Tampa 24 mile swim

The Tampa Bay 24 mile swim certainly lived up to its billing. The conditions were challenging to say the least. The first three to four miles were in a slight chop but on the whole not bad. The swimmers were expecting a tidal push north once we rounded the point. However, mother nature had a joke waiting for us.

We had 3-5 foot waves for the next 3-4 hours. I became sick at the three hour mark and with the conditions so poor I made a decision to slow my stroke count down from 55 per minute to 35. I figured with the waves knocking back some of my strokes I had to conserve energy and buy time for the conditions to improve. At the fourth hour I was quite sick and had the dry heaves. This was a real low point and I considered stopping. However, I knew that if I quit it would plant that seed in my mind that I may not be able to do the Channel. My Sister-in-Law Elizabeth was great. She kept a positive attitude and let me complain! Ironically, I had a craving for potato chips and I remembered she had a bag on the boat for her to eat during lunch. I ate some chips and it calmed my stomach. I actually ate chips on most of my breaks.

My diet on the channel will be Orange Gatorade, Water, Bananas, Fig Newtons and Chips! After the next 10 miles the waves began to decrease and when I turned the next bend I found the water in great shape. At this point I was actually able to swim at a decent pace. Getting through the first bridge was ok. It was the next three miles between the first and second bridge that I began to get tired. The waves really beat the heck out of me and I didn't really recover to well. Once I was able to get through the second bridge and was roughly two miles from the finish I knew I could make it.

The shoulder did well but a real pain had developed on my right forearm. It felt like the muscle was being riped of the bone on every stroke. It was like a bad shin splint. The last mile was extremely painful. I had hoped to do the swim in nine hours or better. Going 12 was a real test. No question this swim will gain in its status and is a must for serious long distance swimmers. If you plan on doing the English Channel then you need to do this swim first.

I met some great new friends and all of them had experience doing this type of swim. Their feedback and the support was really neat. Truly a great group of people in this sport. The best news of all is my training partner Mike Tschantzhahn made it as well. Both of us did this swim to test ourselves and see where we were in our preparation to swim the Channel in July. We agreed we left Tampa with many questions answered. The most important thing is we know we can do the Channel now. We just need to condition ourselves to the cold water. We will be in Lake Michigan very soon.

One last thing, we saw dolphins, stingrays and a lot of waves. No Bull Sharks. Only the picture of the one caught the week before at one of the bridges!