking a pontoon boat I got to take a speed boat out and it was really fun to speed out of the dock. Canyon Lake is a large lake basin where the boat ramp is and then you turn a corner and you’re in this narrow tall walled canyon. So we were speeding through the canyon for a while, and it was just windy and loud and I couldn’t hear anything but all the wind was in the correct direction and would be at our backs. I was thinking to myself that I don’t like seeing the route before we start, but I didn’t really have a choice. 

We got to the staging beach and had a lot more time to get ready and grease up this time but because I was in wave 2. The wave 1 people all got on the boat and left and started while we were still on the beach and that was a little bit stressful for me because I didn’t like waiting, but soon it was our turn. We got on the pontoons and went out to the dam. We had a bit of a hectic start because we weren’t exactly sure if they were ready for us to jump off the boats. The water was quite cold, and we barely touched the dam, when they told us it was time to start. The water was quite cold, maybe like 55 but I found Jax quickly and the water continued to be cold. 

My shoulder started hurting me early but then eased up at about an hour and I could see Kerianne ahead of me so I focused on trying to catch up to her (not that we were racing but it was just nice to have that motivation). At one point maybe an hour and a half in, Cat Breed came up behind me and grabbed my foot to say hello and then sped off. Soon after, I finally caught up to Kerianne. Honestly this was just my favorite swim. It was so pretty I literally felt like we were on a Disneyland ride. I was looking at all the pretty rock formations, and as we gradually went along, the water got warmer, and my shoulder started to feel better. 

I really enjoyed being in wave 2 because it was really good motivation to try to catch up to people, not in a competitive way, but just knowing that they were ahead of me was motivating. Suddenly we made a sharp turn around this corner and I could see the dam, but I could also see a lot more of the little silver fish, so I was swimming with my mouth shut, trying not to touch them but they smelled really bad. I breaststroked to the finish to avoid the fish even though Kent was yelling at me to swim. We got back on the finisher pontoon and headed back to where the cars were and then took the long drive to Apache.

Part 3: Apache

We had to get up before 5am for the Apache meet but we were already at the Apache Hotel so we didn’t have to drive at all to the start, which was really nice. I ended up lining up on the docks with wave 2 again, and I ended up on a pontoon boat with Kerianne and Deedee and Kim and Erica. When we were maybe 500 yards from the dock, our boat died so we had to slowly motor back to the dock where they then fixed our boat. We then got back on our boat and motored back to the staging area and all I could think about was how long the lake was. We were stressed because we were afraid we were going to be the last boat there, but we ended up passing two other boats that were even slower than ours getting to the staging area. 

At the staging area, we got ready and motored to the start again. The jump was similar to the other days, except less chaotic, and the water was warmer than Canyon but still chilly. I found Jax quickly and I really just focused on stretching out my stroke and trying to stay warm. About an hour in we hit a warm patch, where the water felt almost fizzy, but it only lasted for about 10 minutes and then it got cold again. I found that going from cold to warm back to cold was challenging and it was tough to warm up the second time.

Apache just had an amazing vibe and I was just really enjoying experiencing it. Kerianne was ahead of me again for a while and I eventually did catch up to her. Unfortunately this lake was super gorgeous, but my camera didn’t work the whole time. Also, I spent the whole first half thinking that the marina was halfway so when we hit the marina at three hours and 45 minutes, I thought we were setting ourselves up for an eight hour swim. But then Jax told me we were past halfway even though I wasn’t sure if she was telling me the truth. It made me feel better, this lake just was so pretty, especially the second half all I wanted to do was look at the pretty striated rocks. 

I could see Anna ahead of me, so I would focus on catching up to her and I would catch her and then she would catch me and we alternated places back and forth. We were hugging the right bank of the lake at this point and I knew we were getting close to the end. Part of me was really ready to be done and part of me was just having a really good time and I didn’t want the lake to end. Suddenly the dam came up ahead of me and I could see the buoy line so I tried to pick up my tempo. Jax was yelling at me because one of the Zemaitis brothers was sprinting to catch me but I finished right behind him and then got on the pontoon. The ride back to the marina was long but we had a fun ride back with Jenny and Jax. I was really proud of myself for finishing the longest lake of the 4 and that my body had held up ok.

Part 4: Roosevelt

Kayaker swim

On the morning of Roosevelt, I woke up and decided to join the Kayaker swim because I wanted to swim one more time in Apache. It was really nice to just do a chill swim and then we chilled the rest of the day at the Apache resort. After chilling most of the day, we eventually drove to Roosevelt and we waited for a long time in the Roosevelt parking lot. I was not in a super great headspace because I don’t like swimming in the afternoon and I don’t like having to wait to swim. As many people know, the evening is not my favorite time of the day, but finally it was time to go. 

Bay area crew at the Roosevelt start

This time I was in wave 2, but a lot of my friends were in wave 1. Wave 2 had to wait almost 20 minutes after wave one started because there was boat traffic, so Jenny and I stood in the water and chatted but we eventually started. This swim was a triangle course in the dark. The water was gross at the start and I told myself it was just gonna be gross at the beginning and then it would get better but honestly it was gross the whole time. I kept getting wood chips in my suit and realized that had I known how gross the water would be I would’ve worn a two-piece just so that I didn’t get as much crap in my suit.

 Despite this I tried to enjoy the sunset, after about an hour swimming I switched to my light goggles. It was still a little bit light as we rounded the first buoy. Unfortunately, at the first buoy I was cut off by somebody else’s kayaker, which was a little bit annoying, but I managed to maneuver around them and round the buoy. It grew darker as we had to the second buoy, and it felt like it took forever to find it. I found out later that this was because it hadn’t been set in the beginning so they set it while we were swimming.

 I turned at the second buoy, and Jax stopped to fix part of it that had tipped over. She told me to follow a different kayak that had a Christmas tree on top of it until she caught back up. Now, I was swimming on the last side of the triangle, and it started to get really dark. I was having a difficult time orienting to where Jax was but I was also trying to push my pace and while it was hurting, it also felt really good. The water on this swim was probably about 72°, much warmer than the other lakes and I hated having all the wood chips in my suit. I continued to hit gross stuff and there were even two times where I almost ran into a log and Jax had to yell at me to avoid it.

 I was telling myself it was good training for other swims where I would have to avoid jellyfish and stuff like that. At this point, I coukld tell we were getting close to the finish, but I couldn’t see a buoy or anything else. Suddenly I looked up and the buoy was there, a little bit illuminated and I sprinted and tapped it. I was really happy to be done with Roosevelt, which was by far my least favorite swim of the four but I was also really sad that SCAR was over.

Overall, this was four very fun days of swimming. I went into the week with the goal of having fun and I definitely met that goal. I am very proud of how well my body held up considering that my shoulder has been so unhappy lately. I am also very grateful to Jax for supporting me and keeping me on course, to Kent for running a great week, and to all my friends (old and new) for making the week fantastic

Pailolo Channel Tandem 2022

The story for this swim goes back to last year when I came to Maui to swim the three channels making up the Maui triangle: Kalohi (Molokai-Lanai), Auau (Maui-Lanai), and Pailolo (Maui-Molokai). Even before we arrived on Maui, the weather indicated that swimming Pailolo (the most finicky of the channels wind-wise) would not be possible on that trip. I still had a blast joining Steven Minaglia and some of his friends to swim Kalohi and Auau (read that recap here), but I felt like I had some unfinished business in Pailolo. So when I found out that I would be returning to Maui for a vacation with some swim friends, I reached back out to Steven to see if he could help me plan an attempt at Pailolo. Steven connected me to Captain Keith Baxter and I convinced my swim buddy Kerianne to join me for a tandem crossing. We also made a backup plan to do another swim in case the winds proved too strong again.

When we arrived in Maui last Sunday, I called Captain Keith and he said the best looking weather days were Friday and Saturday September 16^th and 17^th and that he was piloting a Kaiwi Channel attempt on Thursday so the best day for our attempt would be Saturday. We agreed that if the winds stayed low, we would swim Maui to Molokai and if the winds were too high we would follow our backup plan. It’s been a while since I have attempted a swim with a weather go/no go and it was nerve wracking to wait for the captain’s call that the swim was on. He did call on Friday and we prepared for a splash Saturday at sunrise.

Before the start.

On Saturday morning, Kerianne, her wife Deedee, and I met up with Captain Keith at the Mala Boat ramp in Lahaina and loaded his gorgeous boat the Kanaloa. We discussed two potential starting locations and decided on a rocky outcropping under the Kapalua cliff house, which would mean a rocky start but would not be too difficult to climb. When we reached the spot, Deedee helped me and Kerianne put on sunscreen, SafeSea, and grease and get ready to splash. Captain Keith had a raft attached to the back of the boat and Kerianne ran and dove gracefully into the water. My entry was more sedate and I walked down the raft and jumped feet first into the blue water. Even though I had been swimming in the water all week, I was still surprised how warm it felt. We swam over to the rocky spot that Captain Keith had indicated and climbed carefully up to a dry spot. We fist bumped, waved back at Deedee on the boat to show that we were starting, posed for a picture, and slid carefully into the water.

