Thursday, August 9, 2007
The official time!
50:16.43...although I think I was actually under 50 minutes as they actually stopped the time when they cut off my wristband...and this was after waiting in line for about 2 minutes! There was actually no stopwatch/clock at the finish line. I did see the actual time on someone's watch when I finished and was waiting in line and it was like 9:48am, which would have made my time better than the actual posted time. (ok enough harping on the time!)
Monday, August 6, 2007
Dwight Crum Pier to Pier Swim, 8/6/07
First things first. Since blogging seems to be the thing to do, I decided that it was time to jump on board and start doing this as I attempt to complete the 2008 Brasil Telecom Ironman Triathlon in Florianopolis Island, Brazil on Sunday, May 25th 2008. Also, instead of having to update everyone who asks how i did in such and such event this past weekend, I figured it would be easier to write it once and point everyone to this website so that can read about!
For starters, I have not officially registered for this triathlon. Apparently, this is one of the few Ironmans that does not fill up in like 10 minutes when registration opens. So this will give me several months to chicken out before I actually pay the $ and am officially commit!
Ok, so yesterday, I participated in the 2007 Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim from the South Side of the Hermosa Beach Pier to the North Side of the Hermosa Beach pier -- 2 miles of ocean swimming (please note for those playing along at home, this is but 4/10 of a mile short of the ironman distance). not too bad. There were 939 other swimmers, and needless to say, it was the largest group I had ever started a swim with. The start was quite the washing machine, with arms, heads, feet and all other body parts flailing all over the place from the start on the beach to around the first pier, which was to be expected.
What I did expect was what happened after passing the pier. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Manhattan Beach/Hermosa Beach area., basically the swim from the one pier to the other is a pretty straight line, parallel to the beach. So once you make the turn around the pier, one has the entire Pacific Ocean to swim in so the washing machine thins out rather quickly...except for me! I had a lovely person (undetermined male or female) who decided it would be best to swim directly behind me, at my feet. This was fine. Until said person decided to pass me...but not go around! At first, this individual decided to try to climb over my back. With a couple of kicks , I sort of pulled away/scared this person and they backed off...for a moment. Then they tried to do it again (strike 2). I reacted the same way and they backed off....for a moment! The third time was the charm. Since it was the third time this person had tried to pass me by swimming over me, I decided a stronger signal was needed to dissuade this behavior (please remember, they could have easily passed me on the right or the left, no need to go over me!). So I stopped for a moment, turned on my side a basically dropped kicked this individual in the face. I felt my foot hit them square in the goggles/nose area. Needless to say, I did not hang around to see what the outcome was, but it worked and said individual did not attempt to swim over my back again!
After that excitement the race was pretty calm. Although at first you can't even see the MB pier, as it was quite overcast and the pier is 2 miles away. As the race progressed the sun started peaking out and i was soon able to see the pier...this was actually bad. The more I swam, it did not actually seem as if the pier was getting any closer. The other bad thing about doing a race for the first time is I actually had no idea where the finish line was, other than past the MB pier. After finally passing the MB pier, I turned towards the shore and my finish line question was pretty quickly resolved as I could see the finish chute!
So how did I do? Well that's an interesting question. Unfortunately, upon running up the beach, there was actually no clock timing the race. As a matter of fact, I did not see all that many stopwatches on those who were volunteering for the race! I did sneak a peak at some one's watch while I was on the finishers line and noticed that it was 9:50am, so I figured I must have been under 50 minutes, since the race started at 9am! Just figured I would log on to their website when I got home to get my official time. Here I am 1 day later, and the results still have not been posted on the website! Although I still don't know who was actually timing me or anyone else (at the start of the race i was given a wristband with a bar code and was told that this would be scanned when i finished -- it wasn't!). I think my next blog will actually be my official time!
One more funny anecdote. So at the finish line, you get your t-shirt. A lovely red t-shirt! And also they had water for the finishers (2 miles in the ocean, one sort of needs to rinse the taste of eating 57 salty pickles out of their mouth). So when I get to the Arrowhead water table, i ask for 2 bottles of water (I figure one to rinse, one to drink). And the response from the woman at the table? "Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have enough water for each swimmer to get one bottle." EXCELLENT PLANNING! But why is this funny? Do you want to guess who one of the main sponsors of the race is? You got it, Arrowhead Water. This makes sense how?
