Ocean City, Master Swim – 7/23/11

Last Tuesday, we received a call from John, a family friend.  He told us that the Ocean City mile swim was on Saturday and wanted to know if any in our household would be interested in participating.  We exchanged pleasantries and updates on children happenings, and left it at "we'll see."

After saying goodbye, I recalled five years earlier when we made the trek to Ocean City, NJ for Taylor to participate in the Ocean Mile Swim.  Taylor, David and Max had just begun swimming for the Northampton swim team, and as one of the swim team activities, the older swimmers were encouraged to sign-up for the Mile Ocean Swim.  Taylor was eager to sign-up, but I promptly said, “No.  I’m worried about sharks.”  Earlier that year, there was a shark attack just off the Ocean City beach, and of course, the newspaper account reported that the shore is “teaming with sharks.”  A few days later, I picked Taylor up from swim practice, and she informed me that everyone laughed at her when she reported that her mother was worried about sharks. 

I overcame my shark phobia, and Taylor joined with her team for the mile swim.  It turned out to be a delightful activity for our family.  John, his son Jeff and friend Alec signed up to swim as well.  They were in the first heat, so all were at the end to cheer Taylor onto a strong finish. 

As these fond memories surfaced, I decided to make it work for Max and David to participate.  David immediately agreed to sign-up.  He is a super strong swimmer and always up for a challenge.  Max adamantly said, “Mom, don’t sign me up!”

Max is my boy that always needs a strong push to try something new or challenging.  Once he breaks through his fear and starts the challenge, he always finishes strong singing along the way “that was the best thing ever.”  I placated his reluctance and told him he didn’t have to swim. Then, I promptly asked his swim team coach to work on changing his mind.  The next day after swim practice, Max jumped in the car and said “Coach Stacy says that we swim more than 2 miles every day at practice.”  After a great deal of cajoling, coaxing, and cheering, Max reluctantly agreed to sign-up on our drive to Ocean City.

Upon registration, we learned that the water temperature was 63 degrees, and the mile swim was shortened to ¾ mile due to the cold water temperatures.  The air temperature was 100—how could the water be so frigid?

We caught up with John and learned that David left his jammer home.  So we made a quick stop at Hoyt’s 5 and 10, and amazingly found a jammer for David.  We then maneuvered through traffic and dropped the swimmers off at 40^th street—the starting point. 

After a few brief instructions, the race flag dropped signifying the start.  The swimmers, several in wetsuits, made a mad dash into the water.  It was complete bedlam as swimmers fought and crawled out into the ocean.   The water was freezing!  Hence, several swimmers immediately turned around and fought their way back to shore.  One swimmer waved his hands for help and was rescued by the swim patrol—the race had just begun.

 Neal and I looked at each other and I said, “Do you think Max will be okay?”  We watched for few minutes to see if he was one of the swimmers that was returning to shore.  I told Neal that we never discussed what to do if he couldn’t finish.   Max has no choice but to finish because he wouldn’t know how to find us if he didn’t.

As we made our way back to the truck, I thought to myself “What have I done?  What if Max gets into trouble and the patrol doesn’t get to him in time?"

We hurried to the end and noticed that several swimmers had already finished.  They were shaking and talking about the icy water.  Elapse time was around 20 minutes, so our swimmers should be running up the beach any time.  John was first out followed shortly by David.  They both said the water was freezing, and John said he thought about quitting during the first couple minutes.  My anxiety began to increase as I worried about Max and his ability to complete the race.  Just as we thought Max may have been pulled out and sitting in one of the boats, he came running up the beach. I shouted with excitement and reached for my camera.  Max, being embarrassed to hear his mom cheer him on, ran behind another swimmer, allowing me to capture a picture of just his back.  Max said that when he first jumped in the water, he went completely numb and just started to swim.  I asked Max if he thought about quitting to which he replied, “No, because you taught us to persevere and quitting was not an option.”

 As the race excitement played out, a reporter sauntered over to our little group and began asking us questions about the race.  She continued to interview the boys while taking copious notes.  She finished up by making certain that she had David, Max and John’s names correctly spelled and told us to look for her report in the Ocean City Sentinel next week.

I couldn’t have been more proud of Max and David.  I saw several swimmers quit as the race began and a few other swimmers requiring medical attention for what appeared to be hyperthermia.  However, my boys finished—it was hard, it was cold and but they finished strong!

Final Times

John                 20:38               13 out of 29 swimmers in his age group

David              22:11               13 out of 20 swimmers in his age group

Max                 26:31               13 out of 18 swimmers in his age group

What a coincidence—they all ranked 13^th in their age groups!