After my most recent post I scrolled through some older entries to see what I had forgotten. The answer was simple: a lot. Seems I had promised an update on a few items which I never got to. The list was as follows:
(1) Billy the Kid Tombstone Triathlon in Ft. Sumner, NM
(2) Hexy finally gets his drink ware
(3) Philly Tri back home in Philadelphia, PA
(4) Traveling to San Francisco, CA and my swims in the Bay
All those events occurred in June and July and I never talked one bit about them. I'm sorry. Luckily my memory is still very fresh. Thought I would touch on the above items and get everyone caught up.
San Francisco Bay Swims
I took a swim-vacation last January down to Maho Bay, St. John. Spent 5+ days swimming in the clear, warm, soothing waters of the Virgin Islands as part of an open water workshop with other open water swim buffs. Was a great time. Swam distances I never thought I would swim, and then some. Had a blast.
Met a real cool guy down there, Keith, who was part of the 5-person group I was in that we named The Barracudas. Keith is from San Francisco, and after some ribbing due to the Giants beating the Phillies in the NLCS a few years back, we talked about swimming in the bay. At that time, I had never been to San Francisco but was intrigued by the conditions, specifically, the annual Escape from Alcatraz triathlon that starts off with a 1.5 mile swim in the bay. I've heard stories about the strong currents, the cold temperatures, the sharks, the sea lions, and the mystery behind The Rock. Sounded like a great place for a swim.
Upon my return to the states, Keith sent me some information on some options to experience a swim in the San Francisco Bay. You see, it is looked down upon to just take a trip to San Francisco, get a boat out towards Alcatraz, jump off and swim back to shore. The Bay is a busy place and a very uncontrolled environment. Taking on a swim like that requires coordination. Fortunately there are companies/people who take care of all that coordination. One such example is a woman named Leslie and her company swim-art. Keith had some experience with her and liked how she ran her program. Didn't have to twist my arm. Think I surprised Keith as I was quick to reserve my spot on her expedition. And since I wanted to get the most out of my trip to San Francisco, I booked two swims: an Alcatraz swim and a Bridge-to-Bridge (Bay Bridge to Golden Gate Bridge) swim on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The swims were the weekend after the 4th of July. I planned my trip to arrive that Thursday to give me some time to adjust to the surroundings and take in the city. Luckily Keith was able to take some time off from work and play the role of social director, transporter, tour guide, historian, food reviewer, and, most importantly, good friend to enjoy some time, conversation and swims with.
After my flight arrived (in Oakland) Thursday afternoon, Keith dropped me off at the hotel to check in. Stayed in the Hilton Union Square. They gave me a room in the recently renovated wing and it was real nice. Keith picked me back up and we headed to the South End Rowing Club.
The South End Rowing Club (or, just SERC) is a real cool place. Follow the link above for some more history and information. It's located right at Aquatic Park (and, interesting enough, not on the South End at all) and has a private beach-like access to a somewhat protected area of the bay. After a quick tour of the facilities, we changed into our swim gear and headed to the water.
As a noobie to the bay, I naturally slipped into my wetsuit for my initial swim. Keith, a seasoned vet, was well acquainted with the conditions and went naked (i.e., just a swimsuit). Wetsuit or not, my friends, that water is cold. I approached my entry very wrong and waded out into the water, foot by foot, until the water was waist height before diving in. Should have just dove in as soon as possible. Once your entire body is emerged into that water it hits you like a ton of bricks. Takes your breath away. Literally. All you can do is make some poor attempts at a technically correct front crawl stroke and wait for your body to adjust. The good news is, your body does adjust and it's actually a very comfortable swim. Keith swam us around to various parts in the Aquatic Park, stopping every once and a while to chat (and, for him to make sure I'm still alive and haven't froze to death). We only swam for 30 or 40 minutes before heading back to the club. After stripping off my wetsuit, we shivered our way up to the locker room. Adjacent to the locker room are the showers (with a convenient urinal located in the shower - brilliant), and adjacent to the showers is a sauna. Perfect combination. After a refreshing shower, we headed into the sauna to relax, dry off and socialize. After a good soak in the sauna, we got ourselves back together and hit the town for a little sightseeing and, of course, some delicious food.
Friday morning Keith picked me up for a morning swim in the bay. Same routine at the club, except for my second swim in the bay, I decided to go naked. Left the wetsuit in my transition bag. I thought the first dive in with the wetsuit was cold, it didn't even come close to the feeling without a wetsuit on. That thin layer of neoprene really does its job! But, of course, eventually my body did its job to make the necessary adjustments and things were comfortable. We stayed close to the Aquatic Park beach and did a couple laps back and forth along the buoy line. After the customary shower and sauna combination, Keith took me over to the Golden Gate Bridge, which we walked across. Gorgeous views!
