I was worried about the colder water and about the current and chop. I was also worried that swimming under the bridges would trigger a sense of vertigo that I sometimes get, kind of like a fear of heights. So naturally I was signed up to swim 5k and see how I dealt with all of that.
After getting a head count of swimmers at the starting line, and with zero ceremony they started a countdown from ten and we were off. This was the biggest mass start I've been a part of so far, and we had to turn around a buoy just about a hundred meters from shore so things seemed pretty crazy for a while. I tried to relax, not get kicked in the face and wait for things to open up. There were three buoys marking the triangle turn to be made around the easternmost stanchion of the mid-hudson bridge. As we rounded these buoys most of my attention was on avoiding bad collisions with very little to spare for whether passing under the bridge would make me feel small and dizzy. I set my sights on the walkway over the Hudson some 900M north against the current and my stroke fell apart. I was swimming directly into some waves, possibly the wake of a moderately sized boat and I was having trouble adjusting my breathing so as not to get a lungfull of riverwater. When paused in my struggle and looked around I had lost sight of every other swimmer and most of the support boats. There I was, as the title of this post suggests. For all I knew I was in dead last, after all it was a pretty small field. Surprisingly these things did not cause me to feel nervous and upset. With about 1K of 5 behind me I finally started to feel pretty good. I pointed myself at the walkway bridges and kept going.
It turns out that I had not been left behind as much as I thought because I met up with a few other swimmer when I finally found my way to the walkway over the hudson and rounded the triangle turn. While trying to cross back under the walkway I had the distinct impression that I was swimming in place under the bridge. This would not be the last time I felt that way. Once I cleared the walkway I was heading south again and with the current. I actually had another swimmer with me for a while, until I wandered off course, or perhaps the current nudged me.
I caught a glance at the starting buoy when I was about 50 yards past it. This worried me. "How am I ever going to spot that on my next time around?", I wondered to myself.
While rounding the three buoys at the mid-hudson bridge I overtook a group of swimmers. I was already several strokes ahead of them before I realized they were wearing yellow caps instead of green. The 2.5k'ers. I figured if they started 45mins behind us and these are the first yellow caps I'm seeing then I am way off my pace for this swim. Oh well, I was still feeling good, and if it took me longer to finish at least I would know I could handle the extra time in the water. On my way back to the walkway I overtook maybe two more yellow caps. And while I was rounding the buoys I spotted two green caps as well. I tried to pour on some power for the last few hundred meter, but I felt like the current was throwing me around. Somehow I caught a look a the finish buoy and I was able to head straight for it. Actually the river was pushing me closer to shore so I had to adjust my course a few times. I rounded the buoy and started what I thought would be the final push into shore. The current threw me off course in about ten strokes, but I managed to get in eventually. I stepped onto shore carefully, they recorded my finish and another swim hits my personal record books.
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