On dry land.

Captain Keith’s plan was to drag a parachute and a large tire in the water behind the boat to create drag and slow him down to our speed and prevent him from needing to shift in and out of gear constantly, but it was immediately clear that the speed wasn’t quite right. We stopped for a moment while he fiddled with the drag, and I got hit with my first jellyfish. Captain Keith told us we could continue on ahead, but we were too nervous about large wildlife to swim away from the boat and the water was warm enough to just wait for him. We swam over reef for a while and started to get into a rhythm with Kerianne keeping the boat on her left and me keeping Kerianne on my left. It was so nice to be able to see Kerianne in the water, as the water we are used to in San Francisco is much less clear. At this point, the water was still fairly flat and the wind was around 3-5mph (Captain Keith told me afterward), and I was still finding my rhythm and we were still hitting lots of jellyfish. We stopped for our first feed and Kerianne seemed to be in a very good mood, while I was working to stretch out my stroke and get used to all the stingers in the water.

Maui in the rearview.

We were aiming for a point on the left-hand side of Molokai, because the current was flowing left to right across the channel, and we did not want to get pushed too far to the right. It always takes me a while to start enjoying a long swim, but I always forget this fact, so at 90 minutes into the swim, I was still pretty grouchy and had counted 21 jellyfish stings. Kerianne still seemed to be in a pretty good mood, and we were clearly making progress away from Maui. The water was so incredibly blue and around 2 hours I finally started having fun in the increasingly swelly seas. Whenever we stopped for a feed, Deedee and Captain Keith told us how great we were doing. I never knew whether to believe them, but it was still nice to hear.

As we got into the middle of the channel and the seas picked up a little bit, I could still see some jellies floating beneath us but I stopped getting stung. That made swimming much more enjoyable and I marveled at the gorgeous clear warm water.

Mid channel.

While the swell felt like it was coming over my right shoulder, it seemed like the current was increasing in strength from our left. Captain Keith seemed to be turning the boat to the left and angling us directly into the current so that we did not get pushed too far right, but we were not making much progress. He called to us and told us that we were fighting a current but that he was trying to find a way across it for us. The strong current made it harder for Kerianne and me to stay together but it did seem like we were getting past it. Captain Keith told us that we should turn back toward the island and that he had found us a small channel through the current. It was somewhat reminiscent of swimming the English Channel watching the island slide past us but we were making progress toward it again.

Molokai getting closer

Kerianne and I had discussed before the swim how we were both really nervous to run into large sharks, so we stayed close to each other and close to the boat. After we were about halfway across, we were just swimming along when suddenly I heard an unmistakable dolphin squeak. I swam head up for a few seconds but didn’t see anything and the folks on the boat weren’t reacting so I figured that the dolphin must be far away and the sound just travelling. We stopped for a feed, and I didn’t say anything to Kerianne about hearing a dolphin in case it scared her. A second later, Kerianne said “DOLPHIN!” and sure enough, there was a dolphin swimming right at us head on. It swam up to each of us, getting as close as maybe 1 foot away, before checking out the boat in the same way and then zoomed off again. This brief encounter felt like we were being greeted by a guardian of Molokai.

I never let myself ask where we are early in a swim, but by 4 hours in, I knew that we had to be at least halfway and probably over halfway, because Molokai looked closer than Maui. My armpit started to chafe, and I asked Deedee if she could pass me some grease on the next feed. She had a hard time hearing me and repeated back to me “you want grease” (or so I thought). We swam for another half an hour and when we stopped to feed, there was a waffle attached to my bottle. When I asked why I was getting a waffle (usually reserved for the last feed or when the boat crew thinks I am struggling), Deedee responded “you asked for treats!” We laughed about how treats and grease sound similar, and she promised me grease on the next stop.

Getting closer.

The seas had started to pick up, but I could tell that we were getting close now and I was looking closely to see if I could see the bottom through the water. As I was getting tired, I kept going on autopilot and had to keep reminding myself to stick close to Kerianne. Eventually, I started to be able to see sand beneath me maybe 15-25 feet down, but it looked like we were still at least a mile or more from shore, so I didn’t let myself get too excited yet. We continued swimming in the choppy water, and I saw a turtle hanging out on the bottom, as if it was welcoming us to Molokai. Deedee called us over for a feed and told us that this was going to be our last feed. Captain Keith told us we needed to swim over the reef, but that he needed to take the boat around it and meet us on the other side. We headed over the reef, and I enjoyed looking at the brightly colored fish, even though I did not like being so far from the boat. Captain Keith had promised us that he would escort us into the beach as far as possible, so we met up with him on the other side of the reef. I saw another turtle and a bat ray. There was another even more shallow reef on the other side, so Captain Keith directed us to make a 90 degree turn to the left and cut around the reef and then turn back to the right and swim parallel to shore for about 5 minutes.

Finished!

This was frustrating because it did not feel like we were making any progress toward the finish. I asked why we couldn’t just head to shore but Captain Keith told us that we had to find a public beach and could not land on private property. Suddenly, Captain Keith shouted that we should turn and head into a small sandy beach bookended by 2 jetties. As we turned and swam towards shore, the water got increasingly murky and warm. We saw a few people on shore and waited for them to pass by before climbing onto dry sand. We posed for a few pictures and then headed back to the boat.

All done!

This was my first tandem swim and it was a total blast. I am so proud of Kerianne for completing her first channel swim and so grateful to Deedee for supporting us and for Captain Keith for his expert navigating! We finished Pailolo in approximately 6 hours and 10 minutes and I can finally say that I have completed all 3 Maui triangle channels!

2x Around Coronado Recap

Last week, my mom and I headed down to Coronado so that I could swim around the island twice very early on Thursday morning. Coronado is a a pseudo-island connected to the mainland by a thin strip of highway, so a “circumnavigation” of Coronado starts in the bay on one side of the highway and finishes at a beach on the other side of the highway. Because my swim was a double, I started in the bay, cleared the water at the beach, and swam back to finish in the bay.

Creepy Hotel Del hallway

Because this swim is particularly dependent on tides, our splash time was 12:30am to capitalize on a strong ebb tide out of the bay. I always try to sleep during the day when I have night splash time, but I am not always successful. On this trip, I managed to sleep from 1pm to 9pm in our cozy (if very creepy) hotel room. My mom could not believe I slept for 8 hours in the middle of the day.

Looking out at Glorietta Bay with Jax

The start with my mother’s lovely navigation.

After my full day of sleep, my mom and I met up with Jax (Cole) and Steve (Chase) at the Glorietta Bay boat ramp at 11:30pm on July 13th to prepare to hit the water and head around the island. As we were preparing, Jax showed me how far the water had already receded; the ebb had started and we needed to get going. I don’t like to start swims dry so I always make sure to get wet before the start if I can and splash around a little bit. After splashing around a little bit I went back up to the dry part of the little stretch of sand and waited for Jax and Steve to get in the water and tell me to go. I stood on the beach and looked out across the water toward the bridge. I don’t love swimming at night and I was glad that the city lights prevented it from being truly black. When Jax told me to go, I walked into the water, a cloud of little fish scattering in front of me and started to swim toward the bridge between Jax and Steve. The water at this point was probably around 67 degrees but the darkness made it seem colder. I focused on finding my stroke and relaxing because swimming in the dark can make me jumpy.

I settled into my rhythm with Steve on my left and Jax on my right and we headed off toward the lit-up bridge. We stopped for the first feed right after the bridge and I was surprised that 30 minutes had already passed because the first 30 minutes often feels very long. After the bridge, we passed over a shallow section and in the low light I could see how fast we were moving in the current. It was very cool to see the lit up boats and experience swimming in such a fast ebb. I would occasionally forget about the current and then sight forward and notice a pole or buoy speeding towards me (in reality we were the ones moving) and be reminded of the speed with which we were being sucked out of the bay. The water got cooler in patches as we rounded the island and I wished I had figured out a way to have heated feeds. I hate swimming it patchy temperature water because the warmer patches manage to make the colder water feel even colder and it is hard to find a rhythm but I told myself it would even out eventually (even though I had no idea).

I could see just enough of the island to try to guess where we were but in truth had no idea and found the low light very disorienting. More than once, I broke my rule and asked Jax where we were but even knowing didn’t help orient me. I knew when we reached the Navy part of the island because there were large, lit up military boats on the shore. I wondered what anyone on board might think if they saw us swimming along.

