Training For Mystic Sharkfest: The Loneliness Of The Long-Distance Swimmer
Among the many benefits of active recreation is hanging out with friends – which of course you can do at a bar, pizza parlor or coffee shop, but since most of my pals prefer to spend their leisure time on the trail or water, we tend to get together for a run, paddle or hike.
We usually maintain a conversational pace – though sometimes the repartee is abbreviated and the jokes lean toward one-liners.
A couple weeks ago Cristina Negron and I exhausted our supply of gags while running around Groton Long Point and reverted to reciting stanzas of the Lewis Carroll poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” which got us through a couple miles.
My buddy Carl Astor, a retired rabbi, is the Henny Youngman of kayakers, and during a two-week circumnavigation of Long Island a few years ago we played to an audience of one – fellow paddler Dan Bendor.
Typical shtick: “Carl, how big is your congregation?”
“Sleeps 200,” he replied, not missing a stroke.
Ba-dum-bum.
Dan is a psychiatrist, offering the perfect setup line: “A rabbi, a psychiatrist and a reporter go kayaking…”
Hikers can be gabby, though towards the end of the day remarks usually boil down to a single phrase: “How much farther?”
Carrying on a conversation while biking can be a challenge, especially in traffic, and often consist simply of, “On your left!”
No group pastime, though, is more conversationally stultifying than swimming.
A bunch of us have been getting together a few times a week to train for Mystic’s inaugural Sharkfest, a 1,500-meter swim on the Mystic River July 11, and virtually all socializing takes place before or after our workout. A typical exchange:
“Where to today?”
“Past the buoys, out to the boat ramp and back.”
“OK.”
That’s for open-water swimming. Pools are even more isolating – staring at a black line, lap after lap. At least in a lake or the sound you get to see wildlife every so often – one reason I usually don’t wear goggles.
I’d rather not observe a nearby shark or snapping turtle, and therefore choose to limit my vision to a blurred void.
I’m not a particularly fast swimmer, and when I join Laura Ely, Vicky Giordani and Cheryl Robdau, I’m the last one out of the water unless I take a shortcut. But I do manage to keep pace with two of the region’s most celebrated runners, former Boston Marathon winner Amby Burfoot and Spyros “Spy” Barres, the reigning national champ in his age group in the 10K, half-marathon and full marathon.
Evidently champion runners don’t always become champion swimmers; good technique rewards those who take to the water more than those who confine their athletic pursuits to terra firma. But both Spy and Amby enjoy a challenge, no matter the setting.
About five years ago Spy and I swam 3 miles from Groton Long Point to Fishers Island, taking a rowboat back to Connecticut. A couple years later we rode a powerboat with friends to Fishers Island and swam to Noank, so technically you can say we swam to New York and back.
Amby hadn’t swum for years and he showed up for our first workout a few weeks ago lugging a gym bag jammed with gear.
“Where’s your stuff?” he asked as I strolled empty-handed to the water.
“This is it,” I said, pointing to my shorts. “I’m a minimalist.”
Amby unpacked a towel, change of clothes, goggles, a nose clip and a float belt.
“It helps me overcome my fear of sinking,” he explained.
After a couple weeks I’m happy to report Amby has ditched the float in favor of a short wetsuit, and the other day he and I were joined by Spy and Neil Bobroff for a mile swim at a comfortable pace.
“This has been a real confidence-builder,” he said.
“At least they won’t have to fish us out of the water at Sharkfest,” I replied.
The race is expected to draw several hundred swimmers on a course that starts at Mystic Seaport, passes beneath the downtown drawbridge and finishes at Dock D at Seaport Marine.
The Mystic race is part of a Sharkfest series that began 23 years ago with a swim from Alcatraz Island to downtown San Francisco and now includes competitions in Boston, Chicago, Lake Tahoe, Newport, R.I., San Diego, Easton, Md., Zihuatenejo, Mexico, and Jersey City, N.J., setting for the Lady Liberty swim from the Statue of Liberty to Liberty State Park.
At the New Jersey race last year, Cheryl Robdau met Dave Horning of California-based Envirosports, organizer of the Sharfest series, and when he learned she was from Mystic, he told her he always wanted to put on a Mystic River race.
Cheryl, who owns the Mystic Drawbridge Ice Cream shop, enthusiastically agreed to help and has attracted support from Mystic Seaport and sponsorship by the Downtown Merchants Association. She hopes Sharkfest will become an annual event.
I do, too – but right now I’m focused on this year. I have the same goals I set for every race; finish, and have a smile on my face.
More information about Mystic Sharkfest, including details about registering if you’d like to join the fun, is available at sharkfestswim.com.
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