Winning the Bridge to Bridge swim

I can see you in the sky. You are the waves, which are battles, and the battles are the waves.

– Marathon: Durandal

An Art Deco titan looming in the fog

The Waves

I’ve completed and now won my second swim in the SF Bay: a 10k from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge.

This race was quite nice because instead of swimming in laps around buoys like a traditional open water race, most of the swim was with the current. The waves on the ocean side of the Golden Gate bridge were incredibly choppy, but immediately smoothed out on the bay side, as if passing into a sea of tranquility. Once we were in the water, it was quick start. We were instructed to head towards Alcatraz at first and then make a sharp right towards the Palace of Fine Arts to catch the current above SF.

I remember the moment I caught the current - it honestly felt like I was body surfing. Aside from the supermassive container ship coming up behind me (which I heard before I saw), the swim was mostly uneventful. I had a fantastic view of the city skyline from the water. When I made it to the end, they hadn’t even put up the finish buoy yet.

The Battles

I was less than four minutes off the course record, but didn’t really have any strong feelings about breaking it/not breaking it. I had felt sluggish in the pool for the past few days and honestly after about 20 minutes of the swim I felt more fatigue than expected in my upper body. I think my lack of full time training is finally catching up, but it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make to not have to swim 20 hours a week.

Breakfast afterwards at the Buena Vista Cafe near Aquatic Park in SF was the perfect conclusion :)

Post swim, after the marine layer had burned off SF