Eventually, we came into a channel where I could see land fairly close on both sides of the water and I thought that we must be in the area between Point Loma and Coronado. I kept looking for the Jetty but I honestly did not see it until we rounded the rocky outcropping at the end of the jetty, and entered the open ocean portion of the swim. I was most nervous about this section because it would be the least protected and I was grateful to be able to swim between Steve and Jax. When we were about a half an hour past the jetty, something suddenly swam underneath me and I popped my head up and said to Steve, “something just swam under me!” He said that it was a seal and just saying hello. Even knowing this, it made me nervous. The seal popped up in my face maybe three more times and made me jump every time but I just kept heading toward the lights on the shore. I knew that we had rounded the jetty at around 2 hours 30 minutes, so I set myself the goal of getting to the beach as close to 4 hours as possible. While I was still feeling pretty good, the idea that I would have to turn around and do it again was daunting and I thought about what it would be like to just walk up on the sand and be done. Instead, I focused on swimming feed to feed and making as much progress as possible within each 30 minutes. I was sighting forward more often than I should have but the buildings on shore did seem to be getting closer.

Having a warm drink on the beach.

Soon I could see glistening sand beyond the dark water. Jax told me that I needed to leave the water past the last condo building, so I needed to swim more along the beach before approaching the surf. Suddenly I saw another kayaker approaching out of the dark and realized I must be close if Sidney was already joining us. I knew that this beach could have a lot of stingrays so I made sure to be careful getting in to shore and planned to not stand up until I was very very shallow. Though I was very worried about stingrays, I did not encounter any and actually scraped the sand with my fingers before standing up. I could see my mom standing on the beach and walked up to where she waited on the dry sand. After Jax told me that I was clear for the first lap, I had a drink of warm water, ate half a waffle, and put on some more grease.

Heading back for the return lap.

Because I was still pretty chilly, I did not want to spend too much time on the beach so I headed straight back into the water. Although the surf had been tiny on my exit from the first lap, the set was more sizable now and I was very grateful for my many dark start swims with Rebecca and Shirley for preparing me to go through surf in the dark. I dove under a wave and started swimming again, this time with Steve on one side and Sidney on the other. It had taken me just under 2 hours to reach the beach from the end of the jetty and I knew I would be slower to get back to the jetty but I set myself the goal to get there by 6 hours and 30 minutes. The sun was coming up now and I was happy to be able to see a bit better.

Swimming in grey light.

Approaching Point Bonita.

When sighting forward, I could now see Point Bonita looming ahead of me and knew that I would soon be able to see the end of the jetty and turn back into the bay. Off to my left, there was a building that looked like a house just floating out in the water. As the sun came up, I warmed a bit and focused on getting to the jetty, since this was the part of the swim that I expected to drag the most. We eventually rounded the jetty and we saw a big military ship sailing into the bay on our left. It as very strange to be passing spots in daylight that I had already swum past in the night because everything looked so different but I was much more oriented in daylight.

As we rounded the jetty, I felt the water get patchy and cold again but I was still feeling okay, so it didn’t bother me as much as before. I felt like I was not moving as quickly as before, but I couldn’t tell if I was slowing down of if the flood current was just not as fast as the ebb had been. Because the island is curved, I kept feeling like around the next bridge I would be able to see the bridge and know where I was, but that kept not happening. We had to stay farther our from shore than planned because the Navy was parking their big boat, but we were still making steady progress.

Finally approaching the bridge.

A few motor boats went past us and we were bounced around in some big wake. Finally, we came around another corner and I spotted the bridge in the distance up ahead. This was good because it provided motivation to get there, but also showed me how far I still had to go. I asked Steve how long I had until I hit the bridge and he said he thought 45 minutes, but it ended up being much longer because we had been counting on the current. Around this time, I started to feel the current push dropping out and I worried about having to fight the current to finish. I knew that Dan (Simonelli) had told me that as long as I was within a mile of the bridge by a certain time, that I would be ok. But I could not remember what time that was. I kept inching toward the bridge and could see that the bottom had gotten shallow and visible again. I tried to see what direction the sea grass was pointing to know which way the current was flowing but it was too hard to tell.

The last mile.

I finally swam under the bridge and we turned it Glorietta Bay. I could tell for sure that the current had dropped out but we were still making steady (if slow) progress toward the finish. My goal was to finish the swim under 10 hours and 40 minutes and by this point it was clear that we were more than on track to be successful so I just focused on moving forward. At the last feed, Steve pointed the finish out to me and I tried to speed up a bit, even as I was looking forward a little too often. Soon I could see Dan and my mom standing on the store and I sprinted to the little beach. I now had sand beneath me and I stood up and cleared the water.

Finished!

It was a really cool feeling to have made a complete round trip and be back where I started. Completing this swim made me feel powerful. I met my time goal and finished the swim in about 9 hours and 43 minutes!

I am so grateful to my team (Jax, Steve, Sidney, Dan, and my mom Kim) for helping me make this swim happen. I am also very proud that my buddy Kerianne and I raised $5001 for the National Network of Abortion Funds!

My awesome team.

Maui Bi-angle Recap

Day 1: Kalohi

The original plan for this trip to Maui was just to vacation. Then I had an idea to add a swim and reached out to Steve Minaglia, who puts together Maui Triangle swims. Steve said we could do one of the channels while I was in Maui. One became two, and soon we were planning to do all three sides of the triangle made by the islands of Maui, Molokai, and Lanai.

About a week before I flew from LA, Steve told me that the weather did not look good enough for the Pailolo Channel between Maui and Molokai, but that we could definitely do the Kalohi Channel from Molokai to Lanai and maybe the Auau Channel from Lanai to Maui. We decided to go for Kalohi and then decide at the end of that day whether we would swim Auau the next day. The reason for swimming Kalohi first was two-fold; partly because we knew that winds were going to be high ( this crossing can benefit from high winds), and also because it was a channel that ¾ of us had not yet done, while we had all completed Auau.

We met at Mala Wharf at 8am on Saturday morning and boarded the boat Pualele. I drove from my hotel while Steve, Quinn, and Marek flew into Maui from Honolulu. I was worried about the relatively late start because the winds get higher the later it gets, but when we left the dock the water was still pretty flat. The trip out to Molokai took about 90 minutes and right around the halfway point, we started hitting bigger swells and I just focused on not getting seasick. Soon the boat was idling just outside the reef off of Molokai and we were smearing our skin with sun protection and grease. Steve and Quinn jumped off the wooden swim step first and then I jumped next and Marek jumped after me. We swam the 200ish yards to the shore and went up the beach to start on dry sand. There were a few people on the beach “welcoming” us. We quickly walked into the water, the guys started their watches and we left Molokai behind.

I swam next to Marek and slightly behind and off to the side of Quinn, with Steve just behind us. The water was super super blue and also quite swelly, but it felt like all of the swell was breaking over my left shoulder and pushing me toward Lanai. The first interval between the start and the first feed always feels really long to me but having people to swim with helped, and soon we were stopping for our first feed. The guys on the boat tossed us each a bottle and we tossed them back and when we missed, they fished them out of the water with a net. After the feed, I asked Marek whether we were feeding every 30 minutes or every 45 minutes and he told me that he thought we were feeding every 45. The three guys had watches on but I did not. I wished I had known that ahead because I usually feed every 30 and I would have put more calories in each feed. I just decided to add a gel to my feed every few feeds and hope that that would be ok. The next few intervals passed quickly, and I began to thoroughly enjoy myself in the blue, warm water. The 45-minute intervals were flying by and I wondered if I should consider switching to 45 minute feeds regularly.

We were making steady progress and around what I calculated was 3 hours (I was not wearing a watch) we seemed to be about halfway across. By this point, I was having a total blast and had pretty much decided to tell Steve that I wanted to swim Auau the next day. The swell was massive, but it was doing a great job of pushing us along and it was really fun swimming. By this point, Quinn was leading the pack and I was just behind him with Marek and Steve backing us up. When Quinn got too far ahead, he would swim some backstroke until the rest of us caught up.

I was still feeling really strong, and Lanai just kept getting closer. By my calculations, we would finish right around 6 hours (reminder that I was not wearing a watch). We could see the ghost container ship off to the left-hand side and the guys on the boat soon told us that we were approaching the reef and we would have to swim in together without the boat, while they waited beyond the reef. We took some pictures and headed toward the island where we could see large breaking waves. I was starting to feel nervous because I really don’t like swimming through surf especially over a shallow reef, but the guys said that they would lookout for me and I knew that they would.

Steve and I swam next to each other, and Marek and Quinn were together off to our left. As we approached the back of the break I got more nervous and turned back to where Quinn and Marek were, while Steve made it through the break. Quinn and Marek suggested that we swim to the left and try to find a channel through the reef where the waves were not breaking. Quinn stopped and said that he had just been stung around the neck. A minute later I got stung and the jellyfish got stuck in my mouth. I screamed from the sting, and Marek stopped to check on me (later he told me that he thought I had seen a shark). I wondered where Steve was. We kept going and I hit a few more jellies, but we finally found a way through the reef and were soon climbing out on to the beach, where Steve was waiting for us. I heard Steve say that we had finished around 4:46. I couldn’t understand how that could be possible until I realized that we had been feeding every 30 minutes rather than 45 so my math had been off the whole time. No wonder I felt so good! All in all, it was a beautiful day of swimming. We swam back to the boat, and I asked Steve if we could do it all again the next day.

