#61-MIT Alumni Pool, Cambridge, MA

With the amount of time I spend at MIT it's kind of funny that pool #61 is Alumni Pool @ the Wang Fitness Center. 

Just before the holidays they close our beloved Z Center pool for its annual maintenance. Our cabal of morning swimmers then migrate a few blocks east to Alumni Pool to fen for ourselves without a coach and assigned lanes. 

It is an old pool that I would say was built in the 1960's. The lanes are tight, the walls are flat with no gutter and its dimly lit. As we don't have reserved lanes we compete for space with all the rec swimmers. Swimming yesterday reminded me of the free for all pool swimming I experienced in Paris this fall. There are however a couple of benefits of swimming at Alumni; first there is indoor parking that keeps us away from the elements and most importantly the locker room showers are awesome with strong water pressure and they are hot.

Looking forward next week to getting back to the Z Center routine (and a long course pool for a few weeks).

A Fall Lull

With passing of summer, no new pools and the lack of events their seems to be a bit of a lull in my blogging. 

Let me just highlight a couple of things over the last couple of fall months. The last event of the season was Sharkfest Boston in mid-September. It is a 1500 meter swim across Boston Harbor from East Boston to the Moakley courthouse. When told the water was 61 degrees I was whinging as I was mentally out of cold water shape post English Channel. Once I dove in I was fine pretty quickly but I must admit I was a bit of a baby standing on the dock waiting. The results were pretty good as I got first in my age group (twice this year).

October brought an unexpected surprise with a sales manager meeitng in Cuscowilla, GA. While all the sales managers golfed I decided to swim across the lake. I got to visit with some of them from the water on one of the water holes. My only concern swimming was big mouth bass and what somebody said were aggressive snakes by shore.

Lake Cuscowilla, GA

November has led to some swims in old spots. The first week of November took me to Oregon and California.  The visit to Lake Oswego took me back to my old high school swimming grounds. Caught up with Mr. C who has been swimming there every morning for 30 years. Some things never change. Will this be me one day?

That was followed by a trip to Southern Californina to visit Ryan at school. Some free time allowed me to get in a couple of good different swims. A little open water in Santa Monica swimming between the lifeguard towers. It was a beautiful day and the water temp was perfect.

Near lifeguard tower 23, Santa Monica, CA

My second swim was in the newly renovated USC Aquatic Center. Great pool. The big pool was being used by the swim team so I swam in the diving well-oh well. The visit to LA was capped off by a short overnight to the Terranea with Ryan and I. We had a fun together enjoying this awesome resort and looking across at Catalina...hmmm

Uytengsu Aquatic Center @ USC

Ryan, me and Catalina

View from our room @ Terranea 

With the second business trip to Orlando in one week I was able to sneak an early morning swim at the YMCA Aquatic Center that I had swum in last year. I had a very average swim that day.

The Y Aquatic Center 

Well that's it for now.

#60-Piscine Suzanne-Berlioux, Les Halles, 1st Arrondissement, Paris

After my first Paris swim the other day and trying to understand  the apparent chaos involved in French lap swimming I decided to give it a go at another pool. This time I brought witnesses, my friends Rip and Suzie to verify this craziness.  

We met at the Piscine Suzanne-Berlioux in the Les Halles. Les Halles is a massive shopping center in the 1st Arrondissement and the subterranean pool is three floors down in the basement. It is a 50m pool in a clean facility with plenty of staff and locker room matrons (read-women in men's locker room).

When we walked on to the pool deck it was pandemonium in the pool with perhaps 25 swimmers per lane. We jumped in and laughed and struggled for about 2000m before we got out.  In the shallow end you can't do a flip turn the pool is so shallow-maybe a foot high. Like the pool in the 5th Arrondisement, the French have made lap swimming a contact sport as you have to maneuver and manhandle others to get between swimmers. 

With all this chaos it's no wonder that the USA relay team beat the French in the 4x200 free relay in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games (great race)!

I also learned in my Parisian swimming experiences is that pools require you wear swim caps (unless your bald) and that speedo briefs are the only suits allowed. No board shorts or bermudas.

A bentoit

#59-Piscine Pontoise, Latin Quartier 5th Arrondissement, Paris

Today I christened a new country for the now ongoing pool project-France! Piscine Pointoise is in the Latin Quartier a very short walk from where we are staying at the Hotel Jeu de Paume on the Ile St. Louis. 

