Off the Deck

What kind of minion am I — the final Catalina time was ten hours, forty-one minutes and 32 seconds, not forty two minutes as I originally posted.

Thanks to the Math Savant for pointing the error out — very Math Savant-y, always watching the numbers!

And my apologies to all for adding one more minute to the swim!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

First, an apology to all of the readers who texted, emailed or called me recently to ask “where are the posts?!?” Absolutely, I have been very busy lately. But you’re right — blogs must be kept up to date, no excuse! Thank you very much for your demand — it not only reminded me of my original blog commitment but also warmed my writer’s heart.

Now, onto the recap! Based on the events of the past few days, I think the quickest approach is a short section per the most commonly asked questions…

Conditions: I got my wish for “water like glass,” major yay! Of course, I wanted calm conditions to make the swim as easy as possible for our intrepid channel crossers. But, one too many training sessions on really choppy fresh water, when I could barely keep up with swimmers for hours on end, had me panicked about rough conditions on game day. Thank God there was very little wave or wind! Water temperature remained at 64 until the final cove when it dropped to 60. That might sound nippy, but even here we lucked out — the Channel had been several degrees cooler for a few days prior.

Results: Yes, all three swimmers, Katie, Cliff and the Math Savant not only swam but finished together: Ten hours, 42 minutes and 31 seconds. In fact, they did a fantastic job of pack-swimming the entire time. They either swam three in-a-row or in a nice little bird-V-formation with the Math Savant taking point.

Best and Worst Swimmer Moments: Oddily, the finish was both. It was beyond amazing to realize that they were going to be successful. But it was so hard to watch them ssssllllllooooowwwww down once they hit the cove due to the water temperature drop, navigate through all the kelp, then struggle to gain a foothold on the very rocky beach.

Swimmer Rage: Cliff smiled a lot and cracked jokes during the feeds. The Math Savant was swimming so strong he was, dare I say it, “giddy.” Katie however, yelled at me, the Math Savant and maybe a few others as well. To her credit, she immediately apologized profusely as soon as she was back on the boat, while her teeth were still chattering. No worries though — anyone who’s either swum or paddled a marathon knows swimmer rage happens. And that what happens on the water stays on the water. Katie — we still love you!

Marine Life: Again, I got my wish — I saw tons! While on the water, I had excellent company — two dolfins on each side of the kayak for my entire paddling shift — such good company! As they clicked and chattered away, I could only imagine that they were talking about me (“What is this tiny human doing out in the middle of our ocean at 2 a.m.? Is she lost?”) I also saw squid, tiny silver fish that leaped out of the water and over the kayak, a sea lion, seals, sea urchins, starfish, jellyfish, a sea turtle (!) and sharks. Yes, sharks. Each time though, they were zooming away from the swimmers, so I figured, “why stress them out by telling them?” So, shhhhhh — it’s our secret! Best part though? On the way back to the dock, about 30 dolfins surrounded the boat and body-surfed and flipped on the ship’s waves. I think it was one of the most joyous things I have seen in my lifetime.

Swimming/Paddling in the Dark: Yes, we started at night. Ten minutes before midnight to be exact. No, it didn’t freak me out to be on the ocean in a kayak at night. After hearing from other Catalina Channel swimmers and paddlers who did get spooked, I was prepared for the worst. Yet, I found it to be a curious mix of “calming” and “exhilirating.” Besides, I wasn’t out there all alone. I had three swimmers with me, a boat, and a headlamp. The strap kept spronging loose though, so the headlamp would slide down over one eye often. It made me feel very pirate-y.