Day 2: Auau

The plan for the second day was to meet earlier and try to leave the dock by 6am to capitalize on better conditions. After a slight delay, we were all loaded on the boat and heading out to Lanai. The plan was for just me and Steve to swim this channel, as Marek and Quinn had returned to Oahu. The water was super glassy leaving the harbor, but soon we hit the rolling water in the mid-channel, and I knew it was going to be a bumpy swim. We pulled up to the beach at Club Lanai and I hopped into the water after Steve. He had warned me that the shallow water would be muddy, and I nearly tripped over a buried root as we climbed up onto the beach. We walked up to dry sand, turned to face Maui and began our swim.

The water clarity was not fabulous, but I still enjoyed swimming over the reef and saw a turtle gliding along below us. At this point, the water only had a slight bump to it, and I focused on shaking out my stroke and falling into a rhythm next to Steve. We stopped for our first feed and on this day the boat guys had our feeds on a rope rather than just throwing them at us . This  worked really well and let us have faster feeds. We continued with our swim, and while I was not having a bad time , I was certainly not enjoying myself like I had the day before. Suddenly, I saw something swimming below me and at first, I thought it was a fish of some kind but soon it became clear that it was a shark, just like I had seen on my other Auau crossing. “Here we go again…” I thought. It was far below us and looked small, but I knew it was probably much bigger in reality. I pointed it out to Steve and he suggested that we swim over to the back of the boat and make a decision. He called the boat over and I kept my eyes in the water but the shark had disappeared. Steve told the guys that it was probably just curious and not showing aggression, so we decided to continue, but stayed closer together.

I was feeling very nervous about the shark, but I trusted Steve and he seemed okay. I stuck close to his side and tried to calm down. Steve reminded me to keep a steady pace despite my anxiety and not start sprinting because of the shark. We didn’t see it again and I eventually calmed down. During the swim the day before, I had only been stung by jellies right at the end, but on this swim, I kept hitting patches of stingers. The guys on the boat said it was because we were in a current and it would get better, but it never really did.

The water had been consistently choppy, but about an hour after we saw the shark, the water glassed over and conditions were basically perfect. I guessed that the beautiful conditions wouldn’t last long in this temperamental channel, so I tried to take advantage of it and finally found my rhythm. At a feed, I joked to Steve that I had preordered these conditions! Soon however, the swell picked up and we were once again being hit by chop coming over our left sides. I like swimming in chop (to a point) and was having fun even though the glass was nicer.

The swell was so big that when I was in a trough, I sometimes couldn’t see Steve or the boat. This made it really tough to stay together, and I found myself getting ahead of Steve and treading water to try to stay together. Despite the deteriorating conditions, Steve and I both felt like we were making steady progress and as it did seem like Maui was getting closer. However, at the 3.5 hour feed, Steve asked the guys on the boat how much farther we had to go and they said something like “5 nautical miles,” meaning we were still less than halfway across the channel. That was a tough thing to hear but I was still feeling pretty good at that point and just decided to keep swimming feed to feed. Steve and I kept getting separated and at the next feed he said that he didn’t want to do a 7 hour Auau and was thinking of getting out. I tried to encourage him to stay in but it was also clear that we were getting too separated by the conditions. I convinced him to stay in for one more half hour, but ultimately he decided to get out. I felt really bad because I didn’t want to stay in without Steve but I also felt strong and wanted to see how far I could push it.

So now I was alone. I reminded myself that the guys on the boat were looking out for me and Steve was still around even if he was now on the boat instead of in the water. I picked up my pace a bit and finally felt like I was starting to make some progress. The next few half hour intervals passed rather uneventfully, even as the swell continued to get larger, but I just tried to roll with it. We were definitely making progress towards Maui, albeit not as quickly as I had hoped. At the same time, the island seemed to be slipping by and I started to get nervous about missing it all together. It was weird because the swell was coming from the left, but the current was pushing me from the right. I was having flash backs to the coast of Dover sliding by during my English Channel crossing. At around 6 hours, I asked the guys how much farther we had to go. They told me about and a hour and a half (they were lying, but it didn’t matter at the time). I told them that I only had enough feeds for eight hours so we needed to get there soon.

I kept pushing toward Maui and I was still feeling pretty good muscularly, even though I could tell I was getting pretty sunburned and my skin was angry from all the jellies. I was so sick of my gels by this point and knew that that was pretty much all I had left so I asked if I could have one of his gels. I don’t usually like brands other than Honey Stinger, but man was that strawberry banana Gu a nice change.

The hotels were getting clearer on the shore and even though I knew the plan was to finish on the right (south) side of Black Rock (when facing the beach from the water) but due to the current, we were already far to the left of the rock. At this point, we were looking for any sandy spot. I felt like the boat captain was making me swim head on into the current rather than straight into shore but I trusted them to lead me well. Soon I could see the sail boats on Kaanapali and knew that I was getting close. I picked up my tempo and could see the sand passing below me. I passed a couple of snorkelers and laughed to myself that this was going to be a longer than 8 hour swim, when it was meant to be redemption from my 7:30 swim of several years ago. I climbed up onto the sand and saw my mom running down the beach to see me finish! I was so happy to be finished and looked back at the channel that I had just crossed. I turned and swam back to the boat (Steve joked that I looked ready to go back to Lanai). My final time was just under 8 hours 30 minutes.

Overall, I am really happy with this swim. It was not the quick crossing I was hoping for but despite being an hour longer than my previous Auau, this was a much stronger swim and I am really proud of myself for sticking with it. I am so grateful for Steve for putting these two days of swimming together and the guys on the boat for keeping us safe, fed, and on course. I predict more Hawaiian channels are in my future!

EndWet 2021 Recap

Last Thursday I drove myself to LAX and hopped on a flight to Grand Forks, North Dakota via a stop in Minneapolis to swim the 36-mile EndWet in the Red River of the North. The travel was fairly smooth even though the flight from Minneapolis to Grand Forks was on a smaller plane than I would have liked and I had to gate check my bag. After deplaning, I followed the other passengers to the one baggage claim belt and got in line to rent a car. Having only just turned 25 in April, this was my first experience renting a car for myself, but again everything went smoothly. I drove the 10 minutes from the airport to the hotel, marveling at how flat the land was. I picked up dinner from a Qdoba and observed how different the attitude toward masking seemed to be. When I asked the salesperson, she told me that there were not statewide ordinances but that masking rules varied by business. In many situations, I was the only non-employee wearing a mask and sometimes the only person. 

Scouting the finish with Marian

On Friday, I worked from the hotel room and prepared my feeds for Saturday until it was time to join some of the other swimmers at the river for a practice swim. We met at the 3-mile marker on the course (mile markers count down so this spot was “3 miles left”) and swam to the finish. I was excited to do this practice swim, particularly because we were all worried about how slow the river current seemed to be moving. The river was a comfortable 77 degrees so at least cold would not be an issue but the water was so brown that I couldn’t see my shoulders, let alone see my hands. This was a bit disorienting and I was really grateful for the practice swim to “get my feet wet” in the conditions before race day. Sandra and her husband (in a kayak) pointed out landmarks on the course for us and showed us how to know when we would have only a mile left.  I wore my Garmin for the practice swim and was happy to see that these 3 miles took us about an hour and 10 minutes, even with our stops. Maybe the river wasn’t too slow after all! After the swim, I rushed to dry off and drove back to the airport to pick up Marian who had just flown in from Chicago. It was so nice to see Marian (a friend from my time in Chicago) and spending time with her was honestly the best part of the trip! 

With Sarah Thomas and Marian

Marian and I both spent a few hours relaxing at the hotel and then piled back into the car to go scout the finish and attend the pre-race dinner/briefing/guest talk. The guest speaker was Sarah Thomas (google her if you want to read about some seriously awesome swimming) and I was so excited because I have been wanting to meet her for years. At the briefing, we got to meet our kayakers and hear about race day logistics. My kayaker’s name was Marie and she and I were both first timers for this race. Meeting her made me feel a lot less nervous about the swim because now I knew who my buddy would be. The briefing was also similarly helpful. Sarah gave a great talk about the importance of vulnerability in endurance sports and life and I got to take a picture with her. Soon after, Marian and I rushed back to the hotel to get to bed because it was already 9:30pm and we were going to have a 3:30am wakeup call.

On Saturday morning, we left the hotel before 4am and parked our cars at the finish, along with my kayaker Marie and Marian’s kayaker, Brian. Brian then drove all of us to the start. Originally, I was bummed that we had to do an earlier wake up to leave our cars at the finish, but that soon turned to super grateful that I did not have to drive us to the start along unlit rural North Dakota roads. The drive to the start was about 40 minutes an dthere is no way I would have seen the turnoff to the campsite. When we arrived most of the swimmers were already there or arriving and we quickly prepared our stuff. Usually for long swims, it feels like there is a long period of standing around followed by a whirlwind of getting ready. I suppose the car ride can stand in for the waiting but once we arrived, it just felt like we were racing the sunrise to get ready and hit the water. In what felt like no time at all, I was standing with 17 other swimmers on a boat ramp at the water’s edge. They did a quick roll call and gave us a countdown. I stood next to Marian and we high-fived right before the signal. At “GO!” several swimmers plunged into the water ahead of me. I took care going down the slippery, mud covered ramp and stepped into the water. Almost immediately, I sank into knee-deep mud and tried to get swimming as quickly as possible. Because I knew it was going to be a long day of swimming, and because I know sprinting is not my thing, I made the choice to not try to sprint at the start and keep up with the people racing out hard. Later on, I wished that I had taken the start out a little harder but my neck had been bothering me and I knew from experience that I take a while to find a good rhythm.