The pool opened up at 4:30pm and I showed up 10 minutes before and there was already a line. That should have been a signal for what was about to take place. The complex is three stories with changing stalls all round the balconies overlooking the pool. When the pool opened people scampered up to the stalls and began clamoring for the pool and their lanes. Taking note of this activity I changed quickly, rinsed off got in a lane and swam about four laps in the 33 1/3 yard pool before the pool was packed. In my lane there were nearly 25 swimmers of all shapes, sizes, speeds and choice of stroke battling to make it down the lane. Total chaos! At first I tried to be polite by staying behind people and  then got the hang of it and just started passing people in the middle of the pool and cutting back in line. Kinda weird but that's what the crazy French were doing.  

Good experience and I am forwarned for future Parisian swims~Vive la France!

(View of pool in the changing stall)

#58 Serpentine Swim Club, Hyde Park, London, England

A quick trip to London was in order post Channel swim. Tim and I took the train up from Dover and stayed at the Marble Arch Marriott.  We walked through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace and then met my friend Colby and Tim's friend Kevin at a pub and had some beers. I was craving some proper curry so it was off to some Indian. It was very good and my head sweated! Post dinner Tim and I grabbed a beer and bumped into two mates from the Water Buffalos.

I was up early the next morning to hit the Serpentine in Hyde Park the venue for open water swimming in the 2012 Olympics. Some investigative work beforehand led me to the Serpentine Swimming Club that meets between 6:00am-9:00am on week days. It's a club that has a very small co-ed changing room and a roped off area of the Serpentine that you can swim.  When arrived I found out from a nice elderly lady that  it was "membership only". Feeling a bit boastful I said I had swam the English Channel the day before and I was in need of cold water and she quickly registered me and took me to the changing room and introduced me around. Fame!  I then went for about a 45 minute swimming the Serpentine. Feedback from an elderly English woman said my entry into the water wasn't very graceful. 

Lots of swans milling about quite close up during the swim. Not ideal but a great swim nonetheless.

Cheers to the UK and open water swimming!

SAA English Channel 2014

Wow-what an amazing experience! There is so much to share. Not sure where to begin...so I will start with highlights from each day and will go into  detail about the Channel crossing. Readers beware this blog may be longer than normal.

On August 29, it was an easy flight to London Heathrow from Boston. I was met by our good friends the Powell's from Amersham. It was a short drive to their home where I was fed a proper English breakfast to fuel me for the swim. After a good visit with them I made my way to Dover on the southern coast. The Best Western Spa & Marina Hotel was a short walk from the train station. When I got to the waterfront I saw Rip, Suzie, Tim and our Coach Chloe drying off from a short swim. After checking in to hotel it was a quick turnaround to dinner at a local Italian restaurant. We talked about the days ahead and Chloe shared English Channel lore with us. Red wine, a full,stomach and exhaustion made for a great nights sleep.

(Dover Harbor looking towards France from the Dover Castle)

Saturday morning, we had a brief team meeting met the Water Buffalos (the other SAA relay, recent Princeton grads and classmates) and then we went for a training swim in Dover Harbor. The water felt fine at about 17c. It's a big expansive harbor that was fun to swim in. By the time we got out of the water we saw quite a few people training for Channel crossings. The Reeves, Tim and I then set out for lunch and to explore Dover Castle. The highlight of that afternoon was certainly the commotion we created when the three of us got our toenails painted red, white and blue at a local salon. That evening it was a SAA group dinner where we hooked up with Kay and our other two relay members Alexa and Trevor.

(Team pedicure pysche up)

(Team dinner @ Cullen's)

Things became a bit more real on Sunday morning at the morning meeting when Chloe confirmed our start time of 2:00am BST on 9/1.  There was a brief photo shoot for both teams down by and in the water. The rest of the day was spent buying provisions (food and champagne) at the supermarket for the boat and resting. At some point during that day it was evident that we were going to make this a race with the Water Buffalo's. A challenge was thrown down by our worthy competitors to swim the first three legs of the relay sans speedo! We readily accepted-why not? Skinny dipping in the English Channel! We had an early Buoys and Girl team dinner and tried to get some shut eye before our midnight wake up call.  

