Race Report: Merrimack 10.6K Swim (Relay)

Merrimack 10.6K Swim (Relay)
September 14, 2014
Swim legs: 2.5mi/2mi/2mi
Total Time: 3:52:58
Air Temperature: 50F at the start (8am), 70ish at the finish (12pm)
Water temperature: 68F

It never occurred to me to sign up for a swim-only race. Last year I had the epiphany that I should sign up for the swim leg in a triathlon relay, but that involved finding two other people who could bike and run. Thank God for Karen, the swim coach for E3, who made me realize that you could actually just swim. Karen suggested this race to me, Jerome, and Ruthanne to do as a relay. Ruthanne took a pass on the race for this year, so my cousin Jane joined the team. It would have been the furthest that any of us had ever swum in a race; all of us having swum 1.2 miles in 70.3 events, but never in any event other than a triathlon.

Race-day prep
Race day prep was mostly logistics management. We were all swimming on our own to train, although none of us were really nervous. We all knew we could swim 1-1.5 miles easily, and we figured the current would make up the difference (more on that later.) The two biggest pieces of race-day management were the kayaker, and the shuttling that would need to be done. 

This race required that each individual swimmer or relay team have its own kayak support. None of us knew a kayaker who would be available on race day, so we opted to have the race director assign someone to us from a local kayak club. Her name was Sue, and we emailed and spoke on the phone prior to the race, but didn't meet in person until race morning, about 20 minutes before the race start. Luckily, none of the Swim Shady swimmers had ever done this before, so we didn't really have much instruction to give beyond "get me from point A to point B". I can imagine that if we ever get serious about open water swimming, we'd pick a kayaker who can read water currents and the wind and the competition and whatever else there is to know beyond "point A to point B". But we're not there yet, so it worked out perfectly. 

The second piece was the shuttling. We thought we had figured out a fool proof plan, so I was explaining to my mom how we'd leave Jane's car at the first relay point, then drive her to the start in my car, where we'd meet Jerome in his car, and my mother interrupted to say why didn't she just come up and be our shuttle person. Ah ha! Brilliant! Thanks to my mom for doing that, especially because it was her birthday and it was a peach of a day that she could have spent doing other things.

Race Start
We all met at mom's house and she drove us to the race start. We got there about 6:45am for an 8am start. Packet pick-up was advertised from 5:30am - 7:00am, so we got there as close to 7am as possible since we knew we didn't have to worry about shuttling a car to the finish or unloading a kayak, etc. We each got marked with "T2" on our hands, and that was it for check-in. No numbered caps or arm tattoos or timing chips. There were a total of 21 solo swimmers and 2 relay teams with 3 members each, so less than 30 swimmers. After we checked in, I saw my friend Lori and her boyfriend & kayaker Tom. Then we saw coach Karen who introduced us to a few people. Jerome and I walked down to the water to take some pictures. We noticed that there appeared to be zero current in the river. I'm not going to lie, I was envisioning a RIVER. Maybe not whitecaps and raging rapids, but certainly not this stand-still pool that we were looking at. I had swum 2 miles non-stop at Walden a few weeks ago, though, so even if there was zero current (technically, not possible) I knew I'd be ok.

Merrimack River at the start. (Photo credit: Jerome.)

It was finally time for the swimmers to get in the water. Jerome and I carried Sue's kayak down to the river for her, and Jane got in the water. There wasn't really a starting line, just a random smattering of kayaks and swimmers. I don't even remember if there was a starting horn or if the race director just yelled go, but off they went down the river.

Starting the trek from Tyngsboro to Lowell on the Merrimack

Relay spot #1

Jerome and I got in my mom's car and we headed to the first relay spot, which was at Top Line Granite in Tyngsboro. We drove over the Tyngsboro bridge and could see the kayaks and swimmers headed toward us. When we got to Top Line Granite (another 2 miles from the bridge), we discovered that the gate to the parking lot was locked. We parked outside the gate and walked around the locked gate onto the property. It felt a little strange to be sneaking along chain link fencing with barbed wire on the top, but once we were in, it was fine. We walked down to the boat ramp and found the timer. Since there were only 2 relay teams, her job was to record the time for each swimmer as they exited the water. We figured we'd have about 40 minutes before we saw the first swimmers, and another 30 minutes or so before we saw Jane. Luckily the air was chilly enough that I could justify putting my wetsuit on really early. I was too nervous to not have it on. I just wanted to be ready so I didn't have to think about doing anything else. We all noticed that there was definitely more current in the water here than at the start. The other relay team that was waiting had a lovely golden retriever who was fetching a tennis ball that his owner would launch halfway into the river. The current was strong enough that we could see the ball moving, but not strong enough that it swept the tennis ball away before the dog could paddle out to it and retrieve it. That was a good distraction for us before we saw any swimmers come through. I threw the ball a couple of times but decided I should save every bit of shoulder & arm strength I had. Finally we saw the lead swimmers approaching. The first two swimmers were so close to each other, each with a kayak trailing behind. The final results show the first two swimmers finishing two seconds apart. Makes me wonder if they were helping each other out the whole time, or if it was a knock-down drag out fight for the whole 6.5 miles to the finish line. A few minutes later we saw Karen, easily identifiable by her sister's little yellow kayak. We cheered from the sidelines but she was too far away and too focused on the task at hand to hear us. She was in a pack of at least 2 other swimmers/kayakers that were all very close. The other relay team came and left so it was just us and the timer waiting for Jane. She estimated her time to be an hour and twenty minutes, and sure enough, at an hour and twenty-one minutes we saw her and our 14' white kayak round the bend. She came out of the water, we did the "tag you're it" exchange, and off I went. 