Before the start

At this point I guessed that there were maybe ⅔ of the field ahead of me and ⅓ behind. Our kayakers started after us and would have to catch up. They had told us that it might take up to half an hour for our kayaker to find us, but I was probably only swimming for about 5-10 minutes before I saw Marie pull up beside me in the orange kayak. The water was calm, warm, and brown and I spent the first 2 hours focusing on loosening up and hoping my neck and shoulders would loosen up. The beginning of this swim was an interesting mental game because I was worried about meeting the cutoff times but also knew that I could not take the race out too hard. After the first feed Marie and I decided to use a rope to do my feeds and this was a great idea because it meant that as soon as I was done feeding I could start swimming again and she would not have to chase the bottle down. 

I had asked Marie not to volunteer distance or pace information unless I asked and normally I do not let myself ask until we are past halfway. On this swim however, I realized that I was going to be tight on making the cutoff times so I needed better pacing feedback. Marie was wearing my Garmin so that we could have accurate mileage. At two hours, I asked Marie how far we had gone and she told me that we had gone under 5 miles meaning I was going slower than 2.5mph. I knew I needed to pick up my tempo a little bit to maintain my goal pace. After that, Marie told me my pace in mph each half hour but not the distance covered (I did the math but it was still easier to stomach this way). My pace varied between 2 and 2.5mph, which meant the river was giving me very little push as I am about a 1.9-2mph swimmer in totally flat water. 

I know that it can take me between 2 and 4 hours to start feeling remotely decent on long swims so when I start out feeling terrible (as I did on this swim), I need to trust that if I keep going I will hit a point where I start feeling better. Sure enough, right around 4 hours my neck stopped hurting and my stroke smoothed out. By this point, it seemed like Marie and I were basically alone in the river, although on straighter stretches I could catch a glimpse of 2 kayakers up ahead of us. Whenever this happened, I felt very motivated to try to catch them. Eventually, I caught one and then the other, which was a real morale booster and just nice to have company. I spent the next couple of hours chasing another kayaker up ahead of us. 

The first official checkpoint on the river was the Thompson Bridge, which was 15 miles into the swim. I could not remember what the cutoff time was for Thompson so I was anxious until they let us through. There were a bunch of people cheering at Thompson and right after I swam a few backstrokes under the bridge (rules are rules), I caught up to the swimmer that I had been chasing. We stopped for a feed right after Thompson, meaning that we hit Thompson right before the 6 hour mark. The other swimmer and I paced each other for a little bit and then I pulled ahead. 

At this point in the race, I was still feeling quite strong, yet not as speedy as I wanted to be. Part of it I think was that I had neglected how different and “sinky” I would feel in freshwater compared to the salt water that I had been training in. I was happy, however, that my feed plan seemed to be working well. I add gatorade to some of my feeds when I swim in freshwater for the electrolytes but this has the added bonus of raising my caloric intake by about 50 cal/hour and this seems to make a big difference. About 2 hours after we passed Thompson I saw mile marker 17 on the side of the river and freaked out that we had only gone 2 miles in the last 2 hours. Marie quickly reminded me that Thompson Bridge was at 15 miles done / 21 miles to go but mile marker 17 meant 19 done / 17 to go, not the other way around and I was very relieved.  By my math, I was on track for a 14-15 hour swim. 

Usually on long swims, I count up in half hours until I am sure that I am halfway through and then start counting down in half hours. Of course this is a dangerous choice for a swim like this one where finish time and currents are so variable. When I thought I would pull off a 14 hour swim, I had planned to count up to 8 hours and then down for 6 but at 8 hours it became clear that I still had more than 8 left. At that point I made the choice to just keep counting up until 10, and then 12… you get the idea. I have heard many swimmers talk about swimming in half hour increments or “feed to feed”. For this swim, chunking the time into 2 hour intervals worked really well and at the end of each 2 hour period I got an applesauce reward. 

One aspect of this swim that was mentally chanllenging is that the river pretty much looks the same no matter how far you have gone. I felt like I could have been swimming in circles around an island for hours and hours and I would not have known the difference. Marie did a fabulous job of trying to find the “fastest” water for me to swim in and this meant we were often by the edge of the river. Even so, I only scraped my hand along the bottom once and quickly moved back into the middle. 

After I stopped for a feed, Marie paddle ahead and pulled over to the side to take a short break and I swam alone for a bit. When we had discussed this plan, I was really nervous about swimming alone, but it turned out following the river wasn’t difficult and I always played a game with myself, trying to go as far as possible during these intervals. I even caught two more swimmers before Marie caught up to me. Marie told me that my friends at home were cheering me on and that someone had said “pretend that Rebecca’s seal friend is chasing you!” which made me laugh.

Around 10 hours, I hit what I call the “I live here” mark, which is the point where as bad as I may feel I have accepted that the swim will take as long as it will take and I am just going to live in the water until I finish. In this particular swim, I knew that there was a 16 hour cutoff so it was nice to know at 10 hours that the most I would have to do would be 6 more hours. They ended up extending the cutoff, but I was really glad that I did not know this at the time. At one point the support boat came by with another swimmer on board and I started worrying again about running up against the cutoff and being forced to stop. When the boat came by again, I asked Marie to ask if we were on track to finish and he said that we were. Still, as I saw more people being pulled out behind me, I was nervous.

I knew that I needed to hit “last chance” by a certain point to be allowed to continue but I could not for the life of me remember where last chance was or what the cutoff time was. I decided “last chance” must be the boat ramp marking 3 miles left and I would just focus on getting there. This was wrong, “last chance” was actually a spot where we would have 7.5 miles left, but I worried about hitting the cutoff until I was past the boat ramp (oh well). After we passed the boat ramp, I saw the support boat floating in the middle of the river and thought to myself “Oh no, this is it, they are pulling me!” Instead, the captain asked us if we knew where the finish was and we said yes. Finally, I believed that they were going to allow me to finish. I still felt really strong and like I could keep swimming for days but not really able to harness any more speed.

I asked Marie to skip my last feed if we were going to be really close to finishing. I knew that swimming this stretch had taken me 1 hour and 10 minutes the day before and yet whenever I sighted forward, I could not see the bridge signalling one more mile. At my last feed, Marie told me that she was going to leave me just before the finish to film it. Finally, I saw the bridge and the “chess piece” piling off to the right that meant I was almost done. I picked up my tempo and started swimming hard toward the boat launch that was the finish. Soon, I had passed the end point and could climb up onto the metal dock. I was unsteady on my feet and took a moment to savor my accomplishment. Marian, Brian, and a few other people were standing on the dock cheering for me and I was just so happy to be done. My official time was 15 hours and 5 minutes, my second longest time in water to date, and I finished 8th out of 18. 

Me and Marie

After the race, the race director gave me a dog tag with 146 stamped on it and he told me that I had completed the 146th swim of the river. Marian and I made our way back to the hotel to pack our bags and get a short night’s sleep before another 3:30am wakeup call to catch a 5:30 flight back home. The travel day was a marathon in itself but I was very happy to arrive back in LA by 10am on Sunday. 

Although the swim was slower than I had hoped, I am really proud of my effort both physically and mentally to get through. I am also super grateful to Marie for expertly guiding and supporting me through the race. These swims might be called “solo” but they are all about the team. I have to thank Marian for being my race buddy, Marian’s kayaker Brian for supporting us both in general, Jax for being my team-leader-from-afar, my whole training team in LA for getting me ready for the big day, and everyone else who watched my tracker and cheered me on from afar! It was so much fun to get to do a group marathon swim, such a different experience than a solo!

Santa Monica Bay Swim

Santa Monica Bay Swim Recap

This season of marathon swimming has been unusual and unexpected. I thought that I would be swimming in North Dakota and Lake Michigan, and instead I got to complete two swims in the Pacific, a little close to home. The idea for the Santa Monica Bay Swim initially came from an off hand comment in June from a friend who suggested that maybe I should swim the bay. For the rest of the summer, I could not get the swim out of my head, and decided to book a boat and give it a go.

We boarded the Pacific Star in San Pedro to take the three hour trip out to the start up in Malibu. We all had our temperatures taken and wore masks and distanced. I’ve never really liked boats but I wasn’t particularly concerned about the trip, and figured that I would just sleep. The swells were large as we rounded the lighthouse to get out of Cabrillo and even though I tried to fall asleep, I ended up feeling very seasick and basically couldn’t stop throwing up. I cannot remember ever being that miserable. I ended up dragging my sleeping bag out onto the deck and sleeping on the floor of the boat for two hours before we got out to Malibu because it was the only way I could minimize being seasick.

