Open Season

By Caroline Kettlewell
Friday, September 7, 2007

W e stood on a weedy bank of the James River just outside Richmond, 80 swimmers Lycra-clad and goose-bumped at 9 on a cool June morning, eyeing the mud-yellow water swirling past in a constantly shifting pattern of ripples, bubbles and eddies. It was my first open-water competitive swim, a one-miler, part of the James River Adventure Games.

As sporting events go, the parameters were simple. In a few minutes, we would jump in, swim upstream a half-mile, round a bright yellow, inflated rubber buoy anchored there, and swim back.

Simple, that is, until you're churning upriver in water the color and opacity of miso soup, trying to draw a bead on a floating rubber blob several thousand feet away -- my eyesight's not that good even on land -- while holding a straight line against a sweeping current. By the way, go fast; this is a race.

In ideal conditions, the best open-water swimmers in the United States can swim a mile in less than 20 minutes; the day's overall winner nabbed first place in a comfortable 21:15.3 or, I would guess, just about the time I finally managed to paddle an awkward turn around the midpoint buoy and head for home. Swimming with the current, however, I picked up speed and washed past the finish line with a time that put me solidly in the middle of the pack (33:32.4), happy to have finished and already calculating how I might do better next time.

Fortunately, the mid-Atlantic region offers plenty of opportunities to find out. Thanks to our proximity to rivers, lakes, the Chesapeake Bay and the ocean, along with a climate favorable to a long outdoor season, you can find open-water events from spring through fall all within one or two hours' travel. Local, first-timer-friendly events include the one- and two-mile Lake Montclair swims Saturday in Dumfries, the one- and two-mile Jim McDonnell swims at Lake Audubon in Reston in May and the Chris Greene Lake two-mile swim near Charlottesville in July. Many of the increasing number of triathlons in the region hold the swim stage in open water. (If you're in it only for the swimming, recruit a biker and runner and enter as a relay.) Then there's the considerably more challenging Great Chesapeake Bay Swim on the second Sunday in June, 4.4 miles across the bay under the Bay Bridge in Maryland. It's limited to 600 participants and requires proof of a qualifying swim, but the event has grown so popular that entry is by lottery.

The Call of the Open

What draws hundreds of people to throw themselves into the bay and fight their way to the other shore through up to several hours of rolling swells and the pull of the tide, the nauseating swill of saltwater in the mouth and the flailing arms and legs of all the other swimmers? There are unknown things swimming below you and possibly worse floating on the surface, and waves slosh you in the face every time you try to grab a breath. And you could get seasick, hypothermic, kicked in the face or stung by jellyfish.

But so what? "The opportunity to face these obstacles, known and unknown, lures swimmers to the challenge," writes Penny Lee Dean, who holds multiple open-water world records, in her book "Open Water Swimming: A Complete Guide for Distance Swimmers and Triathletes" (Human Kinetics Publishers, 1998).

You put your face in the water and swim into uncertainty for 30 minutes or an hour, or two or 10 or more, and for open-water swimmers, that's the joy of it. You're freed from the confines of the pool and the predictable, monotonous familiarity of that black stripe below you, the four walls around you and the turning and turning on every lap.

"Open-water swimming is more liberating and exhilarating," said Lucy Bartamian, who swims with the Fairfax County Masters swim team and has completed the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim.

"You get into your own zone and let the water dictate how you're going to swim," said Mark Edmunds, a distance swimmer from Bethesda who has completed multiple bay swims and will begin a solo Catalina channel swim in California on Sunday.

Go Jump in a Lake

Obviously, a channel or bay crossing is for experienced swimmers, but a good way for beginners to get their feet wet in open water is with a lake swim. In July, 78 swimmers turned out at Chris Greene Lake outside Charlottesville for the annual Eastern States 2-Mile Cable Swim, a low-key event that attracted newcomers and the impressively credentialed (including veterans of the 21-mile English Channel swim and the 28.5-mile swim around Manhattan). As I took stock of the gathered swimmers, it was evident that when it comes to age and body type, open-water swimming is an egalitarian sport. Some people looked like fiercely trained athletes, others looked like they were always happy to say thank you to a second helping and more than half were older than 40. The day's best time, 41:39.47, was swum by 42-year-old Chris Stevenson of Richmond, and 85-year-old Richard Selden of Charlottesville set a new national record (1:18:26.80) for his age bracket.

In most open-water swimming, following a straight line is one of the challenges. You might be swimming for a distant shore you can't even see or a buoy or other marker hundreds of meters or more away. At a cable swim, the course is a precisely measured distance marked by a rope or cable, making it much easier for swimmers to hold their line. Add calm lake conditions, relatively clear water with no sinister sea creatures lurking about, a generous two-hour time limit and the unassuming friendliness of even the most experienced swimmers, and Chris Greene was a low-stress introduction to open-water competition. Waiting for the second of two heats to begin, 53-year-old Susan Massengale of Raleigh, N.C., said it was her first open-water swim. She hadn't even had a chance to practice outside of the pool.

"I swam when I was a kid competitively, then stopped when I was 16. Then 36 years later I started swimming again," she said. Her strategy for the day? "Get in. Start swimming. Get out."