Looking upstream waiting for Jane. (Photo credit: Jerome)

Leg #2 - My Swim

I set off on my swim and just focused on going slow & controlled. I set the alerts on my watch to beep/vibrate every half mile. My plan was to swim comfortably for the first 1/2 mile. When my watch buzzed, I could see how long that took so I could estimate what the total swim would take, and I could adjust my effort accordingly. I settled in pretty quickly. There were one or two kayaks in visible distance behind Jane when she finished, so my goal was to not let either of those swimmers pass me. I remembered Karen telling me that she likes to sneak past swimmers on the side that they aren't breathing on, so I made sure to bilateral breathe every once in a while just to make sure I knew what was going on all around me. So far, the coast was clear. My watch buzzed and I checked it. First 1/2 mile was 14:30. Definitely the fastest I've ever swum, thanks to the current. The current definitely didn't feel strong though. If I stopped swimming and just floated, I don't think I would move very much at all. 

I have to say, the Merrimack River is awesome. I was a little nervous about swimming in it because I thought it would be nasty and stinky and that I've be covered in muck when I got out, but none of that was true. I could actually see the bottom of the river the entire time I was swimming. The water was very clear, with just a slight brown tinge to it from the silt. There was absolutely no trash, creepy plant life, or aquatic life that I saw, which made me very happy. At one point, I thought, "Now I understand what Karen has been saying this whole time about loving open water swimming." I had the Tyngsboro/N. Chelmsford section of the river. Jerome had the Lowell portion of the river and reported seeing at least a few tires at the bottom, so I think I lucked out on leg 2. The sky was so blue that day, and the river is lined with trees almost the whole way. This is a picture that Tom took of Lori while she was swimming. This is exactly how I remember it.

Lovely day on the Merrimack!

My watch buzzed again after another half mile, which meant I was already halfway done. I was feeling like I could swim forever. I was about 15 second slower on the 2nd half mile than the first, but that didn't concern me much. I had asked Sue, our kayaker, to be ahead of me by at least one boat length, and to stay on my left side, which is the side I breathe the most on. I wanted her ahead of me so I could just follow her, and not have to worry about sighting. Because of this, I was able to breathe every 4-6 strokes and only sighted or bilaterally breathed a few times. At one point she was stopped and turned perpendicular so I picked my head up and kept paddling, and asked her if she was doing ok. She was in great spirits and said she was doing well, but just wanted to make sure she was keeping an eye on me. I guess I hadn't thought about how awkward it would be for the kayaker to have the swimmer behind you and have to keep turning your neck for 4 hours. I thanked her for doing a great job, and we continued on. When my watch buzzed a third time, I knew I had a half mile to go, so I cranked up the pace a little bit. After a few minutes I started sighting to my right, but I couldn't see anything on the right hand side of the river that looked like a boat launch, It was just thick trees as far as the eyes could see. After a few more minutes, I saw Sue motion to my right. I looked right and saw people standing on the shore. I made a sharp angle and started heading right to them. As I got closer, I noticed that they were all wearing jeans. I sighted again and noticed they all had fishing poles. I looked a little further down the river, and that's when I saw Jerome in his wetsuit standing on another boat launch. I widened my angle a little bit and continued down the river. I swam as close as I could to the shore before standing up, because I can swim faster than I can walk. I high fived Jerome, and off he went. I stopped my watch and it read 56:52 for 1.91 miles. I felt like I could have kept swimming, but I was also happy to be done because I knew I did really well and I was ready to go celebrate.

The Finish Line

With Jerome on his way to the finish line via the Merrimack, Jane, my mom, and I got into the car and started driving there so we could watch the other finishers and wait for Jerome. Karen was already finished by the time we got there -- she was the first female overall, of course. Ruthanne, now in marathon training mode, just finished her long run so she was there for the post-race festivities as well. We cheered in the swimmers and cringed every time a swimmer made a bee-line for the swim exit, and was told they had to go back out to and around the buoy before they could finish. When we saw our white kayak and then Jerome, Karen gathered everyone on the beach to make a tunnel for Jerome as he got out of the water. Everyone was clapping and cheering for his finish. We did it! And we came in 2nd place in the relay team division! (Yes, out of 2 teams.)

The real Swim Shady!

A huge thank you to Coach Karen for not only recommending the race, giving us confidence that we could do it, but also for the hours of her own time that she spent with us at Walden and in the pool showing us how to be better swimmers. We've come a long way, and we still have a long way to go, but we're sticking with you if you'll let us!

E3 Training Solutions representing!

Post race thoughts

I loved this race, and I would love to be able to do this race as a solo swimmer. Maybe not next year, but perhaps the year after? We'll have to see how 2015 goes. As I write this race report, I am in an unprecedented state where I have no races on my race calendar, not even a 5k fun run or a Turkey Trot. I am going to enjoy a little downtime, and then go into 2015 with an open mind.