We got up at 5:30 and were getting everything ready to go to
the lake and pulled out at 6:00 after a crappy night’s sleep. We got to the
marina got the boats unloaded and all checked in. I let my buddy Goody borrow
my paddler for this race because his wife had other commitments. I told Goody
that taking a guys paddler was like taking a guys wife. It was all in good fun
I was happy to help goody out with getting him a paddler. We all loaded up on
the bus to go to Cisco beach for the start of the race. On the way there our
little group chatted and was joking around. We got to the beach and got thinks
ready to go. I chatted more with Matt and Goody. We crawled into the water and
the first thing I noticed was how clear and blue the water was. It was amazing.
I also heard other people complaining that the water was cold, I just smiled
when I noticed that the people that were complaining had wet suits on. After what
seemed like forever we lined up and started the race. I started off at what I thought
was a good pace and got into a good groove. There was a ski boat that was
patrolling the race kept coming by to check on every one. I told Ryan to keep a
straight line towards the buoy’s the boat came back after a bit and said to
head straight north that the markers had broke loose and we were way off
course. I told Ryan to just follow the people ahead of me and that we would go
from there. Soon after the halfway point I realized that I had passed all of
the people that we were following. Ryan told me that he could see the marina
and that he would just go straight towards the rocks. About two miles from the
finish the chop started getting really bad. I stopped to take a feed and told
Ryan that the chop was killing me. He said that a boat came really close to us
and turned, thus hitting me with the wake. As I got closer to the marina I noticed
a park ranger boat escorting us past all of the dorks that were coming from the
marina. It was an extra security blanket to help keep the swimmers safe. During
all of this Ryan was keeping about a 15 foot distance from me until I got
closer to the marina then he was about 5 feet from me to help keep me noticed
in the water with all of the boats. Also at one time the ranger boat cut directly
in front of me to keep a boat away. I finally cleared the rocks and our escort
was gone. It was smooth sailing from here to the finish line. About 30 yards
from the finish I swam thru some sticks that were just below the surface of the
water. The scratched up my chest a little and before I knew it I was done. I walked
out of the water to my waiting beautiful wife and her cheers. I had just
crossed the width of Bear Lake in 3 hours and 40 minutes. I walked up to the pavilion
where we had checked in and there was no bananas water or anything. I shrugged
it off as to it being the first race for this group. I also thought that
leading up to the race there was questions of what was going on. The buoys that
were supposed to be marking the course every mile were not there. It was a good
race and I hope next year they have learned from what went wrong and do a
better job. All in all it was a great weekend.
Heres the link to my Hydro Tracker for the crossing
http://www.finisinc.com/streamline/share/workout/view/50314f4042c22
As for the remainder of the open water season I am going to
swim the Slam the Dam in Las Vegas and Josh is putting together a length
crossing relay at Bear Lake that I am super excited for. I also plan to swim
the 8 mile Antelope to Black Rock swim that I missed due to the weather. I also plan to do a Channel Magnitude swim
from Black Rock to White Rock bay this year.
Great job! See you at Slam the Dam! Wahoo!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. That's a good time!
ReplyDelete