(Team Four Buoys and a Girl team pic)

(Both SAA teams)

At 12:30am Monday morning, both teams met in the lobby and we quietly made our way to the marina to meet Captain Reg Brickell and his crew aboard the Viking Princess. Captain Reg, a salty local fisherman (rumored to have pirate blood), learned to pilot Channel swimmers from his father many years ago. The Viking Princess was very much a down and dirty fishing trawler. We loaded up the boat and we were on our way with about five other boats to Samphire Hoe Beach to the start. It got very quiet amongst the group as it was dark, perhaps a bit chilly, and the boat was listing to and fro in the waves. In about 20 minutes they lowered the zodiac about 100m from shore, Rip got in and was  escorted to shore for the official start. At 2:06am the air horn went off and the two bare ass SAA teams ran into the English Channel. After months of thinking about it we were finally swimming across the English Channel. 

(Going to the marina 12:30am)

Rip looked strong as he caught up to the boat and continued to hold his own against a very strong swimmer in the other SAA team about 200 meters away from us. The Viking Princess had flood lights that lit the waters off the starboard side of the boat. We were suppose to swim about three meters away from the boat. If Rip swam to far from the boat his white butt served as a beacon! 

Shortly before 3:00am I began to prepare for my leg. When all you have to wear is a cap and goggles  the preparation doesn't take long. I must admit I had a bit of trepidation as Rip swam towards the stern of the boat and I jumped naked into the cold and dark English Channel. After a quick yelp I put my face in the water and I was on my way.  It was cool to be swimming in the middle of the English Channel au naturel at night. Not once, that I remember did I think about scary things that swim in the sea.  What I did find a bit disconcerting was how close to the boat I was at times. The gang on the boat was responsible for telling the swimmers how much longer they had to swim. I asked for a heads up after 30 minutes and then at 45 minutes. The last 15 minutes seemed to go on and on and on. Finally, I got the the sign it was time and I made my way to the back of the boat. I remember seeing Tim and saying "go" and he dove in behind me. Me being me I like to think that I gave the other relay team a run for their money and moved us up a bit.

Tim is easy going and his stroke is just the same. As the last sans speedo swimmer he looked so relaxed and smooth in the rough waters. Despite this seemingly even pace Tim made a huge leap on our competition. In looking around the darkness it appeared that we even pulled ahead of some of the other boats/swimmers that left shortly before us. It was during Tim's swim that I think many of us began to feel sea sick and retreated within ourselves to survive. 

After Tim's strong swim it was time for the brother and sister team of Trevor and Alexa to bring us to dawn and a beautiful sunrise to the east northeast towards the North Sea. There was no doubt that with this duo that the gap between us and the Water Buffalo's widened. 

(Sunrise over the English Channel)

It seemed as though (at least for me) as we began our second legs that the groups sea sickness began to abate. Phew! I won't recount the second leg for all but just share a few thoughts on my leg.  While I was excited to get back in the water again it is always a bit tough mentally to jump back into cold water. My memories of the second leg centered around the increased shipping traffic (tankers, ferries, cargo ships) to beginning to see faintly France ahead. I distinctly remember one time looking up and seeing in my peripheral vision ahead and to the right a big ship about to cross our path. All I could think was what type of wake will it make. Anecdotally, I heard from team members that some type of commincation was made to the tanker and they veered slightly away. 

As we all finshed our second leg France was certainly in sight and as Rip was about to go in for his third leg Tim and I commented that at that distance it would take at least my leg and Tim's leg to hit Cap Gris Nez. Rip was strong in his Stars and Stripes speedo, and by this point the other boats were a solid distance behind us.  I was sitting, talking and watching Rip swim and about half way through his swim the co-pilot came up to me and said I would be the last swimmer. The tides were apparently strong as we had covered a lot of ground.  I was stunned as France seemed close but not that close. I readied myself in the Stars and Stripes speedo and jumped into the water. I was told beforehand that I would swim for a bit and then I would follow then zodiac for as far as he could go and then I would swim to the rocky cap. With some shallow strokes I finally crawled onto the very sharp and rocky French coast!  The Viking Princess hit the Cap Gris Nez spot on. Wow-Four Buoys & a Girl did it!!!  I did a jig on the rocks waved to a French woman on the cliffs and swam back to the zodiac.

