Great Chesapeake Bay 4.4-Mile Swim

I swam the Great Chesapeake Bay 4.4-Mile Swim last Sunday for the fourth time.  It was the first time I had participated since 2011.  Back then I wasn’t in the best of shape and the conditions were very tough.  The air temperature was 95 and the water temperature above 80.  It was a grueling, unpleasant grind.  I remember telling Donna to never let me do it again.

This time it was a completely different experience.  I really enjoyed the swim.  The air and water temperatures were just about perfect (80 degrees and 72 degrees), although seas were pretty rough—especially during the second half of the swim.  I had a better attitude going in, I was physically and mentally prepared, I had a music player—a gift from my kids—to keep my head clear and I was excited for about a week before.  Maybe I needed something to be excited about.

 

I was excited on the early-morning drive from Columbia, past Annapolis and across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the park-and-ride near Kent Narrows Marina.  I was excited on the school bus that collected the swimmers and hauled us back across the bridge to Sandy Point State Park, where we would start the swim.  I had worked as a lifeguard one summer in college at Sandy Point, so it was fun to see that place again.

And I was excited to experience the pre-race, which has a festival feel to it.  There is music playing from large outdoor speakers and swimming nerds like me congregate on the fields and beaches of the park at the foot of the massive twin bridge spans.  You check in and get your swim pack—timing bracelet, swim cap, number bib—and volunteers draw your race number with a black marker on your hands or shoulders. 

 

Shade from the few scrub pines is scarce and at a premium, and people crowd around, eating bananas or energy bars, drinking from water bottles, taking pictures and talking about past Bay swims or whatever.

I swim on a Master’s club and met up with several members who were also doing the Bay swim.  After a while it was time for the pre-race meeting, where the organizers thank the sponsors and volunteers and go over the rules.  Then we put on our wetsuits and the first of two waves of swimmers head for the starting line.

As we waited to enter the starting area, I met John Shields, who said he was competing for the 14^th time.  He looks like Ernest Hemingway, was in the men’s 65-69 division and yes, he kicked my ass.

 

The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, Inc. is a not-for-profit charitable organization.  It supports the Maryland chapter of the March of Dimes, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other causes, and has raised more than $2 million over the years.

The event is one of the most prestigious in open-water swimming.  Thousands of athletes from all over the country enter the annual lottery to compete (people who make large donations can circumvent the lottery) and participation is capped at 650.  Swimmers have to qualify for the event, either by finishing the prior year’s Bay swim or a comparable swim, or by completing a three-mile pool swim in under 2 hours 15 minutes.

 

The fastest to cross this year was Andrew McKissick, an 18-year-old local college swimmer; he finished in just under an hour and a half—about an hour faster than me.  The last finisher came in in 3:47.00.  About 44 people didn’t finish, including 58-year-old Robert Matysek, who was attempting his 20th crossing of the Bay; he died of an apparent heart attack about one mile into the swim.  Seven people in their 70s completed the swim, including one who finished ahead of me.

Donna, Kate, Eileen and Andrew and Ron and Marie Denissen came to watch on the banks by the finish line at Hemingway’s restaurant.  Kate was the first to see me as I made my way up the walkway from the finish line to the post-swim area where they have food and drinks for the swimmers.  I met up with everyone and relaxed for a while before we headed home to celebrate Kate’s birthday with a crab feast on the deck.  All in all, it was a great day.