Worst Minion Moment: I definitely had one really bad hour. No-one was there to meet me after my first paddle shift, so in the wake I capsized. My first thought was to gather everything and chuck it back into the kayak. My second was to not separate the kayak and ship. So there I was, in the water, one hand on the kayak, the other on the boat. Luckily one the huge crew members saw my plight and fished me out of the water after securing the kayak. I changed into dry clothes immediately, but I was chilled and couldn’t warm up. And then the sea sickness started… I had taken dramamine before getting on the ship, had the pressure point bands on (thanks again for the loan Teri Jean!), and snarfed some ginger cookies and ginger chewies in the car on the way to the dock. But I still got sick. I think it was one too many factors that tipped the balance, literally, at that point. I was cold, exhausted (I think it was 3 or 4 a.m. or so by then) and moving from ship to kayak to ship was unsettling. At least I remembered to throw up over the side of the ship, and not on the ship, as previously instructed. And I managed to throw up on the opposite side, away from the swimmers. After um, “clearing my stomach,” I decided to take a nap and then wake up magically restored. And that’s what happened — I was fine!

Minion Perspective Summary: As the Math Savant promised me way back in April, it was “an adventure.” Absolutely, it was very phsysically challenging, and I wasn’t even swimming! But it was also one of the most unusual and fun things I’ve done too. The perfectionist in me hopes to do it again because there were so many things I could have done better as Head Minion. But hey, you don’t know until you do it, right? Do I want to swim it myself? Despite people warning me beforehand that I’d “get the Channel bug” while serving as support crew, I can honestly say “no.” Foremost, I don’t think I have the right body type — too small. I would get very cold, very fast and thus fail. Heck, I get shaky-blue-cold just standing around in a pool on drill/technique days. And, as much as I love the ocean and swimming, I don’t think I want to do any activity for 8-12 hours straight. Nor the bazillion of miles of training required. I prefer to keep mixing it up with different strokes, distances, places, events and practices.

This post’s ultimate conclusion and final word however, has to go Katie, Cliff and the Math Savant. It was an honor to serve as your minion because you were AWESOME!

Until next time (and I promise it won’t be weeks!),
Rebecca, swim evangelist

My 16-hour day last Saturday continued after we switched lakes: the Catalina Channel swimmers wanted to get in another long open water training swim.

Foremost, for the paddlers, the conditions were so much better this time. Perfect temperature. Not too hot, not too cold. No wind. May we have similar glass-like water conditions on the ocean in August!

Unfortunately, Slippery Otter (when you paddle for hours on end you start to feel sort of Native-American-ish, so I decided we all needed Native American-ish names for the summer) and I wanted to smack the swimmers with our oars by loop two. Despite voicing our strong anti-separating stance after the last paddle, there was about a mile between two pairs of swimmers by the end of the second loop.

Did I mention that there is an island in the middle of the lake? Yep, that’s right. Thanks to Bird Island (and I don’t fault the birds. They need a place to nest), you can’t do an entire lake-scan from any point on the water. And then there’s the Bermuda Triangle Corner. Due to a rocky, deeply curving shoreline, the swimmers simply vanish in that cove.

After the first paddle, Slippery Otter and I felt horrible for days after because we couldn’t stay with everyone four the entire six hours. By the end of the second loop during our second time out though, we realized that the swimmers were bringing it on themselves. If they didn’t stay reasonably close together, we couldn’t promise that we could feed them on scheudule, let alone site them.

As a result, the paddle-minions are threatening to unionize unless we have a second kayak for the third training swim coming up in July. A 12-box of Pop-Tarts per paddle session may also be part of our negotiating terms. Definitely the strawberry ones with frosting and sprinkles.

Thanks to the addition of Grumbling Bear (Jagged Mountain’s son), we had a third paddler this past Saturday. Not only was it great to have more help (and fresh arms/shoulders) but once Grumbling Bear took over for me, I was able to get in and swim at the end. For me, it’s definitely hard to be out on the water all day and not swim!

Although I worked the entire time at the 6K earlier that morning and then paddled for several hours, I was still “fresher” than the swimmers who were on hour six by then. I kind of felt like a friendly dolphin, encouraging on tired saliors as I swam ahead, behind, in between and to one side and the other of one pair of Catalina swimmers. Even though the water temperature was 73-degrees, I needed to keep moving to stay warm!

