The sea was angry that day my friend.....(or the Jack King Endless Swim)

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Someone who I used to consider a friend :) Craig, sent me an email for a Father's Day one mile ocean swim. He said it should be fun Father's Day morning and afterward we could spend the day at the beach with the families. I thought what the heck, swimming is my weakest discipline and you should train your weakness, plus the kids love the beach. I had a certificate for a free night at a Marriott so I made a reservation and entered the event. Now this was a master's swimming event, so I knew that I would be a little out of my league, but little did I know that was the understatement of the century!

The day started out fine, we left Richmond early to get down to the beach by about 8:30. The weather was perfect, sunny and a calm ocean! Met up with Craig and we got registered and picked up our numbered swim cap and a shirt. Pretty low key event. There was a buoy that was a few hundred feet offshore that we assumed would be the start buoy so we swam out to it for a warm up. We swam north parallel to the beach (the same direction that the race would be) and realized that there was a little bit of a current running north! Yeah, I swim well with current! We went a few hundred yards and turned around to swim back to the buoy. This time swimming against the slight current. It definitely took longer to get back to the buoy, I thought, good thing the current was running with us otherwise this would be a long mile! (little did I know)

We swam back to the beach and looked for our families to make plans for meeting spots after the swim. As the start time approached the wind picked up a little bit and the once glass like ocean started building some waves. No worries I thought, we are swimming with the current. They gave a safety briefing and called the master swimmers to the water for an in water start. I swam out to the buoy, positioned myself to the outside as to not get swam over by faster swimmers and treaded water waiting for the start. The horn went off and we were off, for what I thought would be a kind of fun event. The sea was definitely rougher than our warmup, and the wind was now blowing at a good clip directly from the north, the direction that we were swimming. As you looked up to sight, you were usually greeted with a wave to the face. I am a right side breather and with the waves coming from the front and right I really had to watch out not to breathe a mouthful of salt water. We started out at 24th street and we were swimming to 38th street. It was hard to see the finish buoy because of the building waves but I had picked out a hotel way up the beach that lined up with the finish buoy so I kept sighting on that. I finally looked to my left to try and figure out where I was and how long I had been swimming. I was at the Hilton, which is at 30th street and I had been swimming for about 20 mins. So I figured that I was on pace for about a 40-45 minute mile. Definitely not the 30-33 mins that I can swim it in the pool, but this was definitely different. I decided to just keep swimming for a while and not worry about time as I would get there when I get there. After a while I looked to my left to see what progress I had made and realized with almost pure disbelief that I had barely moved past the Hilton. I knew the conditions were deteriorating but I had no idea that I wasn't going anywhere. I looked at my watch and it was over an hour? That cant be right I thought, I couldn't have been swimming for an hour and still not be within sight of the buoy, my watch must have stopped working in the salt water. At that point a lifeguard on a jet ski came by and asked if I was okay, I said yes but didn't think that I was going anywhere. He said the current had gotten really bad and to just give it my best. So I did, I put my head down and swam as hard as I could. I checked where I was and realized I had moved forward a little. So I started swimming one hotel at a time. Saying to myself if I can just make it to the next hotel, okay I made it there now to the next hotel, okay I made it there now the next one. I did this for a while until I could finally see the buoy. At one point there was a sandbar that some tourists were in waist deep water on. One lady said to me, tough day for a race. I agreed. She asked how long the swim was, I said one mile, her response was "oh only a mile?" I thought to myself, I am sure that not jury in the world would convict me if I drowned her. But decided that I didn't have the strength and just replied 'yea, only a mile.' and kept slugging through the waves and current. I finally made it to the buoy, turned left around it and swim in through the surf. As I stood up and got to the finishers table a girl asked me my name and number. I told her and she said my time was one hour and nine minutes. I looked at my watch and said I don't think so, as my watch read 1:49! I realized that she meant 109 minutes. It took me nearly 1:30 to swim the second half. and nearly 1:20 minutes more than it normally takes me to swim a mile in a pool. My friend Craig and his son were waiting for me. He said that at one point he wondered if I had given up and headed back to our families, but didnt think that I would have done that.

We hung around the finish area for a few of the awards. One Richmond Tri Club's own Travis Deckert got 1st overall with an amazing swim of 25 minutes. Craig posted a very respectable 38 minute swim. We walked back down to our families. Mine had gone down to the beach to the area in front of the hotel we were staying in that night, and Craig's thinking that the now sandstorm on the beach didn't make for a good beach day, decided to head back to RVA.

I learned a few things during that swim and afterward in reflection.
1. I can actually swim for 1:49 minutes, so unless there is a current like that in the Gulf in November, I will be able to complete the IMFL swim.
2. The ocean can change RAPIDLY, at 9:00am it was glassy calm, by 11:00 it was Red Flagged as dangerous conditions.
3. I didnt give up, even though at a few points I thought that I would never finish. I am sure that mental toughness will come in handy in November.

In reflection as humbling an experience that it was I am glad that I did it. But Craig, next Father's Day I think I am going to ask for a tie or a pair of socks instead! Or do I want to tackle Jack King again and redeem myself?