Tomorrow will be my 14th Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. I got to spend the afternoon and evening with Matt, seven other awesome swimmer friends and their friends and family. It was a lovely day…but a bit bitter sweet.
Tomorrow would have been my mother’s 70th birthday. Prior to this year, my mom has been at the finish for nearly all of my Bay Swims. She waited patiently to give me a hug and kiss, wipe some dirt and sludge off my face and ask me all about my swim. In the last few years, she came up the afternoon before the swim and we met near the finish line at Hemingway’s for lunch and a drink. In the evening we headed out for a pasta dinner with our friend Amy.
My mom spent countless hours of her life next to various bodies of water watching me swim and cheering me on. Tomorrow will be my first Bay Swim without her and it will be hard to pull myself up onto the shore at the end knowing that she won’t be there to celebrate my swim or what would have been her 70th birthday.
So, thank you to Jeff, Amy, Heather, Tess, Lori, Denise, Ginny Ann, Ben, Craig, Slater, Mariah, Kathy and, most of all, Matt for a great afternoon and evening and let’s have an even better day in the Bay tomorrow! My mom would have wanted it that way. And I can think of nothing she would have liked more than to celebrate her 70th at the Bay Swim.
Unfortunately – no swim pics of us available on my phone…but this pic shows why it was a good thing I started swimming 🙂
Swim & Tonic 
Great seeing you & Matt (& Amy) yesterday
After I got back to the parking lot, had a situation…
Eri was close to the finish and went to help out another kayaker — got flipped by a wave, kayak totally swamped (but floating), her shit all in the water (lost her phone, drivers license and various other items)
Safety boats went right by her, likewise safety jet skis all in too much of a hurry to get back to the Marina
Sooo…I was frantically trying to find out what happened to her-the main kayak guy said – “Yeah, I was wondering too…tried texting her and tried her on the radio…” But the idiot had switched channels and not informed anyone…totally useless POS
I talked to Chick, the Race Director, he suggested th Coast Guard, got them and the local fire guys involved…
Finally got a voicemail from Trisha (she was the contact # for emergency for me) that Eri was OK — and we found her, sorted everything out and headed down the road to get her the promised crab dinner
Obviously a terrible situation vis-a-vis the kayak management – even the Coast Guard guy said that they had protocols to check that everyone was accounted for, for swimmers, boaters, jet skis…BYT NOT FOR KAYAKERS!~!!~!
There’s some weird disconnect between the race management and the kayak staff — any thoughts about how to get this some attention for the future? Eric commented that she, and several other kayakers, didn’t even think they should have been out there., since they rally could’t help the swimmers much…
Anyhow – I had a great swim and a great day , and great to see you guys
Let’s stay in touch – I’d love to share training plans and thoughts about the possible Doubles!
Best Mo
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