Saturday morning was the Alcatraz Swim! We met up with the rest of the swimmers (30+ of us) and support team before loading on to the boat and heading off towards The Rock. Since Friday morning's naked swim went so well, I decided to do the Alcatraz swim sans wetsuit as well. I think out of the 30-some swimmers, there were only 4 of us without a wetsuit. We kept it real. The boat stopped a few hundred yards from the shore of Alcatraz Island and after a few more instructions from Leslie, we started to unload the boat 1-by-1. Jumping off the back of the boat into the cold waters is a much preferred method over wading in slowly. Yeah, it was cold, but that's a given. I started to swim like mad for the shore, as if I was an inmate at the prison and heading for freedom.
Navigating the swim is tricky. The bay fills (floods) and empties (ebbs) at a pretty regular schedule, and that creates a river-like current as you try to swim from Alcatraz to the shore. Depending on the direction and the strength of the current (which can be real intense), you have to adjust your direction of swimming. Think vectors, fellow enginerds! Our swim was with a slight ebb, so we had to aim left of the opening to Aquatic Park and let the current feed is into the opening. Of course, if you are a regular reader of my posts, you know sighting while swimming isn't my strong suit. In conclusion, I was always a little bit too "down stream" and had to work against the current in order to hit the opening. But good news, my friends, I hit it! And so did everyone else in our swim. Not a single person had to be picked up or repositioned. Victory!
I swam up onto the beach at the Aquatic Park and checked in with the guy to let them know I was alive. After a little congratulatory high five - for doing the swim naked - I went back into the water and swam to the South End's beach. About 5 or 6 strokes into that swim my right lat cramped up something fierce. Whoops! Good thing it wasn't a long swim.
After the shower and sauna, Keith and I went out to the Fisherman's Wharf area and found a really tasty pizza place (thanks Yelp!) Chowed down on some delicious brick oven pizza while talking about swimming before Keith took me around to some more spots around the city. I asked him to show me as much as he can, and he obliged. Went over to the University of California campus, up the hill near the Lawrence Berkley Laboratories and took in the amazing view of the bay area. Was a very relaxing afternoon. Exhausted from the swim and sightseeing, I called it a night kind of early. After all, we had a 6-mile swim on Sunday morning to rest up for.
Sunday morning's Bridge-to-Bridge (B2B) swim was early. We met at the same location and rendezvous with the other swimmers and support crew. This swim was much smaller: about 15 of us. Since this was a longer swim, both Keith and I decided to take advantage of the thermal protection provided by a wetsuit. We met up with Ray, or kayak escort, and chatted logistics before we all loaded onto the boat and headed to the Bay Bridge.
The boat ride to the bridge was nice. Early in the morning, typical San Francisco fog, chilly, windy, gently swaying as the boat powers through the bay. A few times along the ride I was thinking to myself, "what am I doing?" All that goes away a few seconds after getting into the water.
This swim was a much longer distance. I think it measures around 6-miles. However, this swim is planned with a heavy ebb (exiting) flood, and that current helps you out a lot. Unfortunately, we didn't jump as early as we wanted to and I believe we missed a good chunk of the strong currents. Our escort Ray kept Keith and I on line as we swam our way down the bay towards the Golden Gate Bridge. We stopped a few times for feed/water and to get sighting directions from Ray. Other than that, we were in our own "cocoon of calm" swimming through the bay. Was a very relaxing, enjoyable and comfortable swim.
Our escort Ray took a few photographs along the way. Here's a photo of me with the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge in the background (the fog is covering the rest of the view).
Eventually we made it to the Golden Gate Bridge and got picked up by our boat. After Keith, Ray and I (and Ray's kayak) were loaded onto the boat, we headed back to the dock and unloaded. After the standard post-swim shower-sauna, Keith and I hit up the In-and-Out Burger right down the street from the club for our celebratory meal. Delicious. It had been a while since I had In-and-Out. Sure did hit the spot. We decided to walk down Fisherman's Warf to take in the sights and sounds before heading out of the city towards Keith's neck of the woods. My flight was early Monday morning and I had reserved a room at a hotel near the airport for convenience.
Was such a great weekend. Had a great time visiting the city, doing the swims and hanging out with Keith. Will definitely try hard to throw in a trip back up to San Francisco next year to do some more swimming in the bay.
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