SCAR 2017 [John Batchelder Open Water Swimmer]
Just two days ago at Swim the Suck, I met up again with Kent Nicholas, race director for the SCAR swim. It was hard to believe that it was not even six months had passed since I swam SCAR in late April. I was still very new marathon swimming back then, and it was a reminder of just how far I have grown in such a short time.
I wish I had taken time to recap my experience at SCAR right after my swim, as I’m afraid my memory is going to fail me a bit here. This is kind of a shame, too, as this event is the one I point to where I really became a part of the open water swimming community. I’ll do my best, but I probably won’t have all the details quite right. I trust it should be close enough. I did at least put up short Facebook posts on my swims, which helped me remember a few things.
SCAR was actually the first open water swim I had on my list of swims to try. It was the first organized group marathon swim I had heard about, and it was pretty close to home. I looked to sign up in 2015 and again in 2016, but both times the event occurred during the US Masters Swimming Spring Nationals that at the time was a bigger draw for me. In 2017, again it occurred the same week as Spring Nationals. However, this time Nationals were in California, which was less appealing to me because I anticipated a much larger crowd, so this was the year I signed up for SCAR. Just like Tampa, after my experience from the 2016 END-WET, I signed up to do the swim butterfly, which took a little bit of convincing the race director, but it didn’t take long before he gave permission.
For those who don’t know, SCAR consists of 4 swims over 4 days, in lakes Saguaro, Canyon, Apache, and Roosevelt, covering an overall distance of about 40 miles. The registration for SCAR requests all US participants to bring their own kayaker. I signed up the same swim friend who told me about SCAR to be my kayaker, but he ended up having to withdraw. So, just two days after Lido Key, I once again found myself flying out alone to another swim, unsure if I would even find a kayaker to support me.
The welcome dinner was a new experience for me. In all my previous kick off gatherings, I would more or less just keep to myself and blend in with the background. For these swims, I didn’t really know anybody, and nobody else really knew me, and I was fine with that. For this gathering, however, soon after having swum Tampa, and swimming it butterfly no less, my name was out there, and the word was spreading. I got far more attention than ever before. Well, I suppose this happened first when I did a drop by visit at Tampa for those doing that marathon swim the same day I did Key Lido, but that was different. With people coming up to me to ask questions and offer congratulations. I must admit even back then I was having a bit of fun with it, but I was more uncomfortable as I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. Over the next many events, I would come to grow way more comfortable in those group settings and now even look forward to them, but back then I was definitely very nervous and couldn’t wait to get out.
I ended up hanging around a lot longer than I intended because I still hadn’t heard about kayaker arrangements for my swims, and it took me some time to get to get to the race director to inquire about it, and then I had to wait longer still as he went around to help recruit kayakers for me. He did eventually find kayakers for me. One for the first lake, another for the next two, and a third for the final lake. With that settled, I could finally settle in for the night to prepare for the first swim.
I went into that first swim, Saguaro Lake, full of confidence. After having done Tampa, I really had no concern about being able to finish any of the SCAR swims butterfly, though I was a little bit uneasy at the beginning as I got to the staging area. My assigned kayaker, who I had yet to meet, was no where to be found. It turned out that while I was on the first shuttle boat over – I was in the first wave after all – my kayaker was on the last one. I guess he didn’t get the memo that all those in the first wave should head over first. No matter, as I did have plenty of time to get him what I needed before getting on the pontoon boat to get shuttled to the starting line. Soon, I would be jumping into the water to begin my first butterfly swim of the event.
I don’t think Saguaro could have gone much better than it did. From the get go, I felt really good with my butterfly, and the entire time I had somebody within sight near me to help me set a pretty good pace the entire way. I guess the only minor thing that happened is that when I got up to where we were supposed to meet up with our paddlers, I couldn’t find him. I wasn’t concerned. I just kept swimming forward and trusted him to meet up with me eventually. I didn’t really even look for him. I think he was just late getting his kayak into the water to paddle up to the starting line, and so he was much further up the course than he was supposed to be. We did eventually meet up, of course, and from then on all was good. I did notice midway up the course I had another kayaker with me, and it was fun to see her (and we would later become friends). I must say I think I swam a bit harder having two kayakers with me. I ended up swimming quite a lot faster than I had expected, and I felt fantastic afterwards.
The next day was Canyon Lake, and that swim also went off really well, apart from coming down with a cold that was more of a nuisance. I now wonder if the cold I caught had more to do with not really being trained up to handle these long swims as even after Tampa I hadn’t really started training for these long swims. I had a new kayaker for this one, who seemed to be a bit more organized, so I was hopeful going in that I would do as well in this swim as I did in Saguaro. Well, it didn’t go quite so well, but it still went great. My feedings were not given at the times I wanted as my kayaker didn’t have a timepiece, and so was always just guessing when to feed. He ended up going much longer between feeds than I wanted. That was really the only negative, except if you count going at a slower pace than I thought I could hold, but I suppose that should have been expected with the cold I was catching and swimming a bit harder the previous day. Everything about this swim was great. My fly was holding good form. I was really enjoying swimming in the canyons, both for this swim and in Saguaro. I finished this second swim with almost no difficulty, and I was still feeling good.
