Runner Insight

The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim

 Hi ho…

Vision Runner here…

Today I’d like to share with you a blog post from a Twitter friend: triathlonmom. She did the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim last summer. OR perhaps I should say she battled her way through the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim…

I really like including the story of other people’s accomplishments here on the blog, as they really inspire and motivate me to focus on breaking through my barriers. The whole point of this blog is to inspire people to Dare to Envision a New Reality for themselves. Everyone has obstacles, whether they’re physical, mental, emotional, financial, spiritual or some combination thereof. So we all have barriers to break through and a story to share…

So even though this story isn’t mine, I’d like to share a little hope and inspiration with you.

I’ve included the first part of her story here, and there is a link at the bottom of this page to the rest of the story including her great pictures (check out her incredibly scary sunburn – yikes!) . So please enjoy…and be inspired!

As always, we welcome, plead and beg for comments below. Thanks!

How ’bout it?

-Vision Runner

I guess I should start in telling this story by telling you where my journey began. I’m not sure what year it was, perhaps it was 1983 when I was 10, or perhaps it was several years later. I read an article in The Washington Post. It was a first person account of swimming across the Chesapeake Bay — some kind of officially organized event…..The author described hearing this kayaker blow a lifeguard whistle repeatedly. The author/swimmer couldn’t figure out what he was doing wrong, was he breaking some rule? Going off course? Later he found out that the man swimming beside him was blind and was following the sound of the whistle to get across the Bay.

I’m not exactly sure why, but I found this story incredibly moving. My dad is blind and I have watched him year after year as his sight has diminished. Bit by bit, it seems my dad was swallowed whole by his vision loss. And with each year there was less and less that he could do. In contrast, here was someone who was accomplishing something great, doing something that many many sighted people wouldn’t dream of attempting, and he was doing it in spite of his blindness. The blind swimmer had found a way to strip the power from his blindness. And while I watched my father take one path, I knew that when I grew up, whatever hardships I was dealt in my life, I wanted to be like the blind swimmer, not my dad.

I guess to help you understand this I should mention, that I have no idea what it would be like to go blind. I can’t imagine the pain that my father has endured at having his sight taken away from him bit by bit over all of those years of my childhood. But before you question me for judging him, I should also tell you that the blindness he has is heredetary. And while I am not a high risk to be blind myself, I could. Growing up, I had doctors visit after doctors visit where they were always testing me for it. And, I was always on the lookout for it come up behind me like a shadow over my shoulder. And more than one time in my life, I was convinced that I was going to lose my sight too. Mentally, I spent many years preparing myself to suffer the same fate, and many years I tried to push myself on the path of the blind swimmer, so if fate dealt me that card I would handle it better than my father, who allowed himself to be defined by his illness, growing more bitter and frustrated each day.

Simply stated, I was amazed — that there could be someone who responded to his fate so differently than my dad. At that time, I was not inspired to swim the bay myself, but just inspired by the will of that man. The passion, the desire for life. By the iron will that he found and the strength and courage he displayed, to try something great in the face of adversity.

Years later, in my 30′s after doing triathons for a while, on some race calendar or on some blog, somehow I was reminded again of the The Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. Instantly, I remembered being so moved by that article when I was so much younger. I searched for several hours trying to locate it in the Washington Post archives, but with no luck. I did learn the history of the Bay Swim though, and read a newer article about open water swimming by Caroline Kettlewell, who I actually got to meet at the swim.

Then, the thought crossed me. I could swim. Triathlons had served as a vehicle for me to realize that I could swim across the Chesapeake Bay if I put my mind to it. Last year, at this same time, I had conquered many fears and obstacles to complete my first half-iron distance race, Eagleman. That took me over 7 and a half hours and over 6 months of intense training. I could certainly swim the 4.4 miles of the bay. I’d done the 1.2 miles in the VERY choppy waters at Eagleman in 39 minutes. I guess this is what made me think I might actually complete the Bay Swim in 2 and a half hours or so.

After researching the history of the bay swim, I realized that maybe I was getting in a little over my head. Not only did I have to qualify for the swim, but also, I had to enter a lottery to be selected to participate.

Then I read this information on the Great Bay Swim website:
Is it dangerous? Among the difficulties that may be encountered during the
average 2 hour 25 minute swim are flailing arms and legs during the “Cuisinart
start,” cross currents, swells, chop, hypothermia if the water is cold, nettle
stings if the water is warm, and collisions with the bridge supports or rocks
surrounding the jetties, islands and causeways.The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has measured tidal, current and weather
conditions prior to the event and compared the results with predicted
conditions to determine the optimum starting time for the event. How does
it affect the race? As a result, 79-97 % of the starters finished the race in the
last 5 years. Prior to this, in 1991 and 1992, a strong ebb current of about 2
knots in the main channel beneath the 200-feet high spans (one and a half miles
from the start) precluded all but the strongest and most determined
swimmers from finishing the event (only 15-19 % finished the swim).