By contrast, Selden is a lifelong swimmer who has averaged four miles a week in the pool for 32 years. It was his eighth consecutive Chris Greene swim, and he'd just moved up this year to the 85-to-89 age bracket. (In open-water swimming, you compete by age group.) His wife, Sue, said his goal was to beat his 2006 time, though Richard admitted that he was worried the "week of debauchery" ("strawberries and cream," Sue added) the couple had just spent at the Wimbledon tennis tournament was going to weigh heavily on his performance. Perhaps it turned out to be a strategic advantage; his record-setting time was more than two minutes faster than his previous year's.

"On to 90!" he cried as he accepted his award at the post-swim picnic.

Getting Started

You don't have to be a lifelong swimmer like Selden to challenge yourself to try an open-water event, but if you're just starting out, joining a masters swim team or other training group will make it much easier to progress. Proper technique is essential for distance swimming to maximize efficiency and minimize the risk of injury. If you start training this fall you could easily be ready for an open-water event next year -- and ready to truly appreciate the sport's 10-kilometer debut at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Ed Zerkle, founder and head coach of Arlington-based Team Z, a triathlon group-training program, regularly gets new members who want to complete a triathlon with an open-water swim stage but can't -- or are afraid to -- cross even a single width of a pool. A competitive swimmer through college, Zerkle says that for inexperienced or new swimmers, fear is often the biggest obstacle. So when new swimmers join Team Z, "we really focus on making them feel comfortable in a pool setting and arming them with enough information that they come back to each successive practice with more self-confidence," Zerkle said. A coach works with new swimmers to teach them stroke technique, swimmers' lingo and more, and everyone progresses at an individual pace.

"I don't care how new or scared you are, we make it a supportive environment," Zerkle said.

Frank Marcinkowski, head coach of Northern Virginia-based Curl-Burke Masters ("Be all you thought you used to be" is the team's motto), says a good masters program should welcome and be able to cultivate and challenge swimmers of all levels. The 339 members of his team include beginners through national record-holders. Many people swim for masters teams without ever competing, joining for the camaraderie and the motivation of knowing their fellow swimmers are expecting to see them at workouts.

However, although swimming in the pool is excellent for building speed and endurance and working on technique, the only way to really prepare for the experience of stepping into open water is to go outside and swim. That's why Team Z and Curl-Burke's Marcinkowski have teamed up to offer a monthly open-water swim practice during the summer and early fall at Pohick Bay Regional Park in Lorton.

At the August practice, under an overcast sky, swimmers were stripping down or wet-suiting up for a 7 a.m. start. There were Team Z tents to protect gear and swimmers from the elements; buoys placed 250 meters apart in the water to make three points of a half-mile triangle; a volunteer support crew that included kayakers and escort swimmers for less confident participants; a speedboat in case anyone needed immediate help; and brightly colored, numbered swim caps so that all swimmers could be accounted for. When the last swimmers were done, there was a sumptuous post-swim barbecue, complete with burgers and sausages hot off the gas grill Zerkle packs in his equipment trailer. He believes that having fun together is just as important for his team as training hard. "Really, we're a rolling party," he said as he flipped burgers.

To allow as many swimmers to participate as safely possible, the morning was divided into two waves of swimmers. Everyone could swim as few or as many laps of the 750-meter course as they wanted during their wave or even just swim out to the first buoy and back.

Sue Wilkinson of Fairfax, whose r?sum? includes the 28.5-mile Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and five 7.5-mile Potomac River swims (this year in the June event she tried a double crossing and made it 14 miles before the race director had to pull swimmers because of high winds), swam both waves. Team Z member Flor Menendez of Falls Church, a runner, had been swimming for only a couple of months and joined the second wave. "When I first went into the pool, I could only do one lap," Menendez said. "I thought I was going to drown. I thought I was going to die."

"What's your goal today, Flor, one lap or two?" Zerkle asked before her start.

"Two," she said firmly.

The swimmers quickly spread out, some plowing steadily around the course, others pausing periodically to tread water, catch their breath or look for the next buoy. Learning to "sight" is a key open-water skill. For some long swims, a support crew with navigational equipment is a must for keeping on course. For most shorter swims, however, you have to sight for yourself, which isn't necessarily easy in the water, and waves, currents and wind can make it even harder to hold a straight line. Depending on conditions and your own sighting skills, an open-water "mile" can be considerably longer, Zerkle said. "When you go outside and into the open water, you have a million things that could affect your time, over which you have no control," he said. "Even given perfect conditions and excellent sighting, the odds of a swimmer not adding at least a few yards on the course distance because of zigzagging are low."

Zerkle and Marcinkowski's swimmers practiced the "Tarzan drill," swimming with face forward and eyes just above water level. Look up for a few strokes, try to take a sighting, then put your face back in the water. Lining up your course with a visible landmark such as a tree or building is easier than trying to keep your eye on a distant buoy.

"I'm not so good at sighting," Team Z member Paula Rivera of McLean said after her swim. But having been swimming only a few months, and with an open-water triathlon on her calendar this month, she was happy with the experience. "It might not be pretty," she said, "but now I know I can get through."

Caroline Kettlewell is a regular contributor to Weekend and an aspiring open-water swimmer.