Today was my final day out at the world championships, and it was time for another open water swim. This one was a non-competitive swim that was offered as one of the social events associated with the meet. It was also one of those experiences that swimmers want to check off their list of accomplishments in their swimming career - an Escape from Alcatraz. The swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco is only 1.2 miles as the crow flies, but the water is cold and often rough, with very strong currents possible.

Today was the 3K open water swim at the FINA Masters World Championships. There were just under a thousand swimmers entered in the event. I was entering it as a recreational open water swim and had no intention of racing it. It was more about the experience of swimming a new open water race with 1,000 new friends.  The swim was scheduled to start at noon, and after arriving at the Robert Crown park beach at The Alameda a bit before 10 AM it was obvious that I needed to go back to the car and get everything I had there to help keep warm. It was freezing there with the temperature in the low 60's and a cold offshore wind blowing steadily. After checking in, getting my arms marked, picking up my cap and a T shirt and walking out to the water, I bundled up and settled in under a tent to stay out of the sun. The tide was out very far when I arrived, so you could walk about 100 yards out on the muddy bottom of the bay before hitting water. That would change by the time the race started as the tide was coming in several inches per minute. During the wait, there was a good music mix playing and an energetic announcer sporadically giving information about the swim.

Thank God for attrition. There were 3 scratches in the final heat of the 200 breast, which allowed me to squeak into the top ten with a 9th place.  I'll take it any way I can get it.  The 200 was the first event of the day. I woke up at 6 like every other day and ate my normal breakfast and headed to the pool, getting there at the end of the warmup period. Unfortunately, breakfast didn't agree with me this morning and my stomach was upset for a few hours. I delayed getting in for a warmup as long as I could, got in 1500 meters and strolled over to my gear. On the way I heard that they were already on heat 22 and I was in 29. Yikes! I was still wearing my drag suit, so I quickly grabbed a towel and meet suit and pulled it on (not an easy thing to do with a body suit when you're still wet). I made it over to the marshalling area with just one heat to spare before I was in the final on deck chair. That's not the way I planned it.

Jack and I got to the pool earlier yesterday, during the open warmup period before the meet. It was a cold morning with heavy clouds all morning. It was only about 60-65 degrees all morning until the clouds burned off by around noon. I was able to finally get in a warmup where I could swim a couple hundred meters straight without running into people. We still warmed up in the short course pool, and there were only 4 or 5 people per lane. 

Well, those who bet against me swimming the 400 IM can collect on those bets. After the poor showing in the 100 breast yesterday, I laid down in bed at about 8:15 PM when we got back to the hotel. The next thing I knew it was 1:30 AM. I turned the TV off and went back to sleep until about 6 or so. I then ate breakfast and puttered around the room and played on the computer for a while. I was planning on going to the pool to warm up and then decide on whether to swim the IM or not, but the odds were against it. I didn't even make it to the pool until after my IM heat, so that sealed the deal.

Yesterday was my first event for the meet, the 100 breast. I did a 1:16 out at long course nationals last year and was hoping to beat that time or at least come very close to it. Not this meet. I did a 1:19.23, three full seconds off of last year's time. It just didn't feel good from start to finish. I felt like I couldn't get a good turnover going out, but that didn't stop me from dying coming back. I could tell I was just getting lower and lower in the water on the way back, but I couldn't correct that no matter what I tried. I ended up listening to Mark Gill announcing for the meet and heard him saying my name and making up more stories while I swam. Oh well, I guess I can't fake myself into believing I'm actually in shape for this meet. Jack got 15th in his 100 and I got 30th. Jack probably has a good shot at cracking the top ten in his 50 breast. I feel like I may be able to do a decent 50, but the 200 is scaring me. In order to do a good time, I'd need to take it out in around my 100 time and I know that's not going to happen.

I've been out here at Stanford for two days now and here are my impressions so far... I arrived on Thursday afternoon and went right to the pool. Registration was a breeze - only took me about 10 minutes to get through as a Seal Sponsor, although the line for non-sponsors was very short and would only have added about 5 minutes to the process. I realize now that I didn't pick up my tickets to the social events I signed up for at the end of registration because it wasn't clear what you had to do and no one was directing you through. I went back yesterday to pick up the tickets and they said the special events desk wouldn't be open until 1 PM. What??? Why isn't this desk manned all day? It's a pain to walk all the way to the back corner of the complex several times to find out that it's still not open.

Okay, so I'm new to this blogging tool. I've been playing around with this content management system off and on for a while, but haven't tried out this portion yet .

I've been back in the water for 4 workouts now after taking about a month off due to heavy work load. This time off also allowed my ailing knees to rest a bit. The left knee that couldn't make it through a full practice with breaststroke a month ago seems to be all better now. I even sprinted a 50 breast on sprint night this week, so I think that one will be okay. The right one still feels the same as it has since September. That hasn't stopped me from swimming breast at all, but it's a tendon issue that I need to keep from getting out of hand and requiring surgery like the elbows did a few years ago .