This past Saturday, May 15th,  I accomplished a training swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the San Mateo Bridge, a distance of 23 miles. I swam it in 7 hours and 21 minutes, bettering my previous time by 36 minutes, and beating the woman’s record by 33 minutes.  The conditions were absolutely perfect. In the south bay the winds come down off the San Bruno mountains and stir up the water something fierce. On this swim everything lined up in my favor including the direction of the wind. When it did start to stir up, it was blowing in the exact direction I was swimming and I was being pushed along instead of having to fight it.

The entire swim felt easy. It was a very happy swim. I had my trademark smile plastered on my face the entire time. I even had enough gas left in the tank in the end to tease Roper. When I was about 2 miles from the San Mateo Bridge, I swam up to the mother ship and told Roper that I thought  I had enough and wanted to get back on board.  If you don’t know Bob Roper then let me tell you one of his nicknames.  He is fondly called Bob “you’re not getting back on the boat” Roper. The look on his face was priceless and I thought to myself later that I shouldn’t have given his ticker such a startle. I just had so much energy left at that stage that I thought it would be fun to mess with everyone.

There is not much to report  for this swim. It was easy start to finish. I had very little pain except a bit of bicep rub on my humerus. That was easily cured with a couple of advil. My feedings were perfect and for the first time ever I didn’t throw up.  I didn’t have any profound thoughts or revelations. My mind was like a blank slate the entire time, happily dumb, I call it. I knew exactly where I was on the swim. I divided it up into three parts, Golden Gate Bridge to Bay Bridge, Bay Bridge to Candlestick Park and Candlestick Park to San Mateo Bridge. I knew exactly how long each leg would take me and the rest of the swim was just about getting my arms going around for 7+ hours.

My crew was the highlight of the entire swim. I was so happy to be back on board Changes in Attitude. Dewey and Mark are the nicest guys and were equally excited to be out there as I was. Paul Springer and Chas Ferrari are new additions to my Farallones team. They both did an incredible job of navigating and feeding me and I feel so comfortable with them as my kayak support. I am really glad they will both be a part of my big day. When I saw Chas having an Anchor Steam on board with a few miles to go I thought to myself these guys are perfect team members. As for Bob, I would not be able to do any of this without him. He organizes and directs all of my training swims and even takes my teasing.  The whole day would never have happened if it wasn’t for these guys.  It was a true team effort.

I have a few more weeks of moderate training left.  We will be going back out to the sea buoy on the 25th for my final long swim. My goal for that swim will be to swim it all the way into Aquatic Park. After that I will slowly start tapering and completing my mental preparations for the Farallones.  I am closing in on accomplishing my goal and it feels good.

Here is a video that my Dad made…enjoy.

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