And, for some reason, I still signed up…  

Here’s the link to the rest of the story…. Great Chesapeake Bay Swim Race Report

(Side NOTE: when you get there, there’s a pink circle on the right that’s going to start playing music at you if you have your speakers hooked up. Click the bottom section of the circle to stop it if you prefer.)

Here it is again in longer format:

http://triathlonmom.blogspot.com/2008/06/great-chesapeake-bay-swim-race-report.html

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Once I made the commitment in January to run the full marathon in July of 2007, it was obvious I hadn’t been running enough miles. I had slacked off toward the latter part of 2006. Because of the change in seasons, and the fact that I didn’t have a specific race that I was training for, I had been just taking it easy.

Because I had sloughed off on my running, I knew I would have to increase my mileage just to get to the point where I could even begin the marathon training program. Ironically, I had to pre-train in order to be able to start training.

So again, I had to modify the running mileage chart, this time the build-up mileage chart, to coordinate with my schedule. The race wasn’t until July, so I had time to get in pre-marathon training shape, but I didn’t have to start as low as the chart suggested starting, because I wasn’t starting from zero miles of running per week. I had been running, probably about fifteen miles a week, just not enough to be prepared for the marathon training mileage that I needed to be ready to start in April.

With both a marathon training program as well as a pre-training running program lined out, the next thing I had to decide on was my goal for this race. As I mentioned, my back-up goal was to finish in the time allowed to run a full marathon. They allow 6 hours for an “official finisher” to complete the marathon.

But I also had some lofty dreams of running it in 4 hours. I didn’t really believe that was possible, as that would be a pretty fast pace for me. Not to mention that, err….well, I didn’t want to do any speed training. I run for pleasure, and that’s not fun. That’s more like work. So I’m not sure why I was even considering a four hour marathon finish, but, hey one can dream, right? However, I did think that a 4 ½ hour finish for the 26.2 mile race was do-able for me, and without having to do any of that nasty, unpleasant speed work.

So now that I had my mileage charts all planned out, week by week, and an end goal to strive for, I was excited to get started. Having those kind of specifics laid out has always been a great motivator for me.

At the end of 2003 my running had really slowed down to where it was almost non-existent. I was going through some pretty exciting changes in my life, and well, running just kind of took a back seat at that point in time…Okay maybe it wasn’t even in the backseat…I’m pretty sure it got left back there somewhere, forgotten in the dust!

But in the beginning of 2005, life was flowing wonderful and stable, and I had started feeling the void that used to be defined by the activity and endorphins of running. I decided to train for Bloomsday 2005 in Spokane, Washington. It took place the first weekend in May, so I had plenty of time to get my mileage built up. It was a 12K run with over 40,000 racers! I finished that race in what I considered to be a good time, and was glad that I had done it. But the point I’m trying to make is, that by having a targeted race and a goal to train for, I knew I would do the running it required to get there.

Oh and by the way, I finished first in my name group at Bloomsday! Okay, so there were only three running with my last name, but still, I finished first in that category! You’ve got to celebrate the victories as they come, right?

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner

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I wanted to tell you about a great gift I received a couple of years ago. 

But first, the story leading up to it…. 

A little over two years ago, I was running home from work shortly after 6 o’clock in the morning. It was September, and getting to the point in the year where it was soon to be too dark to run home that early. I knew within the next few days, I was going to have to start walking instead of running home in the mornings. But I felt it was still light enough to run home on that day. I was following the asphalt walk/bike path across town, when I tripped over a bike lying in the path. Now, even though I have vision issues, and the lighting was not ideal, I’m not sure anyone would have seen this bike. 

So this (probably) college-age kid was sleeping on a bench next to the path, and had just left his bike lying on the path next to the bench. Of course, I didn’t see the bicycle. So all of a sudden, there I was, sprawled out like a pancake spreading in a pan: trying to stop my fall with my hands and hitting my chin hard on the asphalt.  

The guy immediately tried to help me up. But I waved him off, still checking to see if I had all my teeth, grumbling “Just leave me alone for a minute.”  I knew that when I try to get up too fast, I have a tendency to faint. Something I only needed to find out once before I learned my lesson. 

Anyway, I was angry! This kid had just left his bike laying there in the middle of the path! How stupid!  I told him so, too. He kept asking me if I was okay, and was profusely apologetic. I said I would live.  

It was very strange, just laying there in the path, holding my elbow. I stayed that way for a couple of minutes, as I was going to make sure I wasn’t light-headed before I got up. So we talked. I figured I really didn’t want to yell at him too much. He seemed sincerely sorry, and I didn’t want to get him too agitated at me: after all, it was just past 6 a.m., and he was a stranger out early in the morning…You get my drift.  