Certainly, the long day was good “handle anything that comes my way” training for Catalina in August…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist & paddle-minion

A special shout-out to Slippery Otter who paddled the entire time — way to train, paddle-minion!!!

Yesterday was a big swim day. So big, in fact, that I need to cover the events in a part one/two format.*

It started with the National 6K in Windsor. Although my preference is always to swim, it’s always good to have an opportunity to live up to my self-professed swim evangelism title — giving back to the sport that has given me so much is very important to me. And, after seeing the flip side of an event, the competitive swimmer in me now has a greater appreciation for having events. It takes a lot of time, energy, money, organization and people to make them happen.

The morning was fun and went by in a blur. I jumped from job to job: register swimmers, cart water bottles to water’s edge, count swimmers/get cap numbers for the raffle during the first loop, call out finisher’s times. Of course, the added perk of the morning was being able to see a lot of the race. Competitive swimming of any type never fails to entertain me, and I always learn so much just by watching.

We had great weather, Karen Reeder did an outstanding organizational job (nice site, no glitches, got off on time, plenty of supplies, creative thoughtful touches like changing tents for men and women, I could go on and on…), and I met a lot of nice officials and swim-spouses. Best of all though, was seeing everyone do so well. I thought it would be hard to watch and not compete, but I totally got caught up in every swimmer’s story and results!

After the race wrapped up, the Catalina 2010 crew moved onto another lake for swimming. Stay tuned for Part II of Super Saturday!

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist

Shout Out of the Day: To all Swim Dads everywhere on their super Sunday today. They help us pursue our passion, and as we know, swimming is a way life!

*And of course the Santa Clara meet was on TV this weekend too. Hopefully I can catch repeats…

Earlier this year I promised the Math Savant that I would serve as support during his August Catalina Island swim.

Although I am not a total neophyte (I’ve done a little random paddling before in various lakes and oceans), I am as close as you can get to being new at “support-paddler.”

This past weekend, I experienced my first practice session — five hours in a private mountain lake for four swimmers. As expected, I learned a TON my first time out.

Beyond the need to keep practicing the basics (stroke, turn, steer) as well as figure out who prefers the kayak to lead or be beside them, top of my list is: encase self in waterproof wear because wet and wind is a really bad combination.

This falls into the general new awareness category of “I must be in peak condition.” After all, what kind of support can I offer if I am hypothermic, hungry, dehydrated, tried, etc.?

Swimmer-support related lessons? 1) Encase them in neon colors where ever possible. (One swimmer’s silver cap served as perfect sunlight-on-wave camoflauge). 2) Every single water/feed bottle needs to be labled and in the boat at all times. 3) Use a flashlight to signal feed-time because thanks to caps and earplugs, swimmers can’t hear diddley. Sans flare, I felt like I was calling cats to dinner by holding up and shaking bottles while yelling “FEED!”

My first time out was very humbling. As a strong experienced open water distance swimmer there’s a tendency to slide to “yeah, whatever, I can paddle-support.” But once you’re out there, you suddenly realize all the things that could go wrong. And that you are out there to protect your swimmer from boats, sharks and other potential marine-threats (i.e. school of jellyfish?), find the best pathway, and keep them happy and healthy.

So absolutely, this past Saturday I spent most of the time freaking out about losing sight of swimmers (hello different paces!), sighting correctly, praying the wind wouldn’t pick up more, getting everyone fed on schedule and hoping anyone who owned a power boat was sleeping in.

But when the swimmers were fueled, grouped and looking strong, the wind was behind my back and I could clearly see the next point, I enjoyed a Zen moment or two: just nature sounds, sunlight glinting through water and striking vistas.

Hopefully, I can get it together enough by August (more practice sessions coming up — especially night ones) to feel competent as a support person and snare a few ocean-zen moments this August…

Until next time,
Rebecca, swim evangelist