Race Result

Racer:	Melissa Hancock
Race:	Great Chesapeake Bay Swim
Date:	Sunday, June 10, 2007
Location:	Chesapeake, MD
Race Type:	Swim - Swim Meet
Age Group:	Female 35 - 39
Time:	2:38:31
Overall Place:	564 / 636
Age Group Place:	21 / 25
Comment:	Sorry so long-winded. There's not a lot of literature about GCBS, so I thought I would document everything in case anyone wants to do it in the future.

Race Report:

Description:
4.4 mile open water swim starting from Sandy Point beach, crossing the Chesapeake Bay, and ending at the beach by Hemmingway's.

Training:
Swam with Reston Masters Swim Team 4 days a week (1 1-hour workout, 2 1.5-hour workouts, and 1 2-hour workout). 2 months before the GCBS, I started skipping one of the 1.5-hour team workouts, and did continuous swims of 2-3 hours once a week.

Race Entry:
This is one of the most difficult open water swims in the United States, and it has been a long-time dream of mine to attempt it. To qualify for entry, you must first complete an open water swim in under 40 minutes. You must then enter a lottery in January, of which about half of the entrants are selected (next year the lottery will move up to November). The cost is a steep $250, however previous GCBS finishers can pay an additional $300 to be guaranteed a spot, without having to enter the lottery.

Race Day:
Although several of my RMST team mates stayed in area hotels the night before the race, I elected to sleep at home and make the 1:15 drive to Sandy Point Sunday morning. I've found I get much better pre-race sleep and relaxation in my own house. I was up at 5:15am and out the door by 5:45 with a bagel. I parked at a parking lot on the Hemmingway's side, and was bussed over to the Sandy Point side by 7am (in plenty of time for the 9:30 start). I met up with the group from RMST, who had lots of last-minute advice for me. The best advice was to heed the direction of the currents. The currents would be behind us heading out to the bridge, come from our left for the first couple miles, be slack for awhile, and then come from the right. We had to make sure that we stayed in between the bridge spans or be disqualified. If a current pushed me out, then that would be it. We also had to meet a time limit for each mile or face disqualification. The Coast Guard would be enforcing the rules strictly, and would pull anyone out for not meeting the race criteria. I heard that one guy last year was arrested for refusing to pull out.

I was really worried about making the cutoff times and completing the swim. The final cutoff was 3:40, and I hoped to finish in closer to 3:15, but was afraid I wouldn't make it. My team mates told me I would make it, no problem, and I didn't want to let them down.

Race Start:
I was in the first of 2 waves of 300 swimmers each. When it was time to get in the water, it was a little choppy but not too cold in my shortie wetsuit. We dove in the water when the gun went off and struggled for position. Although I didn't consider myself one of the faster swimmers, I didn't want to loose one second, so I jumped right in with the group at the front. There were so many people, but they were all surprisingly curtious, given the conditions. Even though I did manage to get kicked and elbowed here and there, none of it seemed intentional. Instead of punches on the bottoms of my feet, I would get searching fingertips, and I would stop kicking momentarily and let the faster swimmer pass.

I swam out towards the bridge, and was helped by the pushing current behind me. The waves, which were just above my head, made sighting difficult. Thank goodness the bridge was pretty easy to spot. Once through the first bridge span, I turned to the left to begin the main portion of the swim.

As big as the bridge span is, all 300 of us were hugging the left side (since the current was comming from the left) and so we were clumped all together for at least a mile. Sighting was the easiest part of the race, because with my 3-stroke breathing pattern, I could look at the position of each bridge span on either side of me each time I breathed, and hardly had to look ahead of me at all. The waves and the current made me feel like I was in a washing machine, but it was starting to actually be pretty fun. I was really doing this!

One of the hardest parts was having no idea how far along I was. There was supposed to be a food boat at miles 1, 2 and 3. But 50 minutes, I could see the yellow caps of the swimmers in the first wave starting to pass me, but did not see the first food boat. I didn't expect the first swimmers in wave 2 to pass me until after mile 1, so I started to get really worried. When I finally saw the first food boat, I swam over (more to find out which mile I was at than for nutrition), and was told that it was mile 2! I looked at my watch and saw that I was 1:05 into the race! I was doing better than I expected. I knew I was going to be able to finish!

After stopping for a little water (they also had food available, but I passed), I continued. During the next mile and a half I had a slack tide, so no current to fight. The waves were also much calmer. With the exception of the slight gasoline taste to the moderately salty water, it was a very pleasant swim. We were all spaced out very well, but there were enough people around me that I didn't feel alone or scared.

I started to get a little worried again when I didn't see the mile 3 food boat for awhile. When I found it, it turned out that it was really at mile 3.5. Good news! Almost done! I was starting to get a little tired for the fist time. I was also getting nauseous from the salt and gasoline. Each mouthful I accidentally got just added insult to injury. I was also starting to get a big-time goggle headache. I was almost near the end, and I planned on just maintaining cuise control until the finish.

After that, I swam along for awhile when all of a sudden I thought, am I going anywhere? Paying more attention to my surroundings, I was horrified to see that I was drifting towards the left span! The tides had turned, and were now comming from the right! I somehow managed to pull myself out cruise-control, and picked up my pace enough to get closer to the right span. But as I got closer, the current would get stronger and push me back. I tried this a few times, and I wasted about 15 minutes before I figured out that my picked-up pace was not going to cut it. I passed a bouy marking mile 4, and only had less than half a mile to go! All I had to do was pass under the right bridge span and then I knew from doing the 1-mile Bay Swim last year, that the last part would be fairly easy. So, again I picked up my pace, and as I got close to the right span, went into a full sprint. Directly under the bridge, the current was like swimming upstream after a thunderstorm. The water was so fast, and was trying to push me back. I was so nauseous, and my face hurt so bad from my goggles, but I was so close, I had to give it everything.

All of the long hours of solitary training, and agonizing sprints trying to keep up in the pool with my faster lane-mates totally kicked in. I ignored everything except for SWIM HARD! I swam as hard as I could, and made it though the right span! I thought I could go on cruise control after that, but unfortunately it wasn't that easy. I didn't have to fight currents or waves, and I knew then that I would finish, but those last few hundred yards were just horrible and painful. But then, I was a hundred closer, and another hundred closer, and then I was just a hundred yards away! Then my feet touched the ground and I had to be careful not to slip or cut my foot on a rock. Then I was out of the water, running (kind of) through the sand and past the timing mats.

I looked at my watch and could not believe that I had finished in under 2:40. It was so far beyond my wildest expectations. I have so much respect for each and every person who completed and even attempted this swim. The top swimmers who finished in 1:30 are unbelievable. The BOP who finished in 3:30 are equally unbelievable. I don't think I could have lasted out there much longer. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. It was definitely a battle with the open water. Today every single muscle in my body is aching and on fire. I'm glad though. That means I tried my hardest and did not leave anything to spare.