Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim - Swim

They have everyone jump off the ferry in a process that takes about 8-10 minutes. And then a few minutes to allow the start line to get figured out before a ferry blast to signal the start of the race. In that 8-10 minutes of bobbing around, I absolutely froze my ass off. anyway, race started and my breathing was relatively under control given the conditions. Didn't have too many run-ins, but there was always someone close by. I clotheslined some girl, felt bad about that but she was ok. Just tried to swim strong to try to maintain my body temp and get a decent draft. I could see the orange buoy the whole race and just kept it in sight and followed it. The last half of the race I wanted out of the water pretty badly and didn't really care about 'racing' anyone. I just wanted to be done with it. It was a bit confusing (or maybe that was the hypothermia setting in) as to when you should make the dash through the aquatic park jetties as the lead boat sort of pulled off to the side there, but I think I guessed correctly as I had no problems fighting the current to get in.

Full sleeve wetsuit.

haha, tried to warm myself up. Wasn't happening so my friends got the EMTs to take me into the warming area for some blankets and hot packs under my arms. After about 20 minutes or so I stopped shivering and the guy said that my color was coming back and that I could leave whenever I felt ready. Then I went and got drunk.


I just wanted to do this swim and soak it in and have fun and have a good race and not die. So, mission accomplished.


These guys did a pretty good job. My friends were a little annoyed that no one who was trained was watching people as they came out of the water to see who needed to get warmed up. 3 volunteers asked if I was ok in the finshing shoot, of course I said yes, but I clearly wasn't thinking rationally.