On to the third lake: the infamous Apache, not quite twice as long as each of the previous swims. This one did not end well, but strangely it was my favorite swim in the end. The forecast called for strong winds. I didn’t really know what that meant – again I was relatively new to marathon swimming, and boy was I in for a rude awakening. I had the same kayaker as Canyon Lake, so I figured it was just going to be business as usual. I did make sure he had a watch, so that would fix getting my feeds to me on the right schedule. From the beginning everything was feeling great. When the winds picked up and the conditions got a bit choppy, I really wasn’t minding it at all. I learned quickly to time my rhythm to the waves, as swimming butterfly I can see any waves rolling in from the front. I could tell I was doing a lot better in those conditions than many of the other swimmers, which just helped push me forward even more. I reached the halfway point, and I was feeling better than I did at the end of Canyon, so things were feeling great.
I would say roughly 12 miles into the 17 mile swim, the winds really started to pick up. I was getting annoyed that my kayaker was moving all over the place. Stupid me. I really had no idea at the time just how much rougher those winds were on kayakers than the swimmers. We were still making decent, albeit tough, progress in those winds. I remember that during what turned out to be my last feed, I called out my kayaker to try not to pull so far away from me. Yep, I was clueless what he was going through. I went on ahead after giving him back my feed bottle, not knowing I wouldn’t see him again. I just kept swimming forward, expecting him at any time to get his kayak in order and get back in front. It wasn’t for a few minutes that I actually started to get concerned and look around, but my kayaker was nowhere to be found. Not sure what to do, I just kept swimming forward. I just figured he was around somewhere and just didn’t see him through all the waves, which were actually getting quite large as the winds had really picked up.
It didn’t really dawn on me what was happening until I met up with another swimmer who had also lost her kayaker. This was when things were starting to get a little bit scary. We ended up continuing forward and swam together for a little bit, until we saw a kayaker going the other way, and then another. The second one we flagged down and were able to get some information. I don’t remember for sure if it was at this time or a little bit later that we got word that the swim was being called and to start heading back.
I got a tow for a bit back to the marina from one of the kayaks. This is something I’ll never do again, as once I started just floating there and stopped swimming, I was starting to get cold. I didn’t realize this at the time, but I know better now. However, that wasn’t when I really got cold. The cold came when a pontoon boat came along and picked us up. Once I got out of the water and onto the boat, then the cold hit. Those winds were brutal, and I was wearing nothing but a suit with all my dry clothes being up at the finish line. I was given a hat and wrapped in blankets, which helped a little, but those winds were taken their toll on me, especially as the boat got moving, and I was shivering far more than ever before.
When we finally reached shore, I exited the boat with someone’s blanket still wrapped around me. My bare feet were still really cold, and I was struggling to find my step. I ended up just standing in the sun, leaning against a building, not really recognizing anything else going on around me. That’s when somebody observed that I really was not okay standing there and needed help. I am so ever grateful for that, and for all the other assistance I got from everybody. I was helped up to someone’s car to get some heat on me, and I was leant a parka to wear as there was still no sign of my dry clothes. Oh, how I needed that! I spent some more time in a hotel room there with one of the other swimmers and her kayaker, and I waited as they kindly went and fetched my dry bag. I was ever so glad when I finally got to my bag so that I could finally take off my goggles and get my glasses on! My prescription goggles go a long way to helping me see, but even still my vision in them is still a bit blurry, which only gets worse as I get tired and its harder to focus. So, to get my goggles off and my glasses on is the thing I most look forward to when I finish a long swim. Once I had my glasses on, followed shortly by getting into my dry clothes, I was back to feeling good.
As I said earlier, Apache was my favorite swim. I think it is largely because this one swim showed me that nothing could really stop me if I put my mind to it, as long as I had the proper support crew. I never once felt like I wasn’t able to finish. The waves were a challenge, but a challenge I could handle, and handle quite well. I wasn’t all that much tired or sore when I did get out, just cold. One day, I’ll return to Apache to finish the course. It’s not a matter of if I can do it, but when.
The final day, the Roosevelt Lake swim, was just a time to relax and have fun. It was the shortest of the swims, and the only one where we would swim at night. It was my first time swimming at night with glow sticks lighting myself and my support boat (there were no glow sticks at Tampa). I was not sure how they would work, especially with my vision, but it turned out to be just fine. My kayaker that day is a super awesome person, one of my best swimming friends, and I am so glad she supported me on that swim. I don’t really have too much to say about this swim. I took it easy throughout and still had a great swim. I did better with sighting while swimming at dusk than I did in Tampa. Swimming at night, with the proper lighting, was a good experience. Overall, a fun swim and nice way to end the event.
While I spent all this time talking about the swims, the thing that mosts stands out about SCAR is all the people I met. I met so many great people here. While I may not always touch upon it, seeing those same people and getting to know them better is probably the biggest highlight of each of my future swims. There are a ton of great and interesting people in the marathon swimming community, and I am so glad that they have been a part of my life, just as I’m sure they are happy that I have been a part of theirs.
That’s it for this post. Until next time!