Around 10:30pm my mom woke me up to tell me that we were arriving at Point Dume and I needed to get ready I. I was still so nauseous and didn’t even want to stand up but I slowly put my suit, cap, and goggles on and greased and put on sunscreen. I waited for the all clear to jump out of the boat. Jax told me that many successful Catalina swimmers have been sick on the way over and still had successful swims. This made me feel better even though I was dreading jumping in the cold water. The swells were big so I had to time it just right to get on the swim step and into the water safely. As soon as I hit the water I started feeling better. Jax accompanied me in the kayak over to the beach where I could tell the swells were breaking hard. Once Jax couldn’t get any closer to the beach in the kayak, I carefully swam in and almost got crunched by the pounding shore break, but managed to get my footing and get onto dry land. Something bumped my foot in the shallow water. I walked above the high tide line and there were a couple of people on the beach who wished me good luck on my swim. The boat gave a blast and I walked carefully into the water and swam back out to Jax.

Jax was accompanying me around the point and the swell was still quite large. She told me to use my eyes and ears to make sure I didn’t run into any submerged rocks but I didn’t see any so we kept going around the point. The wind picked up and was gusting and soon Jax couldn’t keep up with me because I wasn’t as affected by the wind in the water as she was in the kayak. I had to stop twice to wait for her to catch up so that we didn’t get separated in the dark water. Jax is one of the best kayakers I know and these were totally harrowing conditions. Eventually, Jax decided the best thing to do was the radio the boat have them come pick her up and I would just swim alongside the boat. I was not happy about this because I generally don’t like swimming alongside a big boat and much prefer having a kayak in the water, but it wasn’t actually a big deal because the captain did a great job and made it really easy to swim next to him. I had to wait and tread water for about 15 minutes while Jax caught up to us and they pulled her on board the boat and then we were off again heading south around Point Dume.

The water at the start had been quite warm but it quickly dropped and probably settled around 63° for most of the rest of the swim. After I started swimming next to the big boat, I finally began to find my rhythm and was actually enjoying myself despite how miserable I had been on the boat. For the next couple of hours, the swells stayed large and I was being tossed around a bunch but it didn’t feel like I was hitting them head on so it was okay. I was not too cold as long as I kept moving but for the first five minutes after stopping for each feed I would shiver until I got back up to maintaining my warmth. I wasn’t sure if starting a swim already kind of cold (from sleeping on the deck) and with absolutely nothing in my stomach (from repeatedly throwing up) was going to make me cold for the swim itself, but I seemed mostly okay and so I decided not to worry about it. I was continuing to swim alongside the big boat and take my feeds on a rope from the big boat and I was reminded of him swimming along my English Channel boat and feeding the same way three years ago. Every so often Steve would tell me that I was a little too far away and I would come back close to the boat, but I really didn’t have a problem following the boat in the dark. We were very lucky that despite the wind and chop it was a clear night with a full moon and I could see the horizon line the whole time which was making it feel more like grey light than pitch dark night. It was a completely different experience swimming under the moon!

At around four hours in when I was still alone in the water with just the big boat next to me, I started to hear dolphin chirping and suddenly there was a pair of dolphins swimming underneath me checking me out. They swooped back under me two or three times and I got to see them glowing in the moonlight. I’ve never actually seen dolphins during a marathon swim before so this is very very cool. The dolphin encounter could not have been more magical if I had imagined it.

I felt like I had a couple of support swimmers with me in the water for those few minutes. I knew that sunrise proper would be around six in the morning but around five the sky started to get lighter and I could see the horizon turning a bit orange. I was very excited for daylight because I was tired of the darkness and was actually having a bit of a hard time keeping my eyes open because I was sleepy but I knew that as soon as the sun came up I would be more awake.

One thing that was kind of funny was that in the darkness it was easy to make out the lights on the shoreline and I really felt like I was swimming across the bay, but when the sun came up a bit of fog rolled in and I couldn’t see the shore at all. I could’ve been out in the middle of the ocean for all I could see. As it got lighter, I took a feed and my mom told me that they were going to put a kayak back in the water with me now that conditions were slightly better. I was excited to have some company and glad there will be someone in the water during sunrise because I know that some kinds of animals like to come out around that time and I didn’t wanna be alone. Dan got in the kayak next to me and around this time also the water flattened out and I was finally getting the glassy conditions I hoped for for the swim. I picked up my tempo a bit trying to capitalize on the good conditions and make up some of the ground I knew I had lost in the time with big swell.

When the sun was truly up I asked Dan if I could swap to my dark goggles because the light was bothering my eyes in my clear goggles so I quickly changed my goggles and then we continued to head south. I felt like I was getting a push at this point while the water was so flat, but after talking to the crew later it turned out that the currents were actually quite swirly and we weren’t making nearly as much progress as I thought we were; I’m glad I didn’t know that at the time. I continued to follow my feed plan of a Carbo Pro every half hour with a GoGo Squeez apple sauce on the fourth half hour, but I did ask for the Carbo Pro to be made warm. After about 8 hours, I added Honey Stinger gels to my feed cycle and these extra calories really made a huge (and tasty) difference in my performance!

I was still thoroughly enjoying myself and laughing about how much I have been dreading doing this swim. By this point I had basically decided that the only way I was getting out before I finished was if someone had to pull me out because I had no intention of pulling myself out of it. At my next feed my mom told me that some of the classes at my elementary school The Willows, including my own 2nd grade teacher, were going to live stream my swim for the kids so when I stopped next, I waved hi and thanked them for watching me and supporting me. Dan was still in the kayak and was playing with my GoPro taking videos of me in the water. I asked him how far we had left to go and he told me 11 miles, which I was disappointed to hear because I had been hoping it would be closer to 8 miles. 11 miles meant 6 more hours in the water. Dan told me that at the next feed he and Jax were going to swap out.

I had to give myself a mental boost here because I was disappointed that I was going to have to swim for six more hours when I had been hoping it was just four. Part of me regretted asking Dan how much farther we had to go and part of me was just glad to know. I was just about to sing through the sound track of Heathers for the 10th time. Shortly after Jax got back in with me the wind started to pick up from the west and I knew we were starting to get the afternoon conditions that I was hoping to minimize but there still wasn’t much swell other than the wind chop. Because the wind was from the west and Jax I were to the east of the boat, we were both breathing in a lot about fuel fumes so Jax requested that we move to the west side of the boat instead. We were swimming on the west side now which took a little bit of adjustment for me but since I breathe bilaterally anyway it wasn’t a big deal to swap which side the kayak was on.

Around 12 hours in I started thinking about how my longest swim previously had been the English channel which was 13 hours and 15 minutes and then once I hit 13 hours and 16 minutes this would be my longest swim ever. Also around this point I thought that I finally had about four hours left so I started swimming very much feed to feed taking the swim in 30 minute intervals.

I was very ready to be done now, but also not feeling too tired and enjoying pushing the limits of how long I had ever been in the water before. The water was still quite choppy but since the wind was from the west at least I wasn’t taking the chop head-on. When I hit 13 hours 30 minutes I told Jax I was really happy that this was now my longest swim ever and Palos Verdes was becoming much clearer in the distance. When I had been in the water about 15 hours we were getting very close to some parts of shore but it seemed to me like we were heading for the North facing edge of the point when I knew that to finish the swim we needed to finish past the western point of the bay.

Jax, Dan, and I had a discussion and we all agreed that we needed to head further west and around the edge of the point into Lunada Bay to finish. This now meant that we had to turn and swim directly into the wind chop which was frustrating but we were just so close that I just wanted to get there. I saw a large fish of some kind underneath me and told Jax “there’s a big Fish”. Jax and I headed into a kelp bed because the water was calmer and we needed to get into shore. I spent about 15 or 20 minutes kelp crawling which was not fun to do but I’m sure it was funny to watch. Looking down at one point in the kelp I was surprised to see a turtle swimming beneath me. I had never seen a turtle in California before so I was very excited! Jax tried to get a picture with the GoPro but couldn’t get it out quickly enough and the turtle swam down away from us.

I decided that as much as crawling through the kelp was not fun, it was 100% worth it to see the turtle. Jax and I crabbed through the kelp getting closer to shore and Dan also hopped in a kayak to find the best landing spot for me. We headed in towards a rocky cliffy part to finish. It soon became clear that the way the surf was breaking and the way the cliff and rocks were slippery and covered in urchins and other dangerous things that I was going to need to finish by touching a rock connected to the cliff rather than completely clearing the water. Dan pointed out the best rock for me to use to finish and I timed it with the surf to reach and touch the rock to finish. I was a bit bummed that I didn’t get to completely clear the water on the finish but safety has to come first in these things and there wasn’t going to be a safe way for me to get out of or back into the water if I tried to clear it

.

