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The Tale of the Swim Around Charleston

Funny how you know a good night’s sleep (and maybe seeing where you were in the rankings – ah vanity) is going to improve your perspective on a race. When I climbed out I was happy about finishing, but my massively painful deltoids and the feeling that I was undertrained for chop were in the forefront. But even then, I knew that today’s mentality would be I SWAM 12 MILES!

At the restaurant last night, the waitress asked us how we were and I said, “great!” I almost added, “I swam around Charleston today!”

The prep for this race really started in August, after I had recovered from the 10K in July. But I’ve been wanting to do it every since I did the Lowcountry Splash. I love Charleston, love swimming in the Cooper River, and knew a few people who had done this swim and liked it.

Thanks so much to JP and the masters team at TAC, who I swam with twice a day most weekdays in August (slightly interrupted by a trip to Yellowstone – not those days. The pool was colder (which I was massively grateful for after an 84 degree 10K) and set up long course (still bad at flip turns, still don’t like long course. I’m bizarre) so it was a good option. But I learned that I really don’t like training indoors now. However, even if the pool wasn’t my favorite, the people were awesome. And I got to see some familiar faces from RAM which was great. AND I met some open water swimmers who train with the Swim Wilmington group – awesome people.

Speaking of which, super thanks to Lisa Hoff for giving me her free P2P entry and hooking me up with Paul Denison. Without the training and racing we did that day, the chop during this swim would have been infinitely worse. More on that.

In September it was back to Wave at Cary Swim Club. Super massive mondo thanks to Coach Bescher, the swimmers of the pre-senior group, Coach Jessica and Coach John for all of their help. I never could have done this without them.

And thanks to my own Imp Masters for all their support and encouragement along the way – it made a huge difference.

And of course to my husband and kids – I promise I’ll start washing some dishes again. Although you guys are really good at it…

The other major part of my preparation (no, not yoga, but it should have been. Next time!) was the nutrition. I got really worried about it, which seems silly in retrospect, but of course anything is easier once you’ve done it. Many thanks to Christie Johnson who got me sorted and was awesome about taking my preferences into account and helping me use this as a way to start testing nutrition for the Channel.

So Friday morning I spent 1.5 hours cooking sweet potatoes, measuring out powder and collecting everything I had shopped for and scrounged up over the last couple of weeks. If you’re curious, here’s what it took to keep me fed and happy:

Breakfast –
Ezekial Bread
Peanut Butter
Bananas
Pickles
Nuts
Apple Juice

In the Kayak –
Soft-sided cooler
Water
Ice
Feed bottles (marked) and leashes
Carbo Pro powder (measured out)
Apple juice in thermos
Baby food pouches (sweet potato, butter, and salt… and a little pepper) – tied with strings to be thrown (thanks mom!)
Nesquick chocolate milk
Extras – didn’t need (RX bar PB packets, PB&jelly in baby food pouches, gu, pre-made baby food)

Also in the kayak – vaseline, sunscreen, gloves, extra googles, cap, suit

I was really worried about the heat (water temp reports kept going up – by that point I’d heard it was 84 degrees), so I wanted to put everything in a cooler so that all my feeds would be cool. When I lifted that cooler I felt ridiculous, but prepared.

I got everything else pretty much packed on Friday and went out to dinner (clam chowder) and to bed. Slept pretty well.

Saturday morning I got up, ready, fed, and finished packing. The drive down to Charleston with mom and the kids was nicely uneventful. We got to the hotel around 2:15 and were able to check in early, so I had a chance to take a nap before the pre-race meeting at 5. Having a room at the hotel next door to the meeting (and to the swim shuttle departure) was a massively good idea. Many thanks to my husband for breaking my mental decision-making logjam in favor of the hotel next door. I walked over around 4:45, and got my bag (with lunch cooler, flashlight, sunglasses and carabiner swag) and talked to the people at my table. Marathon swimmers are such awesome folks.

I’ll be straight here – I found the pre-race meeting terrifying. I think I always do, but they are usually race morning, and I only have about 15 minutes to freak out before we get under way and everything is right with the world.

Thank heavens for my kayaker, Matt. He was calm, cool and collected, and totally had that comforting “everything will be OK” vibe. We went out to dinner with mom and kids – well, eventually we did. “Graze” was full, but my scallops at Water’s Edge were delicious. Do scallops swim fast? Do scallops swim? I always wonder but never look it up.

