Thoughts after the 1995 Race

On Sunday August 13th, 1995, I swam in the 28.5 mile race around Manhattan for the second time in my life. Once again, it was really fun. I love New York City. With all it’s energy and non-stop action, it continues to captivate me. Swimming around Manhattan is a wonderful way to take in so many of the beautiful views.

Of course, one of the big things you’re wondering about is the cleanliness of the waters. The only “debris” I encountered was some floating vegetation, a few miscellaneous pieces of wood, and a very nice styrofoam block that accompanied me under the bridge at Spuyten Duyvil. There was absolutely nothing else. During my swim, the water color never changed from the same greenish tint of the Long Island Sound and I never lost sight of my hands passing under my body. It’s nice to know that the collective efforts of everyone using the New York City rivers are paying off.

My husband, Mark Green and I recently moved to Riverside, Connecticut from Manhattan. The beach now is only a 7 minute drive which makes practicing in the open water a lot easier, logistically. To prepare for my Manhattan swim, for several months I worked out at the Greenwich YWCA and Vanderbilt YMCA (in NYC) from Monday to Friday, swimming 4 to 8000 yards a day plus lifting weights once a week. I supplemented this swimming with some running and a little biking.

On the weekends, I did several multiple hour swims at Greenwich Point, working up to a 5 hour swim two weeks before the race. During these swims, I had my fair share of “open water encounters.” I was stung by jellyfish (vinegar helps to alleviate the itch), swam through a lot more seaweed, vegetation and murky water than I did around Manhattan, got caught in a squall, and encountered a few things that I won’t mention in this article. All in all, pretty normal open water training conditions.

The race started at 9am at the Battery, at the same place where the ferry to the Statue of Liberty docks. It would become a warm, clear, windy day. Eighteen individual swimmers, “solos,” and four relays of six people each started and finished this year. By 10am, my escort boat and I were a few blocks past the 59th Street Bridge where I received my first feeding of liquid carbohydrates. Throughout the East River, I kept my stroke rate at 80 strokes per minute. Except for the area along Roosevelt Island and up to the Triborough Bridge, the East River was wavy. My practice in open water paid off here.

By 11:15am, I had passed under the Triborough Bridge and hit the outgoing tide in the Harlem River which was a disadvantage for being at the front of the pack. I unknowingly spent the next hour swimming against the current. My stroke rate dropped to 76/78 strokes per minute and I felt like I was slowing down. Somewhere past Yankee Stadium, the tide turned which made life a little easier but I had to deal with cross waves instead, practically an unheard of situation in the Harlem.

As I crossed the top of the island, the swells picked up and just hoped that my premonition was wrong. It wasn’t. During the last, longest part of the race, two to four foot waves pushed me down the Hudson River. At least this year, I wasn’t swimming into them. In any case, this was the hardest part and my stroke rate only occasionally ventured to 80; it mostly stayed between 74 and 78. One stroke at a time, I just kept mentally checking off the landmarks, knowing that sooner or later, the World Trade Center would be behind me and I would be at the Battery again.

When I finished 8 hours, 3 minutes and 19 seconds after I had begun, in second place overall, a sense of accomplishment and relief flooded my senses. It had been a rough day for swimming around Manhattan but I was proud of myself for persevering through the challenges of open water swimming. Best of all, I got to smile that smile. -Marcia Cleveland August 1995