(Our destination Cap Gris Nez. France )

(Swimming to France)

(Our course-we hit the Cap spot on)

The team hugged, high fived and Kay and Alexa popped the champagne (the sweetest bottle was the Tattinger we had nicked from the Water Buffalo's) to celebrate! Captain Reg and the Viking Princess seemingly took a victory lap as the other swimmers and boats drew near the point. 

The 2.5 hour+ plus boat ride back to Dover was brutal. Rough seas, water everywhere and basically standing up the whole way home-ugh. The glow of our accomplishment is what kept our spirits high. 

That night both teams celebrated at the White Horse Inn in Dover. Tradition holds that English Channel swimmers sign their names on the wall of this very old pub-we all certainly obliged! Coach Chloe also presented to our team a new award plaque that is slated to reside in the Channel Swimming Assoscation's museum for fastest Charity Relay Team of the Year-way cool!

(The White Horse Inn-Dover)

(Signing our names on the wall of the White Horse Inn)

We completed the swim in 11 hours and 13 minutes and were the first boat to France that day! Such a great day and memorable day (despite sea sickness).

Thanks to Swim Across America and the great work they do everyday to fight cancer. Janel and Kay-thank you for the opportunity and making this happen.

To my team mates and friends, Rip/Suzie, Tim, Trevor and Alexa-awesome day. Coach Chloe you are great. I appreciated all your  support and positive attitudes. I enjoyed sharing this lifetime memory with all of you. Mahalo!

And of course thank you to my wonderful family and my very patient, understanding and loving wife that indulges my small whims.

A solo crossing in the future.....hmmmm!

(Me and our chief cheerleader Coach Chloe)

 

(Bust of Captain Webb first person to swim the English Channel)

On Golden Pond...kinda

Actually we are on Lake Winnisquam in New Hampshire. It is right next to Lake Winnipesake where the classic movie On Golden Pond was filmed with Henry Fonda, Jane Fonda and Katherine Hepburn. The cabin is set on the beautiful lake. With the calm waters, passing Chris Craft motor boats and the loons in the background it was like being on the movie set. We even have fun family dynamics to boot!

We are here for a few days before Ryan heads back to Los Angeles for school.  Instead of Nantucket we decided to do something different and oh what fun we have had. We hiked Mt. Rattlesnake and were rewarded with an amazing view, we rented a boat for a day and had a ball wakeboarding and tubing and we had plenty of time practicing our loon calls (oooohhh, ooh, ohhhh). At night, we bbq'ed outside ate s'mores and looked at the abundance of stars.

What completely surprised me is that these big lakes are a swimmers paradise. The waters are so calm, clear and the water temp is "just right". It's absolutely perfect for swimming!!! I started my mornings by donning my speedo and inflating my new bright orange safety buoy and going for a dip. Only for the briefest of moments when you jump in is the water cool but after that it is perfect. To swim along the shore in the still waters in the serenity of the early morning and watch the sunrise was magical. I would chart my own course as I swam from point to point. It is hard to tell but I would guess I swam 1.5-2.0 miles everyday. Loved it!

Like the memorable scene in the movie, at night I would also go for a swim but without my speedo (much to my family's dismay). I think my readers may like the picture below of my nightly swimming expeditions. Swimming at Lake Winnisquam will certainly be a summer highlight!!!

#57 Nashville ain't all just country...Centinnel Sportsplex, Tracy Caulkins Competition Pool

With this years summer sales meeting in Nashville I was expecting a country vibe. Little did I know my trip would have a small Olympic under current. 

Staying at the new Omni downtown a short walk from Broadway and the honky tonks made it very easy for us to enjoy the music nightlife and good ole southern (fattening)cooking. After the opening reception it was clear I needed to swim the next morning work off dinner. With a little research on swimmersguide.com I was able to find the Centinnel Sportsplex in Centinnel Park across from Vanderbilt Univeristy.

The pool opened at 6:00am so I got up around 5:30 and uber'erd the short 15 minute ride to the pool. I was pleasantly surprised to find an Olympic sized 50 meter pool. There was a fair amount of activity on the deck with a good sized masters team. 

I decided to not swim with the team and just to do my own thing as I was going to need to get out early to get back in time to the sales meeting.  At some time during my warm up I flipped over to do back stroke and I saw a huge sign I didn't notice before welcoming me to the Tracy Caulkins Competition Pool.  