After I finished I hopped on the back of Dan’s kayak so that I didn’t have to crawl through the kelp again and he paddled us back out to the big boat with Jax right behind us. Besides the first hour and last hour of the swim, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I think that I trained well so I wasn’t ever horribly tired and my feed plan worked well so I never had a big energy/caloric crash.

As much as I was ready to be done when I finished I could have kept swimming for several hours if I had needed to and I’m really really proud of that. Most of all I’m really proud that as terrible as I was feeling on the boat I still hopped in the water and gave the swim a try. I’m so grateful to my amazing crew (Jax, Dan, Steve, Natalie, and the whole crew of Pacific Star) for keeping me safe and happy to have a successful swim! I am also super grateful for everyone who followed along and cheered me to the finish.

15 mile swim recap

Back when the beaches first reopened, I decided to plan a local swim so that I would have a training goal. I picked this particular swim because my normal training spot was contained within it and because 15 miles felt like the longest distance that we could do safely with only kayaks.

So this “brilliant” idea is how I found myself standing on a beach in Malibu at 5:30 on a Saturday morning, getting ready to walk out into 59 degree water. We had arrived at the beach around 4:45 and it was so dark that all I could see were the lights on Malibu pier. I had to remind myself every few minutes that this swim was indeed a good idea. We brought the kayaks down to the water’s edge and I saw that there was almost no surf and the water was very cold, my guess would have been 56 but the thermometer told us it was 59. When Jax said “go” I waded out into the water, keeping my breathing even despite the temperature. My goggles immediately fogged up and I concentrated on trying find my stroke rhythm in the water and following Jax and Steve around the pier. 

The water was so cold that I was holding a higher tempo than I usually do at the beginning of a long swim but I knew I needed to create heat to have any hope of staying warm. At the first feed, I told Jax that the water was really cold and that I

was not yet warmed up. I shivered my way through the next half hour and started doubting my ability to even finish this swim if I was so cold already. I don’t usually doubt myself at the beginning of big swims, but I was already starting to claw up at an hour in and really did not think I could handle many hours in that water. At the second feed, I told Jax that I was still cold. I told myself that the water would get warmer for every mile I could cover, even though I had no reason to believe that it would. At least the water was glassy, even if it was cold.

By the third feed, the air started to warm up and the swim started to be a little bit less miserable. Despite the temperature, I felt like I was flying across the glassy water with a bit of swell at my back. I was taking the swim in 30 minute segments and they seemed to go by surprisingly fast as I enjoyed watching the fancy houses pass by and tried to guess where we were. Finally, about 2.5 hours into the swim, I started enjoying myself and while still cold, my hands and feet were no longer numb. 

I knew we were still a ways off but I wondered when we would be able to see the Santa Monica Pier. We could not yet see it but we saw two buildings in the distance that we thought were the buildings behind Tower 26, but later turned out to be a different apartment building in north Santa Monica. Finally I saw a landmark I recognized, as we passed the Getty Villa. Looking at a map later, this was about the halfway point of the swim.

Not our T26 buildings

The buildings in downtown Santa Monica loomed out of the fog and I was really happy to be able to see buildings that I knew. They did not seem to be getting any closer, though, and I could tell the swell was no longer at my back. At the same time the chop was picking up.

I could finally see the pier in the distance but I felt like it wasn’t getting any closer. I felt like we were stuck in a swirl, where one minute I would get a push, just to be drawn backward the next moment. We pressed on toward the pier with rocks on our right side. 

Passing the pier, I saw the buildings behind Tower 26 welcoming back into my home training area. While I was excited to be “home,” my stroke was struggling in the chop and I was starting to hurt. In addition, I now knew exactly the distance that I had left to cover and how long it would take. The baywatch boat was attached to the Tower 26 buoy so we headed straight for it.

As we passed the buoy, there were suddenly three other swimmers behind me and to my right. At first, I thought they were just other random swimmers and then I saw that it was actually Rebecca, Colin, and Iris coming out to keep me 

company. I was so happy to see them that I almost cried into my goggles. I picked up my stroke to stay a bit ahead of them and having them nearby finally pulled me out of the funk I had been feeling since being stuck in the current before the pier.

We stopped for a feed about halfway between the buoy and the rocks and Iris and Colin peeled off and I thanked them for joining me. Rebecca stayed with me and I was hoping to make it to the Venice Pier for the next feed. As we were passing the rocks, Jax moved to my other side, because she could see my parents on the beach and wanted them to be able to see me. After the rocks, Rebecca said goodbye and I was alone again but in much better spirits than before my friends had joined. 

We stopped for another feed right before Venice Pier and the chop was picking up. I was really feeling ready to finish the swim but was also enjoying the sun and the blue sky. As we got closer to Marina Del Rey, there were lots of boats and people on jet skis and I was especially grateful to have Jax on Steve on either side of me. I knew that they would not let me get run over. 

The north jetty was visible and I was disappointed when Steve said it was time to stop for the 7.5 hour feed because I just wanted to get to the end. I fed quickly and powered forward toward the jetty. I passed the edge of the breakwater and tried to pick up my pace and headed to the rocks. I could hear people on the beach cheering for me and put my head down and sprinted. I carefully swam up to the rocks and climbed up on them to get a hand on a dry rock and finish. I was so happy to see my parents and my friend Katherine waiting for me at the beach! I also had a cheerleader standing on the jetty as I swam in, but couldn’t see who it was behind their facemask, so if this was you: please let me know and thanks so much!

I am so grateful to everyone who helped make this swim successful! I could not have done it without my parents’ support, my kayakers amazing skill, and my friends’ encouragement, both along the way and in every training session. Overall, some parts of this swim were harder than I expected and I am really proud to have completed it, despite my unusual training this year!

 

 

 

Different meaning of “local”

I was supposed to be swimming 36 miles down a river in North Dakota yesterday. Clearly, 2020 had other ideas. Like so many other athletes, I have had most of my planned events cancelled due to COVID-19.

Back in the latter part of 2019 (which honestly feels like a different century), I was looking forward to a summer spent training and working in Chicago. I decided to take advantage of this and plan a season of swims all mostly near the midwest. I was going to swim ENDWET in North Dakota and a 24 miler in Lake Michigan. I was going to keep my 2020 swim season “local”.

Fast forward to June 2020 and I have now been in California for 97 days and I am having to redefine local. I am planning a few exciting swims for later in the summer, all near to my Santa Monica playground (more details to come). I am making the most of this unexpected time at home and training as much as I can in the Pacific Ocean.

This weekend I made the most of being home by swimming a little over 7 hours in the ocean. On Saturday, I met up with my friends Katherine and Gino to start my planned 4 hour swim. We swam to the buoy where I attached my feeds and then headed a little over a mile south to the Venice breakwater, affectionately known as “the rocks”. The current was mildly flowing north, meaning we would get a slight push for our return trip. This first lap took a little over an hour and when we got back to the buoy, Gino swam into the beach and Katherine and I headed back to the rocks.

The second lap was pretty uneventful except for the unusually warm water and I started to think about how Katherine was going to have to leave after this lap and I would have to hope I could find some other people to swim with because I had promised my mom that I would never swim in the ocean alone. Just as Katherine and I were approaching the buoy, I saw a group of people that I know swimming back south. I quickly said goodbye to Katherine and turned back south with the group, choosing to skip my feed so that I wouldn’t have to catch up too much. We swam south to the rainbow tower, which is a little less than a mile from the buoy. When we stopped at rainbow, I realized my usual training buddy, Rebecca, was actually swimming with this group even though I thought she had decided not to swim that day. When the rest of the group went back towards the buoy, we continued south and swam to the rocks. I was very happy about this impromptu extension because I was hoping to complete 3 laps to the rocks.

When we arrived back at the buoy, I had been swimming for about 3 and a half hours and really wanted to swim for 4 full hours, but I had no friends to swim with anymore. The lifeguard tower was open, so I decided to pass the last 30 minutes doing laps between the beach and the buoy; each about 500 yards round trip. The water was so warm that I felt like I could keep swimming forever. I finished my last 30 minutes and headed into the beach satisfied with my patchwork 4 hour swim.

On Sunday, I planned to swim 3 hours but again needed to string together a series of people to keep me company. I met up with most of my usual Sunday group for the first trip to the rocks. The water was slightly cooler than yesterday but still warm. For the first lap, I was trying to find rhythm and shake off the soreness from my long swim yesterday. I was only moderately successful at finding rhythm, but the water was so flat that it was still a somewhat enjoyable lap.

After the first lap, Katherine joined me, Kristin, and Rebecca for another trip to the rocks. I enjoyed this lap much more and felt my body loosen up more. I pushed my pace on the way back, letting myself have fun in the glassy water. The conditions were so nice and I was just so grateful for the opportunity to swim. After that second lap, I still needed about 45 more minutes to reach 3 hours, but Katherine’s meter was going to run out and everyone else needed to be home.

