Race report: Bear Lake crossing

What a 24 hours it has been. The Bear Lake swim turned out to be a success, although at times I felt like a total failure. Anyway, here's a breakdown of the day.

The best smile I could muster after the race.

Jen and I stayed at a campground the night before on the Idaho (east) side of the lake. There was nothing else available in the camping department, even though I checked six weeks in advance. We both slept like crap, due to noisy neighbors and a windy night. We both probably got less than two hours of sleep. Not a good start. In the morning, before the sun was even up, we drove around the lake to the marina in Garden City to get shuttled to the start, which was at Cisco Beach, close to where we were camping, but we wanted our car to be on the other side and ready for us when the race was over. On the bus, we chatted with Chad, Goody and his support kayaker, Lang while we drove back around the lake to the starting point. It's always fun to see those guys and I hope to see them more often this winter in some polar bear plunges.

The start of the race at Cisco Beach. I pilfered this photo from Goody's blog.

Jen and I got the kayak loaded up at the start, I did some light stretching and waded around in the water waiting for the start. A wet suit swimmer next to me was complaining about the cold water and it made me laugh, because I thought it was really warm. I looked over at Goody when she said that and he just grinned. I didn't crack any jokes about her finger paddles and flippers she had on for the swim either.

All is well and progress is good about halfway across.

The race started and we were off. I felt very good early, even though I fell to the back of the pack within the first mile or two. I was only in front of one other swimmer at that point. The water was calm, and Jen had me going at a nice pace. It wasn't until about Mile 4 or so that I started to have trouble. There were supposed to be buoys marking every mile across the lake, but some were nowhere in sight, except way off to the left and right of us. We probably followed the wrong one for a good 40 minutes before realizing the buoys had drifted and I wasted some very valuable "shoulder time" as I called it. Because not long after that, the pain started and my left arm deteriorated quickly after that. It got really bad, so I immediately went into breaststroke. For most of the remainder of the race, I alternated breaststroke and freestyle, but for a while, I couldn't get more than 20-30 strokes at a time before going back to breast. I had fallen into last place and the nearest swimmer was beyond sight, so I knew I was very far back.

Plugging away with my breaststroke

At that point, after another feed, I really wanted to stop. The race organizers were in a speedboat and were constantly zipping around me causing a strong wake and it made progress very slow. I was pissed off, in a lot of pain, but Jen wouldn't let me quit, even though I probably took a lot of my anger out on her. She pointed out a buoy to me after talking with the guys on that boat, claiming it was the Mile 5 mark, even though I probably had already done at least six. I could see the marina way off in the distance and those last "two" miles were torture. Every time I looked up, it didn't appear any closer. Later, Jen said I was pretty much swimming in place because there was a heavy current coming out of the marina due to a constant stream of boats exiting the docks. It didn't help that the same organizers were turning up the water all around me. I was beat down, both physically and emotionally.

After what seemingly took forever, my shoulder went completely numb, which probably isn't good, but the pain went away, so I said screw it and went back to freestyle for good. I finally saw another swimmer about 300 yards ahead as I finally approached the marina and Jen just looked at me with a stone face and said, "If you have anything left in the tank, now is the time. You can catch him." That got me amped and I really poured it on with my strokes, even though I was still moving slow. I caught the guy and passed him with ease as we rounded the rocks on the corner of the marina for the final stretch to the beach. I thought I was crawling at a slow pace, but when I passed the guy, I felt like a missile in the water, because he was BARELY moving, making progress in inches, so I cruised past him.

The final stretch.

Jen and I at the finish. Note the guy and his kayer I barely beat behind me.

Zonked. I couldn't hear very well for a while after. My sinuses are still messed up this morning.

I could hear Tim and Jen's parents cheering me on during the final few hundred yards which was awesome. They made the trip up just to watch me finish, which I can't thank them enough for. I stumbled out of the water and gave Jen a big hug. My watch read 4:21.34, which was well ahead of my goal of finishing under five hours. I didn't finish last either, which would have been a huge disappointment to me. Apparently, I also passed one of the relay teams during that two-mile torture stretch, which was kind of cool. I did the whole thing myself and still beat them. That boosted my ego a bit. Jen claims I probably ended up swimming around 10 miles, although I think that might be a bit of an exaggeration. It was probably closer to eight, or maybe nine at the most, but it was still more than I initially planned or trained for. The race was supposed to be a seven-mile crossing.

I'm so glad to have such a supportive wife. Jen was also hurting from paddling that whole way, fighting the same current and wake that I was and the whole time, she stayed patient with my childish complaints and didn't let me stop, no matter how much I whined. Finishing was quite an accomplishment for her, too and I'm glad we did it together. I'm super proud of her.

Jen is the best wife and support paddler I
could ever ask for.

Overall, I'm glad I did the swim, but it was very poorly organized. I had a hard time getting info leading up to the race, the shirts were cheap, there was ZERO food, water, medals or anything for that matter at the finish. The "marked" course was non-existant, due to the drifting buoys, which in a race that long, is a pretty big thing to screw up. Not to mention the damn race organizers buzzing around me in that boat like a fly throughout the last half of the race. I heard similar complaints from many other swimmers at the beach after the finish. The only real praise I have for the first annual Bear Lake Swim, was the shuttle service before the start. That was nice, I guess.

We went to lunch with Tim, Greg and Anita and we both were pretty much zombies until finally getting home at about 9 p.m.. We immediately fell asleep after showering and twelve hours later, we both feel like we got hit by a truck, but it was totally worth it. Now, it's off to the doctor to see a specialist about my shoulder on Tuesday...

P.S.: I didn't realize it until this morning, but I also passed the 200-mile mark with this race. Kind of a cool coincidence.

UPDATE: The results are posted and the "relay" I thought I beat, was actually another individual swimmer, so I finished third from last, instead of second from last. 14th out of 16 swimmers in my division. Sweet!

Total distance: 8-9 miles. Not really sure, exactly.

Here's a few more photos from the race.

We were all smiles the night before.

Bear Lake at sunset. I was ready to cross that sucker in the morning.

Chad and Goody on the shuttle to the start. They both are first-class
 swimmers and a lot of fun to be around. Utah open water swimmers really
have a great support system.