It’s pretty funny to now think of this, but as recently as 2002, I really could not swim. In the water, I’d be like a fish out of the water, flailing my body around and splashing a lot. I still may be a mediocre swimmer, but at least swimming 2.4 miles is no longer a problem for me — at least with a wetsuit.
I guess I must have recovered from the hypothermic trauma of last-year’s Horsetooth One-Mile Open Water Swim, because recently I’ve been thinking about how I can transform from an amoeba to a catfish. To that end, I thought it would be a good idea to get a video analysis of What I Am Doing Wrong, because in past years reading Total Immersion books and doing their drills haven’t been able to prevent me from emerging from the waters as one of the last. Call me a visual person, but I tend to learn best by seeing instead of feeling or listening. Continue reading »
“I signed up for the Horsetooth One Mile Swim,” I told a friend excitedly one day in late July. “I looked at last year’s results and I think I wouldn’t even finish last!”
Yes, after my amoeba-like wetsuit-laden SF Bay crawl at last month’s Alcatraz Challenge in which my goal was to Simply Not Drown, I decided to do a local event in calmer waters to test how well I truly could swim. There would be no wetsuit to help keep me afloat, no running (or biking) afterward to conserve energy for or to rely on to make up lost time. I’d just be wearing skimpy swim trunks, goggles and swim cap to race against the clock for a whole mile. A first in my life. Continue reading »
There were several reasons the Alcatraz Challenge was on my long list of things to do before keeling over and becoming a decomposing, inanimate corpse. I wanted to do an open saltwater swim at least once in my life, and there was the cachet of “escaping” from the supposedly inescapable island of Alcatraz, the former site of a maximum-security U.S. military and federal prison. Swimming towards the city of San Francisco was also sure to offer an unparalleled perspective of its spectacular skyline.
But the greatest motivator was a 2006 newspaper article about a seven-year-old boy successfully swimming from Alcatraz to SF. Seven years old! If a second-grader just a few years removed from diapers could do it, I thought I certainly could. Continue reading »
It sounded like a good idea at the time. Make that a great one.
“We could go also go to Santa Cruz to do some surfing,” said my friend Adrian after I told him I was hoping to visit over the weekend. Never mind that it turned out Evelyn (Adrian’s wife) was not very keen on the idea (her precise words: “I’m NOT going!”), and Adrian had only surfed one time before, which was exactly one more time than I.
“Great,” I finally remarked after some discussion of whether we should take lessons or not (being the intrepid dudes we are, we decided on the latter). “I’ll come over tomorrow, preferably after I look up Wikipedia on ‘how to surf.’” Continue reading »
I used to think swimming 2.4 miles in an Ironman triathlon was a pretty big deal. Actually, considering that half the time I’d feel like I’m drowning, or being clobbered by other people’s arm swings, or feeling like the Michelin Man in a rubber wetsuit that has a tendency to chafe the back of my neck, I still think it is a distance more suitable for whales. But that’s just me. Apparently. Continue reading »
Having a 20-yard lap pool with lane lines and mountain views 800 feet from home is great. Having that and Richard’s Lake 500 feet away is heavenly. So on a day when record heat was recorded (mid-90s), I decided to jump in the lake for the first time.
Why I’ve waited until now, I’m not sure. Continue reading »
 "Racers swimming from Alcatraz to San Francisco. (Photo: jsonline.com, from a previous event)")
 "Martin Strel, an ultra-marathon swimmer. (Photo: AP)")
