John Daly Ocean Mile

Today I swam the John Daly Ocean Mile. I suspected that it might have been cancelled due to tropical store Ernesto the day before, but the day dawned clear and calm. That was except for the surf in the ocean which was breaking on the beach with gusto. This necessitated a switch from the ocean side of Long Beach to the bay side. This happened the last time I did this race and I was actually glad. I liked having the shore on my right as we swam east. The structures on land were very close and it gave you a good sense of your forward progress. Often I find in open ocean water swimming, you lose all sense of motion and it feels as though you are going nowhere.

At the race sign up I ran into my friends Capri and Tom from the Cibbows gang. It was nice to see some friendly faces among the crowd. Even if they hadn’t been there, it is always easy to make some new friends while hanging out before the start of the race. One such friend was athlete named Erica who drove in all the way from Montauk to swim 1 mile. She won first in her age group, so I guess the trip was worthwhile.

A bunch of us were talking before the swim start, saying how we couldn’t wait to get in the water so we could pee. We jumped in off a small dock to enter the water and it was quite a shock. It was a cool 65 degrees and the cold temperature made it impossible to let go. It took intense concentration to allow my body to relax so I could go.

I felt myself getting cold while I waited for the gun to go off. I was hoping that I would warm up once I started moving. I was swimming pretty hard and I was happy with my stroke and progress, but I never really warmed up. I drafted other swimmers when I could, but for the most part I swam alone. After a while it felt as though the fingers of my hands were starting to splay. I tried to swim harder to generate more heat, but it wasn’t helping. There was nothing I could do except keep my pace and try to get it over as quickly as possible.

As quickly as possible translated into a 45:15 finish. This is very slow for me for a mile, but everyone agreed the distance was well over that. When I exited the water I was very surprised to see the time. It didn’t feel like I was swimming that long, but I was glad it was over. We were all bussed back to the beach and awaited the awards ceremony. The sun was shined brightly by now and it warmed me up. I hung out for the awards and then grabbed a bite to eat.

After it was all over, I went to my brother-in-laws house a bit down the beach. My family was meeting me there. I was feeling really good and spent the rest of the day playing with my kids in the sand and teaching my daughter how to boogie board. It was a great day sun, sand and surf.