And finally, to tie this story to the reason for this blog...so this swim was 2 miles. 4/10 of a mile shorter than the ironman distance. The swim should not be a problem (the bike and run...they will be problems!). But upon finishing the swim, and getting up to run up the beach, I made a very interesting discovery. I had the worse calf cramps. So bad I almost couldn't walk! Don't exactly know how I will be getting on a bike for 112 miles and a 26 mile run after getting calf cramps after a 2 mile swim...but i have 10 months to figure that one out! ...this should be fun!
For starters, I have not officially registered for this triathlon. Apparently, this is one of the few Ironmans that does not fill up in like 10 minutes when registration opens. So this will give me several months to chicken out before I actually pay the $ and am officially commit!
Ok, so yesterday, I participated in the 2007 Dwight Crum Pier-To-Pier Swim from the South Side of the Hermosa Beach Pier to the North Side of the Hermosa Beach pier -- 2 miles of ocean swimming (please note for those playing along at home, this is but 4/10 of a mile short of the ironman distance). not too bad. There were 939 other swimmers, and needless to say, it was the largest group I had ever started a swim with. The start was quite the washing machine, with arms, heads, feet and all other body parts flailing all over the place from the start on the beach to around the first pier, which was to be expected.
What I did expect was what happened after passing the pier. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Manhattan Beach/Hermosa Beach area., basically the swim from the one pier to the other is a pretty straight line, parallel to the beach. So once you make the turn around the pier, one has the entire Pacific Ocean to swim in so the washing machine thins out rather quickly...except for me! I had a lovely person (undetermined male or female) who decided it would be best to swim directly behind me, at my feet. This was fine. Until said person decided to pass me...but not go around! At first, this individual decided to try to climb over my back. With a couple of kicks , I sort of pulled away/scared this person and they backed off...for a moment. Then they tried to do it again (strike 2). I reacted the same way and they backed off....for a moment! The third time was the charm. Since it was the third time this person had tried to pass me by swimming over me, I decided a stronger signal was needed to dissuade this behavior (please remember, they could have easily passed me on the right or the left, no need to go over me!). So I stopped for a moment, turned on my side a basically dropped kicked this individual in the face. I felt my foot hit them square in the goggles/nose area. Needless to say, I did not hang around to see what the outcome was, but it worked and said individual did not attempt to swim over my back again!
After that excitement the race was pretty calm. Although at first you can't even see the MB pier, as it was quite overcast and the pier is 2 miles away. As the race progressed the sun started peaking out and i was soon able to see the pier...this was actually bad. The more I swam, it did not actually seem as if the pier was getting any closer. The other bad thing about doing a race for the first time is I actually had no idea where the finish line was, other than past the MB pier. After finally passing the MB pier, I turned towards the shore and my finish line question was pretty quickly resolved as I could see the finish chute!
So how did I do? Well that's an interesting question. Unfortunately, upon running up the beach, there was actually no clock timing the race. As a matter of fact, I did not see all that many stopwatches on those who were volunteering for the race! I did sneak a peak at some one's watch while I was on the finishers line and noticed that it was 9:50am, so I figured I must have been under 50 minutes, since the race started at 9am! Just figured I would log on to their website when I got home to get my official time. Here I am 1 day later, and the results still have not been posted on the website! Although I still don't know who was actually timing me or anyone else (at the start of the race i was given a wristband with a bar code and was told that this would be scanned when i finished -- it wasn't!). I think my next blog will actually be my official time!
One more funny anecdote. So at the finish line, you get your t-shirt. A lovely red t-shirt! And also they had water for the finishers (2 miles in the ocean, one sort of needs to rinse the taste of eating 57 salty pickles out of their mouth). So when I get to the Arrowhead water table, i ask for 2 bottles of water (I figure one to rinse, one to drink). And the response from the woman at the table? "Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have enough water for each swimmer to get one bottle." EXCELLENT PLANNING! But why is this funny? Do you want to guess who one of the main sponsors of the race is? You got it, Arrowhead Water. This makes sense how?
And finally, to tie this story to the reason for this blog...so this swim was 2 miles. 4/10 of a mile shorter than the ironman distance. The swim should not be a problem (the bike and run...they will be problems!). But upon finishing the swim, and getting up to run up the beach, I made a very interesting discovery. I had the worse calf cramps. So bad I almost couldn't walk! Don't exactly know how I will be getting on a bike for 112 miles and a 26 mile run after getting calf cramps after a 2 mile swim...but i have 10 months to figure that one out! ...this should be fun!
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