Race Result

Racer:	Melissa Hancock
Race:	Great Chesapeake Bay Swim
Date:	Sunday, June 8, 2008
Location:	Chesapeake, MD
Race Type:	Swim - Swim Meet
Age Group:	Female 35 - 39
Time:	2:58:38
Overall Place:	509 / 602
Age Group Place:	19 / 27
Comment:	A lot harder than last year.

Race Report:

Pre-race:
Grabbed breakfast at McDonalds and hit the road with my husband Rob and RMST team mate Kevin by 6:30am. Arrived at Sandy Point by 7:30, and found the rest of the RMST swimmers, who had snagged a great spot on a picnic table near the check-in area and under a shady tree. We hung out chatting until the pre-race briefing at 9:30. Then I put on SPF 60 sunscreen and my shortie wetsuit. I also put on some of the Safe Sea jellyfish protectant, just in case. The race organizers said that the water temps were about 70 degrees, which was pretty perfect. I couldn’t hear a lot of the pre-race briefing because a couple of helicopters were circling overhead. I had completed this swim the previous year, so I thought I knew the drill, but I later wished I had paid more attention to the pre-race briefing because the tide pattern was considerably different.

I had some Gatorade and gel blocks before heading to the start area at 10am.

Race:
After finding a good spot on the beach, I got in the water and immersed my face and body until they told everyone to get out of the water. When the horn went off, I ran in a few steps and then dove into the water. The first half mile or so from the beach to the bridge was pretty uneventful and I settled in for a nice swim.

After reaching the bridge, the first 2 miles were pretty tough. There was quite a bit of chop (though not nearly as much as the Nanticoke River Swim I did last month), and the current was much stronger than it had been the year before. I was in danger of being swept outside the south span at least a dozen times. (For those of you who don’t know, you have to stay in between the bridge spans for the main portion of the race. If you go outside at all, you are immediately disqualified, and there are tons of coast guard/race officials all over the place to catch you.) There were a lot of times were I had to sprint at a 90 degree angle just to get away from the supports, so I didn’t swim in a straight line very much.

Mile 3 was not quite as bad, but still difficult. I don’t remember ever getting a slack tide, but there was a few minutes where I could feel the tides changing, and it felt a little like being in a washing machine. It was much better than the first part of the race, though.

Mile 4 was not too bad, but I was so exhausted that it was all I could do to sputter along. I remember thinking if the currents picked back up, I would be toast. Since I would have to eventually exit through the north span, I hugged the north side, and sometimes got waaay to close to the north support (as close as 1-2 meters a few times).

Just after the last mile marker, I saw the wonderful red white and blue bouy, and saw everyone in front of me turn right and exit through the north span. Yaaaay! I was so tired, but at least I was now out of danger from being disqualified. After exiting the span, I somehow got blown about 50 meters north, so I lost a little time getting back on course. About 300 meters from shore, I put my foot down and could stand up. I was so nauseous at this point from salt water and the gasoline in the water, I just wanted to finish.

The water near the last 100 meters was SO nasty. I could see gasoline and trash floating everywhere on the surface of the water, and I didn’t even want to put my face in it. But, I somehow put my oogie’s aside and got to the finish.

Post Race:
I was so exhausted that I skipped all the food (which is totally not like me) and just grabbed some water and my race shirt and found Rob. I love that they always have fire trucks with showers available after the race, so I took a quick refreshing (but painful from the wetsuit sores) shower. It was so hot out that the spectators were not sitting out on the grassy area like they usually do, but were crammed in under the few trees out in the parking lot. I had not been hot at all on the swim, but noticed that my whole back side (whatever was not covered by my wetsuit) and face was burned bright red, and I felt bad for all the volunteers who had to endure the heat for 4-5 hours while the swimmers were out there.

My finish time was about 20 minutes slower than last year, but it was a much harder swim. I finished higher in the rankings than I did last year. There were also a lot more DNFs. So, I thought I swam this race a lot smarter than last year. I skipped all of the water boats and swam as straight as I could. I lost time in the first half avoiding the supports, but I don’t know how I could have done better (besides swimming faster ; )) 2 days later, I am still very sore, so I know I gave it my all.

Overall, a great experience, and as always, a very well-run event.