Back to the hotel and bed and noisy kids – normal pre-race conditions. I actually considered getting my own room for one night, and apparently my threshold is around $100, cause when I thought I could get one for $94 I was about to do it, but when it turned out to be $140, I gave it a pass. I don’t know how well I would sleep even absent midnight giggling, so it was probably a worthwhile cost-cutter.

Up at 5:50 to make it to the parking lot next door at 6:40. Somehow it did take me 43 minutes to get out the door, even though everything was prepped and ready to go. I had two bread/pb/banana open faces, 3 pickle spears, some nuts and apple juice. I usually just have one of the peanut butter and banana toasts, but my nutritionist had put 2 slices of bread on my sheet, and half a banana fits perfectly on one slice, so it just seemed logical. I did end up a little over fed starting the race, but I’m gonna blame it on the last gigantic mouthful of nuts I had at the departure site. Better overfed than underfed for me.

Having lists of everything I needed to do as well as everything I needed to take got me sunscreened, hydrated, my watch started, etc. All at the same time, when I usually forget at least one thing. The bus pulled into the parking lot as I walked over and took us over to the race departure about 10 minutes later. (I still don’t know where we departed from. I’m really organized, but sometimes at the cost of only knowing the things I absolutely need to know. I knew where to catch the bus – after that it was somebody else’s problem). I spent the bus ride having a very educational conversation with an experienced OW swimmer and triathlete. Among the things I learned was that Carbo Pro had led to some drug violations – apparently it’s manufactured with the same machinery as some steroids? Not ones you’d actually use to dope, but they show up on the drug tests. I’ll need to check into this. You know, for when I’m tested for doping.

We got there around 7 – plenty of time for an 8:15 departure. I peed, talked, put on sunscreen, talked, put on other people’s sunscreen, talked, got marked, talked, and finally made the decision NOT to use any vaseline. I figured, if I don’t chafe at all, one less thing to have to carry with me and worry about. The rest of the story is… I did chafe slightly, mostly while swimming in the super choppy section, but now I know where AND that it wasn’t too much to handle. (I had already broken my rule of no shaving on race day, and that was responsible for some under arm chafing.) For my own future reference, I also chafed a bit under the straps on my neck. I think a small amount of vaseline would crack it.

Then I had the rest of my apple juice and some nuts. THEN I had one last gigantic mouthful of nuts and some more water. Should have stopped just before that, but it didn’t end up being a problem and actually probably saved me in the mixup I’m about to describe.

I dropped my dry bag in the truck to the finish and went out on the dock where we lined up in numerical order and jumped in pretty quick after. One advantage to 84 degree water – hanging out while the kayaks got in position was quite comfortable.

Now comes the one bobble in the race. I was worried about finding my kayaker. My two nightmares were 1) getting swept out to Fort Sumpter and 2) not finding my kayaker. Most people had indeed pulled out when a guy with a beard waved me over and we set of together. (I don’t recognize faces well (prosopagnosia), so “guy with beard” is about the best I can do with a new acquaintance. Although with goggles on and halfway underwater, I’m not sure the fully faced would have done much better. It took 45 minutes and him handing me “my” first feed for me to look at it and say, “that’s not my food.” And then look at him and say, “YOU’RE not my kayaker!” (It took an embarrassingly long time for those brain cells to connect – I am stupid in the water.)

From my perspective, it didn’t go too badly. That kayaker (thanks Andrew!) gave me some of his own water and got me over to another kayaker and swimmer I could go with so that he could go find my guy. (I mean, there was some time where he was trying to attract the attention of race officials and I was doing head up breaststroke, but the current was with us at the time and I was in that preternaturally calm state that you know you need to maintain when you’ve still got 4 more hours in the water.) Luckily, the guy next to me was very close to my pace and it was easy to just chill next to him and trust that the situation would resolve. A little later, Matt came paddling up and all was well. I feel way sorrier for the swimmer whose kayaker I accidentally stole and for the race director who had people in the water and didn’t know where everyone was and who they were with.

Oh yes, one other bobble – right after I was reunited, I did my first actual feed and headed off to round the Battery. As I did, I cut my fingers on some submerged concrete. I took a quick look and it wasn’t bleeding, but I could feel the little flap of skin on my finger with every stroke. (And it stung a little in the salt water.) No big deal, but my suspicion is that it made me hold my hand a little funny and that that is what led to some hand cramping throughout the race. My hands have never, ever cramped while swimming before. (Unless you count that claw thing they do in cold water.)