Katherine and I decided that I would swim laps from the buoy to the shore and she would run to fill her meter so that we could keep swimming. As we were swimming in though, we ran into some of our SCAQ friends and Katherine told me to swim north to the pier with them and she would jog down the beach and meet up with us. This sounded like a perfect plan so I headed north with the SCAQ group and Katherine went to her car. When we were about 1/2 way to the pier, Katherine intercepted us and we set a speedy pace to the pier. At the pier we turned around to swim against the current back to the buoy.

As we approached the buoy, I built my pace and soon I was sprinting for the last couple 100 yards. It felt surprisingly good to sprint after months of not being in the pool. We swam into shore and I felt again like I could have kept swimming forever. I am certainly sore from the 7 combined hours of swimming, but also finally feeling like I am at a good place in my training.

So although I expected “local” to mean lots of Chicago lake swimming for 2020, it appears that staying local actually meant returning to my childhood home and spending the summer enjoying every minute I get to spent in the Pacific.

2020: The summer of working with what we have

What a wild ride 2020 has been! I have been resisting blogging because I have been practicing living in the moment and focusing on enjoying every day and opportunity to swim. The time has come for me to reflect on these last few weeks of training and the exciting opportunity to train at home rather than in Lake Michigan. I am still in California (surprise!) and have the unexpected chance to participate in some really cool swims in the coming months!

For the first block of weeks that I was home, I did the majority of my training in my parents tiny backyard pool. This pool was great for maintaining my mental connection to the water and some endurance, but I certainly felt constrained by the space and my lack of creativity with tethered workouts. I am so grateful to be mixing ocean swimming back into my routine, since the beaches are back open!

My training buddy Hannah and I have been slowly building our weekend swims, alternating between my home beach in Santa Monica and her local beach at Shaw’s Cove. Santa Monica is usually flat and we can push our distance and speed, while Shaws provides the opportunity to practice swimming in challenging conditions. Each swim feels so special because it was only a few weeks ago that beaches were off limits to even swimmers. I was also pleasantly surprised by how much my tethered training seems to have maintained my swim endurance and technique.

COVID has also presented unique challenges to my normal training routine, but open water swimming also lends itself more naturally to social distancing than some other sports. I’m sure some people are curious about the precautions that we are taking so I will explain. My training group is small and we are very careful to maintain our distance, both in and out of the water. We park on the same street, put on our masks and get completely ready to get in the water at our cars. We walk down to the water, all wearing our masks and don’t share gear the way we normally might. Our training walks the fine line between staying close enough to keep eachother safe from a water safety standpoint and far enough to keep eachother safe from a COVID standpoint. As most swimming events have been cancelled this year, we are embracing our training and enjoying our time together!

I will reviving this blog to chronicle my training for the rest of the summer. Stay tuned for some exciting announcements in the next few weeks!

Lake Tahoe Length Recap

I’ll start by saying that I was unusually nervous for this swim. It had been 2 years since I had swum anything over 8 hours and this swim just felt long. Also, I have done enough swims at this point that its seem (at least to me) that everyone just expects me to be successful. It is not a bad thing to have people have confidence in me but it is stressful to worry about failing under those expectations. I even contemplated not posting about the swim until I finished because I was so worried about falling short of my goal. But, while I don’t like the pressure of possibly letting people down, I do value the flipside of having people hold me accountable to my goals.

One of my other worries was that Lake Tahoe length crossings start around 9pm and occur mostly overnight. Not only do I usually dislike night swimming, most people who know me know that I hate staying up late. I researched the possibility of a later start and discussed this idea with many veteran swimmers, but ultimately decided that dark and flat outweighed light and windy. And so, I found myself watching the sunset over the lake with my crew waiting for our 9pm jump time. When I told my kayaker and guide extraordinaire Catherine Breed about my fear of swimming in the dark, she assured me that I would always be able to see the contrast between the mountains and the sky. This comforted me and was absolutely true.

It was surreal to stand on the beach in cap and goggles while vacationers dined on an outdoor patio behind me. Once they saw me and understood what I was going to do, I had a whole patio of people cheering for me. When John the observer gave me a 3 minute warning, I got in and splashed around because I do not like starting dry and then found my way back to dry land to wait for the count down.

Catherine was already in the kayak waiting for me and when John said “go”, I walked into the cool water and started to swim. I started swimming along the pier with Catherine on my other side, trying to find my rhythm and let my eyes adjust to the darkness. The water was warmer than the air and my stroke felt jittery in the excitement of the start. I had to remind myself that I wanted to use the first 3 hours to find my stroke and not to go out too fast. All the same, I felt like I was flying across the slightly bumpy water. I knew that the wind was supposed to die down by 11pm and that the water should flatten out too.

The first feed came more quickly than I expected and I fed quickly and continued finding my pace. I was so happy that I could still see the difference between the distant mountains and the sky, which provided context. Breathing to one side I could see the the dark mountains and distant city lights, and breathing to the other I could see the light son the kayak and the red light on Catherine’s head. The contrast was peaceful. I also had a green light on my goggle strap that occasionally illuminated my hands in the water. On the second feed, I remembered to look at the stars shining bright above me. I also asked Catherine to switch the kayak from my right side to my left which helped me keep my stroke more even and made my neck happier. Even though, I am a bilateral breather, I find that I can sometimes see much better on one side versus the other.

I never did see the moon, Catherine said that she could see it periodically when the clouds moved aside! The early parts of these long swims is mentally difficult because it is hard for me to ignore how far I still have to go. I gave myself until the end of the 3rd hour to find my rhythm and even though my stroke was feeling smoother, I was struggling with already wanting to be done with the darkness. I kept reminding myself to just swim for the next 30 minutes and get to the next feed. I knew once I reached the halfway point, I would feel re-energized, so I set the halfway point as a goal.

Although the darkness prevented me from seeing my progress, I finally started to feel like I was making some distance away from the southern starting point. Hours 4 and 5 were spent wishing for news of reaching halfway and feeling the air continue to get colder.

At the hour 5 feed, Catherine got onto the boat to rest and I swam beside the boat for a while. Anyone who has trained with me knows that I struggle to maintain a straight line in the water and darkness makes this much worse. I had a very difficult time telling the angle of the boat in the water, despite the many lights hanging from it. Several times, I found myself swimming perpendicularly away from the boat and heard the crew shouting at me to come back. They yelled that I should swim towards a dip in the ridge that was backlit. It was around 2am at this point and I could not figure out why it looked like the sun was rising over the northern hills. Finally I asked what the light was and the crew shouted “Reno!” and finally I understood where I was headed!

I was really not enjoying swimming just with the boat but instead focused passing the halfway point and making progress. Around 7 hours, I started to get more comfortable getting used to swimming next to the boat and they added a blue light which really helped. I asked if Catherine was going to be coming back in soon and when I stopped to feed at 7.5 hours, she hopped back in the kayak!

I was so happy to have the kayak back guiding me and felt like I was flying through the water. I kept wondering if I was going to hit a wall and stop feeling strong. Catherine said: “What’s your 10k pace? All you have left is a 10k and a bonus mile!” I knew that the few hours before dawn were when I was going to be the coldest and that it had to be around 5am so I was getting excited for the sun to come up and warm me up.

At the 8-hour feed, Catherine told me that I had about a 10k left and that if I could do it in less than 3 hours I would “crush” my goal time. I focused on descending each hour of the 3 hours and wondered if I would hit a wall sometime soon. I started having fun and feeling speedy in the water but also feeling very ready to be done. The sky was finally light and I switched to my dark goggles and started to feel warmer.

We began to swim into a small bay but I felt like I stopped making progress as the edges of the bay refused to get any closer. At the next feed, Catherine acknowledged that we were fighting a headwind but that I should keep pushing and I asked for an Advil at the 10.5-hour feed. We continued moving forward and when I sighted forward, I could finally see light glinting off the boats near the finish. These looked deceptively close and Catherine told me at the 10.5-ghour feed that she thought we were about 2800 yards away. I was disappointed to hear this because it meant that my time would certainly be over 11 hours.

The Advil helped a little bit and I kept trying to build into my fastest pace. Catherine kept reminding me to kick but I was starting to really really want to finish. At the 11-hour feed, Catherine asked if I wanted to take an applesauce as it would be my last feed. I thought that I was very close so I just had one swallow of applesauce before continuing to swim. I soon regretted this as I was still about 20 minutes from the finish. When I finally started passing boats, marking my proximity to the finish, my energy was fading and I was aching. I continued to swim to the beach, with Catherine guiding me and finally saw sand underneath me. I picked up my stroke tempo and swam up onto the beach. I stood up slowly and sort of hopped up onto the sand, finding dry sand and raising my arms. I was finally done. I stood there, looking back across the lake and couldn’t believe that I had swum so far.

I am so grateful to my whole crew for making this swim possible and especially to Catherine for supporting me in the water. I honestly do not think I could have done this swim without her. Overall, this was a very fun swim and I am very proud of how I was able to build it and how well my stroke held together for the 11 hours. I learned a lot about pushing my limits especially in terms of effort on this swim and can’t wait to translate these lessons onto future swims! Thank you so much to everyone near and far who cheered me on!