The Ohio River Swim

On Saturday, August 11, my buddy / mentor Patrick Ryan coaxed me and another friend / pastor Chris Caldwell into doing the Ohio River Swim.    As you might guess, the swim was in the Ohio River, more specifically at the Cardinal Harbor subdivision dock in Goshen .   People could swim one half mile, 1.2 miles or 2.4 miles.   

By this time, I had already done a couple of swims in the Ohio but I still had some butterflies.    The projected morning air temperature was 52 degrees and I wondered if I would need a wetsuit.   As it turned out the actual temperature was 61 degrees and it was far more comfortable than I had expected.  In fact, after being marked, I stood around in my trunks without a shirt the rest of the morning.  

A lot of the wait time, my buddy Chris and I were trying to blend in with all of the triathletes.   Many of them were here for the 2.4 mile swim and were training for the upcoming Ironman Louisville in a few weeks.    Standing around with these guys, you probably never would expect to hear things like, "You know what really scares me??? - River Otters."    I was incredulous at this because after all River Otters are cute and I thought it was probably far more likely that I would drown or have a heart attack in the swim than face an angry River Otter.    Still wanting to be accepted by these uber-studs, I may have said something like, "yeah, when you're swimming but it's the bunnies that are the real threat on the marathon."  

Oops.   Went on a tangent.  Back on point -

This was an organized swim.  I  think the North Oldham High School and Blairwood were the main organizers.    The marking was different from the triathlon.   My number was marked on each arm/shoulder, my neck and on each calf.  In addition, we all had to wear swim caps with our numbers.    I'm not sure the reason but it was comforting to think that if I somehow got dismembered, they could match up all of the parts.

They started us in groups.   The first group was the triathletes who were swimming 2.4 miles.  After about 5 minutes, they started the group Chris and I were in which was swimming the 1.2 mile.    The water temperature was about 86 degrees and was very warm.    We all started at once and at first I was running into some other swimmers.   So, I stopped to let several of them get ahead so that we would not all be bunched up together.  

I got a little nervous again this time.  I'm not really sure why.  I think that even though there were a lot of swimmers, this time I was in essense swimming along.   I had to calm myself down a little and remind myself that there were lots of people around me and there were several people in kayaks keeping watch.   Then I was able to get down to business.

We started out going against the current which was pretty strong that morning.   I was having some problems navigating because I couldn't always see the buoys without my glasses.   In order to calm my nerves and to try to see better, I settled into a pattern of breast stroke for maybe 20 - 30 strokes followed by free style for 20 - 30 strokes.    That worked well for me, although I knew that it would hurt my overall time.  

The rest of the blow by blow isn't important.   I made it to the turn around buoy and made it back.  I hit a couple of obstacles along the way but manage to negotiate those appropriately.  I made it to the dock and the finish in just under an hour.   Not bad but I would have predicted my time would have been about 50 minutes.  (By comparison, the fastest swimmers, finished their 2.4 mile swim in just a little under the time it took me to swim 1.2)  Once again, I know that I will never win any of these competitions.  I wasn't the first but I also wasn't the last.      The main goal here is to get comfortable doing these swims in open water.

Following the swim, I felt great.  I came home and lied down for a second and the next thing I knew it was 2 hours later.   Still I felt great.   Then on Sunday, I felt tired all day but still no soreness.  Monday again, no soreness but again felt tired and THEN all at once Monday evening, I CRASHED!   I fell asleep at 7 PM and stayed asleep until 6 AM.  

The swims are just deceptive.   They are far more taxing than I realize during the swims and for that reason, the swim will continue to be the most difficult part of training.

One more down, next up is the Bowling Green Spring Triathlon.

Have a great day!

David