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 Swim
Comments: We lined up on shore and before we knew it, the gun went off. We had a short swim out to the channel where we would continue to swim between the two bridges until nearly the end. I had never swam 4.4 miles before so was unsure how to pace it or how things would feel. I settled into a comfortable cruising pace. For me, time moves so slowly while I'm swimming in a race. I looked down at my watch and realized I was only about 20 minutes in. I figured I would be in the water for another 2 hours or so. This is where the long Ironman training days came in handy. I was able to mentally turn my brain off from thinking how much further I had to go. Friends who had done the swim in the past had told me to flip on my back every so often, look back at where I started and look up at the two bridges. What an amazing view! I felt so lucky to be able to be where I was doing what I was doing. The nice thing is you don't have to do a whole lot of sighting for the swim. I bilaterally breathe so I'd get a chance to check my position between the bridges. Before long, I realized I was nearing the first feed boat around mile 1.5. I grabbed a small cup of gatorade and continued on. I was wearing a full sleeved wetsuit and had stuffed a small bag of GU Chomps up each forearm. I rolled over so I could keep kicking and quickly eat the Chomps before putting the trash back in my wetsuit and swimming on. I was really enjoying the day, the event and just being out there swimming. There aren't many people given the opportunity to do what I was doing and I was enjoying the day. I came upon the second feed boat around mile 3, but had realized it was on the other side of the channel from me and didn't make my way across to it. I ate my second bag of GU Chomps, knowing I still had about 1.4 miles left. There is a lot of thinking to be done when you're in the water for that long. There's no one to talk to, no email to check, no Facebook to update. The peaceful thing about it is that you can let your mind wander or go through your favorite songs in your head. The final stretch felt like it was the longest. I would periodically flip over and look back to see where I started from. By this point, due to the curve of the bridge from where we started, you couldn't see the starting end. I also couldn't see ahead where we turned right to exit the channel and swim between the bridge spans to go to the finish. Finally, I could see the buoys marking the right turn. A quick right and then left turn and I was swimming along the inlet towards Henderson's and the finish line. I could see the arch and volunteers waiving orange flags. Before long, my hands were scraping the sandy bottom with each stroke and I knew it was time to stand up and cross the finish line. While I was overwhelmed leading up to the swim, I felt so accomplished having finished it. And on top of it, I really enjoyed it and know I'll be back to do swim it again. What would you do differently?: Not sure I would do anything differently.  Post race
Warm down: Took a quick shower at the fire truck (had shower heads hooked up with some shampoo). Changed and then hit the road back to VA. What limited your ability to perform faster: The unknown of never swimming 4.4 miles. Event comments: I was nervous and anxious leading up to the race just because I had never swam 4.4 miles let alone in open water across the bay. Was a fantastic event and I know I'll be back! Last updated: 2013-01-30 12:00 AM
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United States
Great Chesapeake Bay Swim
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 267/
Age Group = F 35-39
Age Group Rank = 8/25
I threw my name in for the Chesapeake Bay Swim Lottery on kind of a whim. It was free after all and I figured what are the chances I'd really get in. Pretty good, apparently. I found myself reading an email in January confirming my name being drawn for the lottery. I think I followed that with a few choice expletives in disbelief.
The race site was very organized and I easily I picked up my chip, got body marked and dropped off my morning clothes bag. The race director had a short pre-race meeting where he went over specifics of the race, the main point being swim between the two bridges and don't go outside the spans. He described the currents and gave swimmers advice for what side of the channel to swim on during those portions. He also told us where the two feed boats would be in the channel. On top of race support of kayaks and boats, the feed boats are in the channel and provided some food options like bananas along with water and gatorade.
For those unfamiliar with the Chesapeake Bay Swim, it is a 4.4 mile point-to-point swim. Swimmers start on the western shore of the bay at Sandy Point State Park. From there, the swim course is out to the bridge, then the entire distance of the bridge (swimming between the eastbound and westbound bridges) and finishing on the eastern shore at Henderson's.
Leading up to the race, I increased my weekly swim volume and solicited advice from friends and teammates who had done the race in the past. I aimed for 3-4 swims per week with one of them being a double masters set (around 6200 yards). On most weeks, my average yardage was around 11,000-13,000. I still found myself on the shores of Sandy Point State Park on race morning overwhelmed with the task at hand. Actually, the overwhelming feeling started before that as I drove across the bridge to park and then rode the shuttle back across the bridge to the eastern side where we would start.
No warm up.