It has been a little while since I last blogged. I have been swimming, I just haven’t been writing. Usually after a big swim it takes me a few days to collect my thoughts to write about it.

A few weeks back Roper mentioned to me that he had heard that I was interested in doing an ocean swim. He said that he had heard that I was keen on being dropped 5 miles outside the gate and swimming back for a 5 hour training. To be honest I can’t take credit for this idea. It is a Reptile swim through and through. I told him I was interested in this swim but as it turned out Reptile was busy running the Big Sur marathon so Roper was going to take me solo. Now, from the moment I agreed I had reservations. I didn’t want to take a swim that was thought up by someone else. I was just willing to swim anything Roper wanted me to swim. As we neared the date he had set aside the course changed. Thank goodness!

I started my Saturday morning in a very interesting way. I had my normal pre-swim routine but when I arrived at the club I was greeted by a skunk that scurried out from under the barge inside the club. It ran for the door that was barely open and squeezed out, knocking it’s head to push the door open. I was very lucky that it didn’t spray me. I think I was more scared than the skunk. I was hoping this was going to be my only moment of panic for the day.
I went up stairs to see Bobby and he had a look of concern on his face. Oh no what is going on? He had originally thought he wanted to swim me from Pt. Bonita to Candlestick. This seemed like a great idea. It would take my two big bay swims to date and combine them. Everything would be familiar to me. He told me that there was too much vessel traffic and crossing under the gate was going to be tough. We would have to thread the needle so to speak between boats. Not exactly how I wanted to start off a swim. His look of concern was because he thought I would be disappointed. I told him I just wanted to swim for 5 hours, I really didn’t care where I started and where I finished.

Bill arrived and we packed up the kayak and started to walk down to the end of Hyde St. pier to meet Dewey and Tom. I had no idea what to expect on this swim at that moment. I wasn’t sure where we were starting. I had never met Tom or Dewey. I had never seen the boat. I was just going with the flow. I could see that Bobby’s brain was turning. He looked at his slips of paper that had his notes about the vessel traffic 5 or 6 times while we stood on the dock. You could see the gears turning in his head as he was formulating a plan. He kept asking me if it would be alright to start just outside the gate and I told him once again that I was willing to swim anything.

When I was coming across the Bay Bridge in the morning it dawned on me that I had never asked what I should bring for my pilots. I felt stupid for not setting up a cooler with food and drink for the crew. I had only thought about my own feedings and myself. When we boarded Dewey’s boat I realized there was nothing to feel bad about. Dewey had bagels, fruit, Peet’s coffee, donuts, beer, sandwiches… Everyone was taken care of. I checked out the boat and couldn’t believe the luxury of it all. Bathroom, shower, couches, kitchen… anything you might need or want. This was going to be a great swim and a great day on the bay for my crew.

We started to motor out towards the GG Bridge. As we neared the bridge there was discussion as to where the best place to drop me was going to be. Definitely outside the bridge but not near the potato patch or too near the tower or in the way of oncoming traffic. I didn’t really want to have any say in this decision so I concentrated on getting ready, setting up my GPS, adjusting my new goggles and psyching myself up for a bit of time in the water. Estimated jump time was going to be 7:30, there was a 4.1 knot flood with max at around 11:30. Bobby’s plan was for me to jump during slack and then he said I would start to feel a push about 45 minutes into my swim. Right before I climbed to the edge of the boat to jump off Dewey looked at me and said “I have a feeling I am going to have a new hero after today”. I looked at Bobby thinking he was talking about him but he was talking about me. Hero I thought, not me, my heroes were either in a kayak or standing on deck. All of these guys dedicated their Saturday to being there for me. I was as curious about why they would do this, as they were curious as to what I was thinking the moment I jumped off the boat.

