Visiting San Francisco

The view at the Legion of Honor

Frances came out to visit in the fall and we went into the city.  I took her to one of my favorite spots, and let her explore the city a bit on her own which I think she was dying to do.  This is the end of the line on Hyde Street, just below the famous Buena Vista bar for Irish coffee, and just above South End Rowing Club, my favorite swimming spot.

Tourist!

I think she's happy.  Me too.  So happy she wanted to visit and put the effort into making it happen.  We really had a nice time.

This is where I was headed.  Aquatic Park.  That's Alcatraz in the background, about 1.5 away.  You can see a swimmer below the main mast of the tall ship.

Legion of Honor Rodin's Thinker

Love this view from the top of the De Young Museum.  See the Golden Gate bridge?

French countryside impressionists.

Nice front yard at the Legion.

Really can't beat the view at the Legion of Honor.

Art resembles life?

Ready for lunch.

Chinatown San Francisco

Getting Ready - South End Rowing Club Alcatraz Invitational

What a diverse mix of similar people.  Such a mix of personalities and backgrounds.  We're all getting ready to swim the SERC Alcatraz Invitational swim.  So, what do we all have in common?  For one, we all belong to Mike Lynch, our coach at Peninsula Community Aquatics Masters

Mike's over there on the right, 3rd guy up in the back.  He's hard to notice, and I think he likes it that way.  And yet, he's drawn together some of the nicest, friendliest, most inspiring, fun, motivated, driven people I know.  He helps us all, getting where we want to go.  In this case, we just finished our swim in aquatic park.  Yep, the water has warmed up to a balmy 61.3 degrees.  Up from a bone-chilling 59.5 degrees last time I got in.  Cold enough to induce amnesia.  Another story you'll have to ask me about.  The short answer is, he's alright now, thank God.

We're standing in a history-rich section of San Francisco, at Hyde and Beach.  That's the famous Irish coffee bar, Buena Vista on the far corner, and you can see the cable car coming to the end of the line.

Looking the other way down Hyde Street, you see the Pier and Alcatraz in the background just to the right.

Here's down the other side of Hyde Street Pier.  It's an interesting vantage point where you almost feel like you've gone back in time, with the tall ship and all it's huge masts, the steamer ship, and old pier to the right, and a small one on the left.  Probably something like it looked a hundred years ago, or more.

 See the Golden Gate?  In front of that is the pier on the left of Aquatic Park.  We swim along that, to the opening, you can't see in this view, but essentially, from outside the opening, you can see Alcatraz and the Golden Gate.  It's a spectacular view, and exciting to see it from the water.

 I Throw this shot in for a couple reasons.  It's the best I've got showing a tid bit of the concrete bleachers just above the two fences on the right, to the left of the flags.  That's the finish line of the swim.  You come out to a small beach, like the one in the foreground.  Also, you can see Ghirardelli Square sign on the horizon for a landmark everyone has heard of.  To the right of Ghirardelli are a pair of tall apartment buildings.  That is what I target, or sight on, when doing the Alcatraz swim.  It's big enough I can usually pick it out, even with waves, or obstructed goggles.

The white building top left is the Dolphin club, which further left, next to it, is the South End Rowing Club building.  The beach we swim from is just on the other side of that fence.

The other side of the fence, is shown here.  Each club has a small dock, they take their vintage row boats out from there.  We swim out, from between the two docks.

I put this in, because this was a picture someone took a couple hours before the 2009 Alcatraz swim.   You may notice, this is from outside the bridge. We actually had a bit of rain during the swim.  I don't think there was any more lightning.  Pretty rare in these parts.  Probably 20% of the swimmers opted out this year.  :-)

Preparing for the South End Rowing Club Alcatraz Swim

This is my PCA masters group doing a Sunday (Aug 22nd) morning San Francisco Aquatic Park swim.   As you can see from the pic, you don't need to bring much.  Googles, cap, swimsuit.  Front right is Damon, my Zola buddy, and I am front left, and coach Mike, 2nd from left front.  Mike, thanks for bring us up!

I think this will be my 4th Alcatraz swim coming up, Sept 18th.  Each one is it's own adventure and I'll get into that in a bit.  In the past, I've made the crossing with others.  This is the first time I am trying to lead a couple swimmers, from Colorado.  Pablo and his friend Bill.  This post is for you guys, and anyone else planning to do the swim.

