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TI2Y

Yesterday I swam a good long distance in the cold waters of the San Francisco Bay and lived to tell about it. In fact, I was so spirited as I finished the swim that I was able to summon a crude hand gesture aimed at a dear friend who was cheering from the shore!

The TI2Y was a race put on to benefit the YMCA where I work out. We were ferried by boat to the starting point near Treasure Island (thus the "TI"). And then we jumped off the boat (paratrooper style! which is the best part!) and swam back to shore, theoretically swimming a straight line parallel to the Bay Bridge. In reality, an ebb tide pulled us slower swimmers away from the Bridge toward the ocean, so while I spent the whole swim trying to get closer to the bridge on my left, the current pulled me to my right and I had to do a little backtracking to get to the finish line.

There's a staircase leading down to the water at the railing in the center of this photo. That's where we emerged from the water like bog creatures two hours before I took this photo.

Swimming in the San Francisco Bay is about 95% Very Cool and Fun and 5% Totally Gross and Creepy. The water is murky green and you can only see about as far as your own hands. Occasionally you get a whiff of fuel or a lungful of boat exhaust. Sea lions like to hang out in the Bay, and they have been known to bump into human swimmers. They say that big predatory sharks stay outside the Bay, and that the only sharks are little guys scavenging in the mud deep below. But it's hard not to think about what might be lurking out there.

And then there's the time I encountered a crowd gathered at the end of a pier while I was out for a run along the waterfront. I stopped to see what they were gawking at. There was a corpse floating in the water.

A much more rational fear is the possibility of huge ships coming through and steamrolling us. But the Coast Guard and the SFPD had that totally under control. Although at one point I looked back to see a gigantic barge plowing through where we had just been, and I bobbed like a cork its wake.

But on the bright side: By far the best views of San Francisco are from the water. Especially on a bright, sunny morning.

I swam about 1.7 miles in 1:09 with perfect, flat conditions. I was 94th out of 133 in the wetsuit division. (80 people swam in the 60-ish-degree water without wetsuits!) But considering that since my last triathlon on July 17, I have been swimming only about five times total, that's not too bad.

Oh, and the crude gesture was aimed at a certain friend who signed up for the race but decided not to do it a couple of weeks ago. "That's for sleeping in!" I shouted as I took my last few strokes in the Bay. She had not actually slept in -- she got up early to watch us swim. Some grateful friend I am. At least she got a photo of me, which she will no doubt use to embarrass me later.

September 26, 2005 8:54 PM