Today I competed in the Alactraz Invitational, run by the South End Rowing Club. It was a roughly 1.27 mile swimming event where a ferry took us out to Alcatraz and we - after a fashion - emulated what it would be like to escape from the prison. I really want to thank Nataly for inviting me to do this event - it’s something that I have considered for many years but for some reason just never had the nerve to do it. It wasn’t so much the physicality that I was dreading. I’ve done, for example, a half ironman, which uses a very similar length swim but then follows it up with a 56 mile bike ride and a half marathon. So in a purely physical sense this was pretty straightforward. I was just concerned by the logistics of it; the wetsuit, the waves, the ferry, the expense of the thing. It helped a lot to have a “tour guide”. I enjoyed Nataly’s company as well as that of her swimming friends. One of them, Paul, even turned out to be a swimming celebrity and he finished in second place! Pretty incredible. I finished in 59 minutes and 23 seconds, which was interesting to me because it was almost exactly the same time that I ended up with for the 10k that I did two weeks ago. I definitely wasn’t going all out; I wanted to enjoy the event and make sure I finished, both of which were accomplished. Maybe next time I will go a bit harder, but honestly maybe not.
Other than sunburning my neck, there were no casualties; I don’t even feel that tired! That’s the great thing about swimming; it’s easy on the body. Lots of hot swimmers of both genders out there today, as well! If swimming these kinds of events gets me a body like theirs, I’m all for it. There’s another event coming up in two weeks at Keller Beach and I may sign up for that as well.
On a physical level, I definitely need to improve my stroke; I could tell I was inefficient. I need to master alternate side breathing and make sure I swim always with earplugs (which helps with that). Some of that is mental, some of it’s physical. But it’ll be a fun journey!