What to bring for the swim:
- avoid trying something new.  use your regular suit, goggles, cap.  Having said that, take a look at the below and try out what you may use before race day.  You have enough time to order this stuff and try it, if you act soon.
- wear a thermal cap.  What's that, you say?  It's a swim cap made from wetsuit  material (neoprene).
This one looks good.  It actually looks better than mine.  If you can try one on before purchase, ideal.  If not, get something like this.   The key is flexible.  Mine is too tight.  Warm, yes.  Too tight takes it's toll on race day, and for days after, because of the chafing.  Over top of your thermal cap, you will wear a regular rubber cap from your race packet.
- I have a new pair of goggles I used for my last open-water swim.  They are from my favorite goggle manufacturer, Aqua Sphere.  These are called Kayenne.  They are nice for a couple reasons; they are super comfortable and seal well.  They have a wide field of view, nice for open water.  As far as lens color, clear would be ideal for Alcatraz, but not essential.  I am sure even the smoke would be fine.
- That's pretty much it!  They will give you ear wax to use race day, with your packet.  I have always used mine.  I asked around about why, and basically you want to not let your inner ear get too cold.  Bad things happen if you do.  (I don't remember what.)  It might be disorienting for one.  The other is, as you get cold, you start to get, well, dumb.  It gets harder to concentrate on your stroke, and navigation and so on if you get too cold.

Specific race day stuff
This is where Alcatraz is really cool.  Around 7am we all gather to walk from Aquatic Park area to the Red and White fleet, or whatever color it is.  It's about a 6-8 block walk to the ferry, and essentially you're doing it in your speedo.  Some people do it with a cheap pair of flip-flops.  You could do it in an old pair of socks too.  I'm too Irish for all that, and just walk it bare foot.  We actually follow some bagpipers along the way.  It's all very inspiring, walking through the famous SF waterfront with a bunch of other swimmers, the music and energy is really awesome.  Oh, and some wear a throw-away tee shirt, and I've seen some wear a trash bag to stay warm.  I think you can take a bag with a number on it too, and then try to find it at the finish.  For us, we will have our cheerleaders carrying a towel and clothes for us.

So, anyways, we get on the ferry, and it's about 15-20 minutes over to the Island.  Alcatraz.  The ferry isn't allowed to get closer than 50 feet or something like that, for eco reasons.  It's plenty close.  Totally awesome to see it like this.  At the same time you are looking back at San Francisco Bay, the city, the Bay bridge, and so on.  It's pretty amazing, until you start thinking, you are getting back to the city in the water!!  Yahoo!!  We float around on the ferry until the organizers decide the current is as close to slack as possible.  Usually, just a couple minutes, but seems really long.

Get in!
The start is somewhat non-eventful.  Of course people start snuggling closer and sort of pushing toward the boat gates.  There are two, one on each side of the boat.  The opening is wide enough for 3 to jump off at a time.  Fasties get in first.  Just wait.  You will be in the water within 2-3 minutes even if you are in the middle of the pack.  So, once you get to the gate, jump in.  It's about 7-8 feet above the water.  I hold on to my goggles, going in feet first, and then, as quick as possible without panicking, start swimming.  Now, you may have to do a little breast stroke until you catch your breath, and sight your finish line.  I sight on the two big apartment buildings behind Ghirardelli Square.  you can't miss them.  So, right now, do not swim too hard.  In fact, you probably want to swim as slow as you can for the first 3 minutes or so, until you settle into a pace without losing your breath.  Don't worry, you will have plenty of time to hit it harder later.  It's going to take about 40 - 60 minutes to get across.

Navigation
This hasn't always been a good thing for me, except last time.  My strategy worked.  Essentially, 20 strokes, then spot, 20 strokes, then spot.  For my strokes, to go as straight as possible, I found when I get tired, my hands start to cross.  To avoid this, I point my hands from entry to exit in sort of an A frame.  The top of the A, me, and the bottom, my hands, so pointing them wide, which, in actuality, probably puts them right where they are supposed to be.  Regardless, it worked.  I swam straight as ever, and it made for something I could concentrate on.

More later, Guys.  Let me know what questions and comments you have.

At 2:42  you can see my master's team, PCA.  At 4:40 you can see the apartment buildings I mentioned for sighting and navigation.