Wow-I wasn't expecting to see Tracy's name on the wall. Typically, I would say that name was a real blast from the past however in the last month mom sent some of my (very) old school work  to me and I found an essay I wrote about her for an english class in 198? How coincidental is that? Look I even got a pretty good grade.

Nashville the Music City certainly has some great music but also a Olympic heritage worthy of a high school essay about the great Tracy Caulkins.

Marblehead Ocean Swim

This past weekend I had the opportunity to swim with the Nahant Knuckleheads. The Knuckleheads are esteemed group of cold water swimmers in the Boston area.

Elaine D and I carpooled up to Lynn where we met the rest of the group. There were many people that I recognized from passed swims and some new faces.  After a quick stop at Eastern Mountain Sports to rent kayaks we set off to Devereaux Beach in Marblehead.  There were 12 swimmers and two kayakers with E2 taking the lead in making sure we were all safe swimming.  

We left Devereaux Beach with Phillips Beach in Swampscott as the destination roughly two miles each way.  The water was 63ish degrees and it felt great-I can't believe I am saying that! Cold patches along the way where the temp dropped 3-4 degrees. It's a rocky coastline with beautiful houses on the shore. 

We swam until someone's GPS read 2.0 miles. We were approximately 1000 yards off Phillips Beach. The group, generally got back together, rested and chatted a bit and we made our way back to Devereaux.

The trip back seemed to go a bit quicker with a bit of a tidal push. It was just over a 4 mile swim and two hours. 

Very fun day and swim and a great way and perspective to see a part of the Boston area that I hadn't seen before.

And finally, the requisite E2 picture.

It's the little things...

Lately, it seemed there had been nothing truly noteworthy swimming wise aside from the day to day of training for the English Channel relay. In thinking back over the last week I realize its the positive little day to day events that make for a happy life and really make a difference.

Last weekend I swam in the 3rd Annual Jim Doty Memorial Mile swim in South Boston. Jim Doty was  a legend in the Boston open water swimming community. This year, they dedicated a clock tower at the  Curley Community Center/L Street Bath House in his honor.  Elaine Howley and Greg O'Connor are the organizers of this event and the historic Boston Light Swim.  It is a low-key well run event that goes from the L Street Bath House to basically the G Street apartments and back. This was the second time I've done this swim with my friends Jonathan and Katie. I got fifth overall and generally felt ok about my swim. Just getting in colder water ( 60-63degrees) is a good thing for me to do right now. Katie won the Bobby O'Sullivan Award for first place wetsuit woman. This was the second time for Katie. She is a solid openwater swimmer that swims straight as an arrow.  Everybody was happy and looking good for our requisite post event photo.

This weekend's highlight came out of the blue for me. Elaine is doing a very long open water swim in Idaho this summer. In preparation for this event she had huge training event...to swim for 24 hours in Lake Cochituate!  Crazy! I am sure I had heard about it before but I had forgot. On Friday, evening I saw Facebook posts and pics of Elaine and her training partner Jen,  entering the water for their big swim. As I was lazily sitting in my backyard feeling guilty and drinking a glass of red wine I thought what could I do to help out? It then dawned on me...I would support Elaine by swimming with her. Knowing that it isn't wise to drink red wine and swim I decided to surprise her early in the morning. I had another glass of red wine, ok two glasses of red wine and I set my alarm for 4:30am. I got to the lake at 5:00am as the sun was rising and as luck would have it Elaine was just pulling in for a feeding with her kayaker. She said, "what the *#?! are you doing here?". I said, "we are going to swim together!" I think my arrival was timely as she had a long, lonely slog in the dark. At that point she had been in the water for 12 hours and had swum 30k. I had never really swum in Lake Cochituate before. It is beautiful, quiet (at least at 5:00am) and much longer than I had expected. We swam nearly 3 hours with each other for roughly 4 miles. We stopped for a feeding and I had to go home and Elaine kept soldiering on. At 5:00pm on Saturday she finished her 24 hour swim-Wow! I felt good (and sleepy) all day knowing I got to be there for a small part of her journey. 

This past week was really a reminder to stop, think and realize it's the little day to day things that just happen and that we do that make the difference.

Travel note-today we spend the day at Good Harbor with Gram and then a side trip to Rockport. We had never been there-what a cool little seaside town.