dhuey

Ironman Championships in Kona just got postponed to February. My running coach is in it, and we had hoped to cheer him on from the sidelines. Oh well — our Big Island trip in October will now be much quieter.

TomMM

Looking at doing a 10K in Paris next month in addition to my covid passport they require a signed medical certificate from a doctor attesting that I am healthy. First foreign event I’ve encountered requiring that. In Kev I ran a half-marathon which required medical insurance but no certificate.

dhuey

How strange. I’ve never had such a requirement in any race I’ve done.

TomMM

Apparently event organizers in France don’t believe in waivers as a means of protection.

aztimm

That is odd. Typically most events that I've done require a waiver where you say that you're in good health, aware of the risks, etc. But I've never had to provide anything.

I'm heading to Chattanooga, Tennessee soon for Swim the Suck on Saturday. It is a 10 mile swim in the Tennessee River, and yes I'm hoping for some current to give a nice push; I did a 10 mile swim in August that was just in a lake and there was no push.
Swim the Suck

And now I'm finally doing a SwimTrek trip, their Crete Discovery in late October.
Crete Discovery, Greece | SwimTrek
I was able to use my BA credit and will get to take advantage of the LHR-AUS nonstop on my return; it just doesn't work for me going (only operating 3x a week right now). I've never been to Greece, and I know that Crete is just a small subset of Greece, but I'm still looking forward to it.

aztimm

I did Swim the Suck in Chattanooga, TN today. It is a 10 mile(ish) swim.... The current was pretty fast today. I finished in about 3:30, which is comparable to some of my 10k swims (actually faster than several). My average pace was 1:09 per 100 yards (for most pool workouts I do intervals of 1:35 per 100, swimming them in about 1:25). It was tough to slow down in spots since the current was so fast. They said about 45,000 CFS.

Not only did I finish, but somehow I was randomly selected from a drawing...and won a free entry to the Bay Area Swimming Weekend in April. It is Alcatraz on Saturday, Golden Gate Bridge on Sunday. Normally these go for $550, and I had Alcatraz on my bucket list for years. I think @dhuey is in the Bay Area, maybe he'll come watch?

TomMM

OR participate in.

dhuey

If there were hungry sharks swimming inside the bay (not likely), they would be delighted to see me participate in this event.

aztimm

I think there's more of a chance of that for the Golden Gate swim, and it sounds like the currents there are a bit more extreme. He said it is a boat start and finish. Start in the Pacific on the SF side and finish in the bay on the Marin side.
Of course Alcatraz is a boat start, then swim to Aquatic Park and finish.
Neither swim is that long, but the water temps are a bit brisk. I'll train a bit longer in cool water this year, and get in by mid-March next year. They said I could wear a wetsuit, but I don't have one and would rather not. I swim in water about 60F, so it shouldn't be too bad.

dhuey

Please let us know if you do this. I'd love to spectate for it.

aztimm

I'm pretty sure it is this one, April 9-10, 2022:
https://www.teamunify.com/team/reczzfast/page/home

I'll post here, I'm sure more than once, between now and then. I haven't been to SF in about 6-7 years, and that last one was for work. Sure I did get to enjoy the city a bit then, but was in training. And I didn't swim at all...some people tried to convince me to swim at Aquatic Park, but I wasn't brave enough then.

dhuey

I'll be heading to New York City for the marathon this weekend. Race Plan A (left) was before I injured my left hamstring. Plan B (right) is what I hope to salvage on Sunday.

TomMM

Hmmm, already building a story! Hopefully you’ll carry over some momentum from your win in Iceland.

I am headed to Paris next week for a 10k. No stories for me other than I am not sure of the status of my registration.

aztimm

Wow, good luck! A few friends of mine are running in it too!


I had a fantastic SwimTrek on Crete! A quick overview:
* We did an, "acclimization swim," on the first day (actually evening), about 1000m, and from that they assigned groups. I was one of 3 who was in the fast group (pink caps). I was probably the fastest of the 3...which is pretty unusual for me.
* The water in that area of the Mediterranean is simply fantastic! I thought the water temp was perfect (about 70-75F), clarity was incredible, and we saw tons of sea life.
* There was a storm over Sicily that brought some weather to Crete, and the guides/boat captain adjusted our week a bit based on weather.
* We had 2 guides (each had their own boat) and a main boat captain. Since my group was the stronger swimmers, we typically had the main boat captain, and the guides stuck with the others. For some swims we all jumped off at the same time, but usually they dropped slow, then medium, then fast. So we swam a bit more.
* While you do need to know how to swim, some of the people weren't fast at all, and some hadn't swum open water in a long time. Some didn't even want to do the slow distances...they were pretty flexible. You could not swim at all, you could get on the boat and just hang out, or you could ask to just do say the last 500 or 1000m.
* There was one day when the sea was quite rough. For some reason they dropped off the medium group first, then fast (and our 3rd person chose to go with the medium group), and then slow (who weren't ready to jump when told). The gal and I were out in the sea for what seemed like ages (it was probably 5-10 minutes), but it was pretty rough that we really tried to stick together, and hope nothing happened. I was so thankful when I saw the big boat nearby.
* The town of Loutro seemed like something right out of the, "Mama Mia," movie. All of the buildings were white with either blue or green shutters. The main access was by boat or a tough hike (which I did twice). I had brought my laptop but my converter wasn't working, so I just relied on my phone to access the outside world (there was 1 USB charger in my room). The hotel was a bit rustic....my room wasn't very big (but it did have a great a/c). The bathroom was tiny, and the shower had no door nor walls, so every time I showered the entire bathroom got wet.
* Everyone in the group was fully vaccinated. I was the only American. Most were from the UK. 2 from Germany, 2 from Switzerland. There were 10 women, and 4 guys (including myself). I was the only one who had gotten a COVID booster shot.
* We had 2 guides, one was from Italy, the other from the UK, both guys. The UK one had his room across the way from mine (kind of an outside hallway), and he was a big 10k swimmer back in the day.
* Thankfully I had paid extra for a single room. One of the guys stayed with his wife. The other 2 had to share a room.
* Breakfast was provided for free every day at the hotel, and it was great! Some lunches and one dinner were provided, the rest was on us. We usually just ordered a variety of things and shared. The food was very reasonably priced...like E10-15 for most meals, including drinks.
* We mostly did 2 swims a day, for a total of about 5 km per day. A few days we just did 3500m or so and I did a second swim on my own (sometimes others joined) in Loutro bay.
* Other than the one day, the rest of the week had great weather. I'd guess highs about 75-80F, lows about 60-65. Evenings were cooler, and sometimes when we ate (most restaurants along the water) it was a bit chilly.
* There was tons of sea life! Since the water was so clear, I'd sometimes just do some easy swimming and look down, even dive down to check out some things.
* We also had swim-in and swim-through caves. One day there was one swim-through cave that was somewhat easy...then another that looked like we'd have to be under for a bit so we backed out. There was one walk-through cave, but with rocky shores I opted to just get back in the water and swim around (and I think I beat the gals since they didn't like walking on the rocks in bare feet).


I have tons of pictures and I still have to look through a Google drive where others uploaded their pictures too. I'll upload one of the many sunrise pictures I took from the balcony of my room (and yes, I did swim around that island a few times).

dhuey

Wow -- sounds like a dream trip for swimming enthusiasts!