I have not had to work so hard for a swim in a very, very long time.
This year's Washington's Crossing was a blast. I earned it this year. The chop was significant in the middle of the Potomac. The wind was north, but the tide and current was south, and a bunch of us got pushed way south of the buoys and needed the kayakers to reorient us. But let me go back: What is Washington's Crossing?
So basically what you've got is a swim from National Harbor, MD across the Potomac to Jones Point in Alexandria, VA. At that point you're technically in Maryland, Virginia and DC, which is kinda neat. The Coast Guard shuts down the river for this event, which is also neat. There are also a ton of volunteer kayakers out on the water for safety. It is an all-around great swim.
Usually, I get pushed north and end up almost under the Woodrow Wilson bridge up there. I was intent this time on that not happening. Instead, I got pushed south (with a bunch of people) and had to be redirected toward the buoys. Here's 2022:
And if I had had my GPS in 2020, you would have seen a similar track. I ended up doing 2.8-ish miles from a 2.5 mile course in those years. This year though? Mucho better.
Right!?! Much better. GPS said 2.6 miles. We'll have to see what the official time is, but my phone said under 2 hours.
So let's talk about how I get these track. I use a safety buoy which is basically a blow up orange buoy that floats behind me, attached to a strap around my waist. It settles somewhere between my butt and the back of my knees. I put my phone in it, after starting the track in the Runkeeper app. Thing is I have to start the track, then put the phone in my buoy, then flip down the top, clip it shut, then blow it up, then jump in the water, then wait for the start horn. Reverse that on the end. So that adds some minutes. Currently, my times says I swam that in 1:59.16, so official time should be under that.
But there's more! When I jumped in, I started to move out of the way of the faster swimmers and saw my buddy Tom. I joked with him that the deal was I'd be on his back while he swam, then I looked behind me. My buoy was nowhere to be seen. What!?! I saw it floating away so swam to it quickly and caught it. I found the part around my waist where the clip should connect and tried t reconnect it; no joy. Then the race started. I kept trying. I finally looked at the clip and realized the part that should push in to allow it to clip to the hole had gotten pushed to the outside, so I was pushing two pieces of hard plastic against each other. I fixed that, connected it, then put my head down and started swimming. Pretty much everyone was already way ahead of me.
Me starting late and concern that my buoy would disconnect again was in my mind for the first 500-odd strokes. Then I thought of nothing but the chop. Like I said, it was brutal. And I saw no other swimmers for a long time. In fact, I saw no one until the halfway mark (big yellow buoy and small green buoy, the turn-around for those doing the half crossing) when a very nice kayaker asked me to push north more toward the buoys. I had gotten pushed so far south!
As I approached Jones Point I started to see a couple swimmers. Up to then my mind was playing with me: You're gonna get pulled. How embarrassing! I don't mind being the last swimmer. I just don't want to show up at the finish on a boat. So seeing other swimmers made me feel much better. Then after the turn-around I ran into (almost literally) Tom and another swimmer with a bright red buoy. Michelle the kayaker came up to us and gave us advice on getting back considering the current. We put our heads down and swam. I'm not as fast as them, but with some clever navigation I stayed with them almost to the end. Then they gunned it; I think they were back about 3-5 minutes 70 seconds prior to me. My result, first in my age group! All one of us, with a time of 1:55.58.
It was nice to be done. Everyone was talking about the current and chop. Brutal! But we did it. Now, an hour after finishing and post-shower, I feel like I did some horrible lifting workout (overhead press with 45lb bar for 30 minutes: Go!); I can't lift my arms. Going to the couch to read/nap.
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