We woke up bright and early on Saturday morning for the Riverside Park Tune Up Swim, a one mile swim in the Hudson River. This race was being done at the same time as the Aquathlon: Stars and Stripes (1 mile swim & 5K run).
The NYC Swim policy states that if the water is over 68 degrees swimmers who wear wetsuits will not be eligible for awards. They estimated the water temperature would be between 70 and 75 so wetsuits would disqualify participants from awards. We received two emails about this in the week leading up to the swim so I decided that I was not going to wear my wetsuit. I didn't really think I had a chance at placing, but I did want to see how I compared to other swimmers in my age group. Sam decided to follow suit so we both arrived at the race in traditional swimsuits.
{Hudson River, 6:45am}
After we registered and picked up our timing chips, hats and bag-tags we had about 10 minutes before we needed to head up to the start location (the registration was at the finish spot). I gave my camera to Sam and asked him to take a few pics. You may not know this but I'm a bit of slow poke when I’m getting ready for anything. Once I gave him my camera he had time to take about 6 pictures before I was actually ready:
(took off my T-shirt, put it away, took off my glasses, put them away, fixed my hair, now I’m ready)
After our photo session we checked our bag and walked from 56th street to the start location at 72nd street. As we were walking we realized more and more people were wearing wetsuits. We estimated that at least 50% of the participants were wearing wetsuits. We were both starting to get pretty worried, especially Sam since he isn’t as strong of a swimmer.
The closer we got the start the more freaked out I was getting. How would I handle the salt water? What about the current? Should I have worn my wetsuit? The only reason I didn’t was so I could rate myself against other swimmers but now it looked like most of the other swimmers who appeared to be “in my league” were all wearing wetsuits! Then I heard someone talking about how they were stung by jelly-fish last year! Oh shit. Now I’m really starting to panic. What was I thinking paying $50 to this?! Someone should be paying me! No wonder every time I told someone I was swimming in the Hudson River they scrunched up their noses in disgust.
Well, by the time the race started I was really getting myself worked into a frenzy. Nothing I could do now. I wasn’t going to drop-out which meant the only option I had left was to swim.
The swim was divided into two starts. The aquathlon swimmers started first and the swim only group started about 5 minutes later. It was an in-water start so everyone jumped off the dock and then paddled out a bit to wait for the start. When I jumped off the dock and my feet immediately sunk into the mushy soaking rotten oily sponge that is the floor of the Hudson River. It was GROSS!
I made an expert graphic of the set up of the swim course:
As you can see, there was a buoy that was set slightly upstream from the starting point. This meant that everyone had to swim against the current in order to get around this first buoy. It was a bad set up and really hard start to the race. The yellow dot is about where I started. I really should have made my way further to the north side of the dock but I didn’t realize yet how hard this was going to be. Everyone was bunched up, the current was very strong and it took a lot of effort to swim upstream. This was also the only time of the swim when I was getting kicked and swimming over people. It was so crowded getting around this first buoy! This is by far my biggest complaint of the race. They really should have put the first buoy more in line with the dock. By the time I reached the first buoy I heard the volunteers in the kayaks and boats were telling people they could skip the buoy but I was so close I decided I could get around it.
After getting around the first buoy everything improved. I fell into a nice groove and continued to pass other swimmers. I estimated that I was about 75% complete when I heard the volunteers on the boats yelling. I couldn’t tell if they were just cheering or if there was a problem. I didn’t want to stop because I knew there were a few swimmers on my tail. Then I started to smell diesel and when I looked to my left I saw a huge boat/ship that was going through the river between me and the swim exit shore. Crazy! I was pretty far away from it but I know some of the swimmers before me were probably pretty close. Talk about scary?! After the shipped passed I could see that it was time to start veering back towards the shore. I overshot the exit a bit (partially because of the ship and partially because I couldn’t see very well) and I had to swim a bit up stream to get to the ladder to climb out. I felt like I had a really strong race and I was proud of myself. Nothing I had feared had caused problems (the water was plenty warm, it was more brackish than salty, and no jelly fish!). I ran back to my bag to get my camera and I caught a few pictures of the other swimmers finishing up. I got back just in time to see Sam climbing out of the water:
After we had both finished the race we collected our medals (!) and headed back to the bag check area to pick up our belongings, get some snacks and water and our awesome swag bags.
The swag bags were pretty cool and filled with some awesome stuff. The actual bag was a nice drawstring bag with the NYC swim logo on the front. Inside was water bottles, a chamois towel, swim cap, ear plugs, snacks, samples of sunscreen and Tri-Swim Shampoo, Conditioner, Body Wash and Lotion!
Here is a close-up picture of the medal that everyone received! This is my first "medal” so I was pretty excited about that!
They haven’t posted the race results yet so I don’t know where I ranked among the other swimmers. My unofficial time according to my watch was 20:27. There is a possibility that I may have placed in my age group, but I think it all depends on how many people in my group were wearing wetsuits. I’ll keep you posted and provide more details as soon as they are available!
Overall the Riverside Park Tune Up Swim was a good race and I’m looking forward to doing it again next year!
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