I usually have some type of great story about what the bay did to me during a long swim but this swim was pretty uneventful. The day was mostly about calming my mind for a longer period. Building endurance for when I am in the water for 10-12 hours. Learning how my body reacted to my feedings. Getting into a rhythm and keeping my arms going. Since everything during this swim was familiar to me the benefit was that I really took in the scenery and enjoyed watching the beautiful SF waterfront slide past me. When I passed by the entrance to Aquatic park I felt a boost of energy. As it turns out Trudy, Rosemary and Jenn saw me and waved. I didn’t see them but I definitely felt their good vibes. Suzanne said she thought she saw me in the water when she was crossing the bridge on her way home. I was surrounded by love and it helped.

I started to feel the push of the flood about a half hour into the swim. Each half hour that passed between feedings felt like 10 minutes. The time was flying by and I had my wits about me the whole time. I was acutely aware of what was going on around me and where I was. It took me less than 2 hours to go from the GG Bridge to the Bay bridge. I felt like I was making good time. I did have a song stuck in my head almost the entire swim but it seemed to work well. It went like this:

This summer I went swimming
This summer I might have drowned
but I held my breath and I kicked my feet
and I moved my arms around
I moved my arms around

This summer I swam in the ocean
and swam in swimming pool
Salt my wounds
Chlorined my eyes
I am a self destructing fool
A self destructing fool.

When we started to head south after coming under the Bay bridge, Bill said it couldn’t have been a more perfect day. It was so calm and smooth. The water temperature was comfortable and the flood was pushing me along. After about Hunter’s point the wind started to pick up like it does down in that part of the bay. I started to struggle a little. Bobby said my stroke count went from 72 to 60. I wasn’t tired but I was having a hard time getting my left shoulder all the way around. Just as I would pick up my arm it would be stopped by a wave and I wasn’t able to continue a full rotation. This ultimately made my shoulder really hurt. At the 3 hour mark the wind was enough for Bill so he climbed on board the boat. Now I was guided by the big boat. When we were parallel to Candlestick they started to guide me south east. At first I thought they might be guiding me out into the current a little more so that I could get a free ride. I quickly realized that they were heading me towards the San Mateo bridge. I knew this was a swim Bobby wanted me to do. The day before he was recounting the adventure of piloting Grampa Drew from the GG to the San Mateo bridge.

At my 3 1/2 hour feeding I asked if they were swimming me down to the bridge. I asked if they thought I could make it in an hour and half. All I was thinking at this point was that I needed to be at 5 o’clock mass for the first communion of my Goddaughter. Was there enough time. I started to do the calculations in my head. Time swimming + time returning + time warming up and showering = maybe not making it to church on time. In retrospect this is the point in which I should have taken some advil and maybe a boost of caffeine. I pushed on for another half hour. When I stopped at the 4 hour mark I admitted that my left shoulder was hurting. Bobby gave me a big smile and said do you want to get out? I agreed. I gave in easily. I think if I didn’t have an event to attend later in the day I might have pushed through. I was thinking that I wanted to get out, warm up and focus on seeing my family later on. It was the right decision. No sense in hurting myself and slowing my training for my ultimate goal of swimming the length of Tahoe. This was training, not the end all be all.

To sum up the day it was incredible. I was very surprised at my strength and endurance. How I had the ability to let it all go in my mind and just keep moving. Total my GPS logged the course I swam at 14.42 miles. I couldn’t have done it with out my crew. Bobby’s “Yeah baby” with two thumbs up made me smile every single time. Bill picked the perfect line and fed me without fail. We wouldn’t have been there at all if it wasn’t for Tom and Dewey. I am forever grateful for their assistance in helping me move closer to my goal. After I was out and warm I asked them all why they did it? They all said for the bragging rights to tell their friends that they swam me from the GG bridge to the SF airport on a perfect day.

Next time I will touch the San Mateo bridge. Until then I have many more thousands of yards to swim in the pool and miles in the lake, as soon as it stops snowing. Every stroke is a stroke closer to my big day. I am almost ready!