So after a few more minutes, I collected myself, and decided I was in good enough shape to continue my run home. You may ask (as many others did) why I didn’t call T to come get me. Well let me assure you, I would have, if I had been truly hurt. But I didn’t want to hang around spending any more time with the guy who had caused me to fall in the first place.  Plus, I knew that I could get home faster by running, rather than waiting for T to come get me.  

When I got home, my arm had stiffened up a bit more, which made it difficult to get undressed and cleaned up. So I woke T up by saying “Don’t worry, but I fell.”  Prefacing the whole thing with “Don’t worry” wasn’t really effective, as she jumped up immediately, worried, and asked if I was okay. I told her my elbow hurt, and she asked if I wanted her to take me to the hospital.  No, not really. There was nothing they could do for me. I had fallen like that once before and hurt my other elbow, the same way, and there was nothing that could be done. And I was tired, and who wants to go to the hospital after working at the hospital all night long? I had just got off work from there! T helped me get cleaned up, and in to bed I went.  

Around 11 a.m. I woke up, and my elbow had swollen so that any little movement was hugely painful. So then I began to worry. Maybe I had hurt it worse than I thought.  With very little resistance on my part, T persuaded me to go to the E.R. 

There they took x-rays, and let me tell you, that was painful, as they needed me to bend and move my arm in ways it just didn’t want to. When the doctor came in, he told me just what I thought all along: I had cracked the radial head of my left elbow.  So he put my arm in a sling, gave me some good pain meds, and made a follow-up appointment for me to see a specialist in about 3 days. 

Okay, now this is where the passionate runner in me rears her obsessive head…

When I go see the specialist, the doctor told me to get rid of the sling, and start using my arm. He said that it would be sore for a while, but the best thing was to use it, without lifting anything heavy. I then asked him if I could run.  He just looked at me, as if I had two heads. He firmly replied that he would not recommend it. If I fell again, before it was completely healed, I could do permanent damage.

I had been in training for my first half-marathon, and it was coming up in about a month.  “Well then,” I asked, “When can I run?”  He thought probably about six weeks. I said “How about two?”  He ended up reluctantly compromising with me at three weeks, but he was serious about the warning. If I fell on it again, I was taking a huge risk of serious long-term injury. Hearing him, but pretty much trying to disregard his warning, all I heard in my heart was “Victory!”  I knew it would be cutting it close, but I could still run the half-marathon. It would be tough with three weeks off of my training regimen the month before the race, but I was determined. Obviously I had the strength of will to create whatever results I wanted; I had just won the test of wills against my doctor…       I can manifest miracles…. 

Well I didn’t re-injure myself. I did run my first half-marathon, and I did it in just over 2 hours. So I was pretty proud of that! 

Now, to get back to the point of this whole story….. 

Shortly after my close encounter with a bicycle and the asphalt, T was reading one of my Runner’s World magazines, and saw an ad for the RoadID. It’s an ID with a velcro strap for athletes to wear with emergency contact information on it. It’s a great idea, as oftentimes athletes, bicyclists, race-walkers, and especially runners don’t have pockets to keep an ID in. And if something happened to them, the medical responders wouldn’t know who they were or who to contact. They have different styles, but she got me the wrist band and the shoe ID. They are laser-engraved with all my contact information. It also indicates that I am legally blind. Before I got the RoadID a couple of years ago, I used to carry a piece of paper with some contact info on it.  But it would get tattered and hard to read. Then I would forget about getting a new one, and end up out running without any identification on me at all.  Not smart for anyone, but especially absurd for me.

www.RoadID.com

Now when I go out for a run, I always have the RoadID on my shoe. I wear the one on my wrist as well; of course, manifesting that they will never be needed for emergency purposes. But it’s one more layer of protection, just like the flashers and lights I use to increase my visibility. In fact, I’m getting my mom a RoadID. She likes to walk, and right now all she carries, when she remembers, is a piece of paper with my phone number on it.  So I plan on getting her one she can put on her keychain. 

The RoadID Shoe ID

Oh yeah, I have to tell you: after checking out their website recently, I see that RoadID.com now carries different colors of the wrist strap….When I got mine they only had black. You can probably see it in several of my running photos. Now I can get all kinds of different colors to match all my different running outfits!! Yee-Ha!

How ‘bout it?

Vision Runner

P.S. Just so you know, this endorsement was not paid for by RoadID.com or anything like that. We use this every day, so the high recommendation we offer of the RoadID product is unsolicited and heartfelt. However, I will also tell you that if you click on any of the links on this blog, and make a purchase, I will get paid a small commission.

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