Funny though, with that stuff going on, my feelings in the race were:
1) OK, going across the shipping channel. Feeling strong. Kathleen told me not to dawdle. Not dawdling.
2) Wow those bridge pilings are WIDE. I seem to be swimming straight into current. OK to take it on the left side, Matt? (Actually Andrew). Awesome.
3) Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!

Even after rounding the Battery I felt really good. Feeds went well, swimming was strong. Then, from the feed that was around 2:30 to the one at 3:00 it was a washing machine. The “wheee” ended then and there. And I learned the most important lesson of this swim – I have not trained enough in the chop. I have the muscles that pull water back… in spades. I do NOT have the muscles that let you press your hand forward through water hitting you from the front at several knots. (If you’re curious, it’s the delts. Those are the ones I can’t move today.)

After about 45 minutes total, the water got calm again, but the damage was done. I had a lot of trouble even lifting my left arm, especially when I breathed to the left.

From there to the finish it all kind of runs together, but taking some time at a couple of the feeds to float on my back and stretch my hands, shoulders and lower back was a GREAT idea. The sweet potato and the chocolate milk were particularly motivating, and with the exception of the 3 hour feed, I never felt like it was a long time between feeds. And the finish came up on me suddenly. I thought my paddler had said it was after a bridge, but it was before, and I felt really peppy when I swam over to the buoy and when I climbed out. I was never really that tired – my delts were definitely my limiter (so much that I started trying to KICK to give them some relief. KICK!). I think that the nutrition was a huge factor in my peppyness – it was really nailed. (And even though I started out, and continued to feel, overfed, I was really happy to consume everything Matt gave me and had zero stomach etc. problems from it.)

I climbed out the 3rd of the women. The first I had no chance at, but the second turned out to be the delightful Charlotte who I swam with for quite some time but who dropped me in the chop. I made a conscious decision at that point to let her go and boy was it the right one. If I’d fought to maintain speed through that section I really don’t know if my arms would still have been capable of movement at the end.

The turkey sandwich at race end was delicious, although I gave the salt and vinegar chips a pass, having used salt water as mouthwash for the last 5 hours. My tongue still feels salty-ish today. I gave my cookie away. I have come up with an easy way of describing my slight shift in nutrition for marathon swimming – I don’t eat added sugar… except in the ocean.

We hung out waiting for everyone to finish and I met more of these amazing athletes. I thought I might hate having to stay there or feel really worked, but I felt great, especially after I got some food and changed out of my suit into some comfy clothes.

The bus got us back to the parking lot and I walked over to the hotel just as mom and the kids were getting back from the aquarium.

She took them to the pool so I could shower and nap. The shower was comically challenging – I have a fingernail on my right hand that splits if I use it to wash my hair, and my left hand did NOT like having soap in my cuts from the Battery, and that’s kind of all the hands I have. Plus the not being able to lift my arms above my head. But I eventually got myself clean and into pajamas and that was awesome. I messaged my list of supporters (definitely want to streamline that process in the future), and didn’t feel very tired so tried to keep a handle on my email. Then I STILL didn’t feel tired (best nutrition EVER. Plus some adrenaline, I’d imagine), so I watched some British baking. So soothing.

My mom and the kids came back and then I finally fell asleep for a bit. We then did a revamp of Graze, WITH reservations this time, and my mushroom papparadelle was good, and my mom’s pear and gorgonzola ravioli was off the hook. Mmmmm I love food.

Super duper thanks to my mom for giving me a massage when we got back to the hotel – probably the primary reason I can lift my arms (mostly) today. I got a good night’s sleep in a bed that felt amazingly soft. And Rob from the swim was at breakfast at the hotel this morning – we had a great time talking to him.

It’s amazing – I spent some of my (copious) time during the swim yesterday picturing what I would say about the swim, and now that I’ve written this I feel like it completely fails to capture the experience. It’s so different in there from what it is out here, and as I said at the beginning, my mentality starts changing the minute I step out of the water. (Happily trending positive.)

Thanks to Kathleen for running an amazing event, and thanks to everyone who helped out along the way – it takes an astounding number of people to get swimmers across a body of water.

As we took a boat out to Fort Sumpter today I was able to see most of the first part of the race – it was like looking at a different universe than the one I saw yesterday.

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