Portland Bridges & the Castle [John Batchelder Open Water Swimmer]

OK, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted.  For one thing, it’s been hard to look back at the events that happened months ago, so it’s been a bit difficult to get motivated to write.  I’ve also been putting in a lot of time in the pool, at this point more to get a feel for what I’m going to be in for when I really start training hard for the epic swims I’ve got in mind for next year.  However, it’s been more to do with what’s been going on with the home, as the extra responsibilities I’ve had to deal with to take care of my mom as she slowly, slowly recovers from a stroke has been quite an adjustment.

Well, here goes on documenting the next part of my 2017 swimming year.

END-WET Reflections

Getting through END-WET was probably my most important swim of 2017, as it got me to move beyond my DNF in the same race in 2016.  With that behind me, I could now focus on the swims I had ahead of me.  It was at this time I realized that, between all the marathon swims I had planned in the future combined with a bunch of shorter local events that I could fit in as part of my training, I would have a swim every weekend from the last weekend of June up through the third weekend in August.  Granted, much of the local events weren’t much more than my training swims, but I still was looking at a very busy schedule ahead.

Portland Bridges

I don’t remember exactly when I decided to sign up for the 11-mile Willamette River swim known as Portland Bridges, but it was sometime in May between my SCAR and END-WET swims.  I had heard about this swim much earlier in the year, but decided I would not sign up since the same swim was designated as a USMS National Championship in 2018.  I figured I would wait until next year for when it would matter more to me.  Well, as May went along, I kept hearing of more and more of my fellow friends from Colorado who had signed up.  Once the name list grew to about 8, including a couple of really close friends, I decided it was time to pull the trigger.

I am so glad I did head to Portland, as this swim proved to be a ton of fun.  Just as I had learned in prior years by going to USMS Short Course and Long Course National Championships, for me to go to an event and hang out with other people from Colorado, even with those I don’t even know, just makes the whole experience so much more enjoyable.  As a bonus, I got to reconnect with a bunch of swimmers I had met in the past:  a few I had met at USMS national championship meets, a couple I met from when I did the Foster Lake cable swim a couple years prior, and a few more I had met at SCAR.  This was the first time I realized just how many of the same faces I would see over and over again, and just how special the marathon swimming community truly is.

I had such a great time connecting with friends that the July 9 swim itself was just an afterthought.  I would swim the race butterfly, as has become my norm.  I started with the first wave, as they arranged waves from slowest to fastest, which was cool since I knew that somewhere in the middle of the swim I would potentially see my friends in the faster waves as they passed.  I even worked out in my head about how far up the course I would be before the faster waves would start to catch up.  It was going to be fun to see my friends out in the middle of the river.

The one thing that I really learned from this swim is that I love swimming under bridges.  There’s just something about seeing the bridge in the distance and watching it get closer and closer with every butterfly stroke that I find extremely enjoyable.  I especially enjoyed watching the spectators on one of the bridges as they overlooked and cheered for all the swimmers.  I thought about doing something special for the onlookers as I swam under their bridge, but nothing came to mind.

The highlight of my swim was when a couple friends came up to pass from behind and came over to say hi.  It happened a bit sooner than I expected, but I was still very happy to see them.  It definitely did give me an energy boost, as I picked up my pace to see how long I could keep up with them, which turned out to be not very long, but it was still great fun to try.

As far as the swim itself, everything went extremely well.  After my 14 hours swims at Tampa and END-WET, this 5 hour swim felt really short.  Near the end, I was amused by my kayaker, who I spotted trying to take pictures of me.  I asked her to send the pictures my way.  She did so, but her timing was way off, as she didn’t take a single picture with my head above water!  Too bad!

This was one of my favorite swims.  Just swimming butterfly under so many bridges is just so much fun.  It just might be my most favorite thing about open water swimming.  But the thing that made this swim so much more fun was having so many other Colorado friends participating.  I enjoyed listening when the announcements came in of a familiar name coming into the finish, but I mostly just liked hanging out just chilling with friends after the swim.

As with many of my trips, my stay in Portland was short.  Once the crowds died down, it was off to the airport for me to fly back home.  After all, there wasn’t much time to prepare for my next swim.

The Castle

Just one week after Portland, I would get back in for another marathon swim, but this time there was no traveling involved, save a short drive, as this swim was right in my own backyard and at the lake that had quickly become a favorite swimming spot.  This was the second Castle 10K at Wellington Lake, and at an altitude of 8000 feet, it’s been advertised, right or wrong, as the highest marathon swim event offered.  I must say that after all the longer swims I had done earlier in the year, this felt more like a regular training swim than anything.  I think I decided quite early on that I was going to give butterfly a break and swim freestyle for this one, but I still was going back and forth a little bit on this one.  However, in the end I stuck to freestyle.  I knew I could always come back later to swim the race butterfly, so that was one of the deciding factors.

The swim itself truly had the feel of just a training swim.  The swim consisted of 4 loops around a buoy course.  I pushed hard at the get go to keep up with one of the girls swimming, not realizing that this young lady was a super star mile swimmer, and I think a qualifier for the US olympic trials in the event, meaning I was way, way way out of my league, and sure enough, right after the first 500 or so yards, I knew it was a futile effort and I backed off and just swam at my regular pace for the rest of the swim.  There wasn’t anything too eventful with the swim.  I was by myself pretty much the whole way.  The one thing I did note when I finished the swim is that I really don’t have a feel for when I’m tired.  My pace I’m sure died down all throughout the swim, but I didn’t really feel it.  I wish the organizers had somehow recorded splits for each swimmer as they completed each lap, as that would have been useful to know.  Regardless, the swim went really well, and I finished well ahead of what I swam the previous year.  I was happy with the swim.

After the swim, all I could think about was just getting back in and swimming some more, as 10K really felt a bit short.  This was a far cry from how I felt after previous 10K swims, which goes to show just how much I had grown over the last few months.  I did indeed get back in, joining a great friend for a planned additional 10K, though I had to sit out one lap due to some, ahem, tummy issues.  Still, getting in 17.5K made for quite the training day, and I did get some butterfly in after all.

So in the end, the swim itself wasn’t too eventful, but getting a chance to swim with and hang out with friends is always a good time.  Afterwards, focus went towards by next big swims, as my hardest challenge of the year was coming up just one month away:  two ultra-marathon swims with only a couple days rest in between.