Tag Archives: Great Hudson River Swim

RACE REPORT: 059 Great Hudson River Swim: 43:39

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The Great Hudson River Swim is NYC Swim’s kick off event of the season. It is a 1.6 Mile swim from the Christopher Street Pier down to the North Cove Marina in Battery Park.

The night before Abbe and I went to Todd and Ila’s place in Battery Park for a sleepover party. Abbe made dinner which was a fantastic pasta dish with clams, tomatoes and bacon. Even while in my vegetarian phases (this was not one pf those phases) I can never resist bacon…

We examined the water conditions that night and it was crazy choppy!

Awake at 6AM and Cafe Bustelo began coursing through our veins! Abbe, Todd and I left at 6:30 to walk up to the start. It was a beautiful morning. We checked in and grabbed a spot in the grass on the pier. My friend from previous races, Elik, came by and said hello.

Then, out of nowhere, Jess, Rick, Maria and Maura H. were there to support me! Awesome! (it turns out, as you will see in the end, Abbe had set up a little surprise cheering squad for me!) After high fiving everyone I made my way to my wave. I was in the first, meaning I am in the slowest group of swimmers. This is just something I have learned to deal with, fast on land… slow in water… FOR NOW. Todd and our friend Sam were in the last Wave and I told them to take it easy on me as they passed by during the race. Todd said he was going to dunk me. Fantastic.

Right before jumping off the pier into the water I looked back and saw a few more of the Runner Army waving! What was going on?


I had to wait maybe 1 minute before the Wave Start sounded. I dug in and started my race. My only goal was to finish. It had been a hard week and I did not need to stress out.

Something very scary happened as we swam along the pier before cutting out left into the river. I didn’t have it in me. I was rotating between freestyle and breast stroke and my mind was racing. It had been one week since my Dad passed away (almost to the minute) and I was bummin’ out. At one point I was just said “F this.” and looked over at the pier for a way up to take myself out of the race. I’m not one for giving up, so I gave it a few more tries and I slowly got closer to the turn buoy, knowing that once I got into the river it was sink or swim.

Before my Dad passed away, as I was saying goodbye to him one of the things I told him was that I would race every race for him, in his honor, until I couldn’t race anymore. With my face in the murky cold Hudson, with nothing to listen to but my air bubbles and my stream of consciousness, I thought of that. Before I knew it, I had made the left turn and was in full swim form, cruising down the mighty river on a beautiful sunny day.

I focused a lot on my form and all of the knowledge bestowed upon me by Coach Sonja and Swim Guru Sean. We had come a long way in the 2 months I had decided to take them on to help me, this was the first test. I was still not taking this race to heart as a competitive event, so on occasion I would pop into breast stroke to enjoy the peace and quiet. Maybe it’s because in NYC we never had silence, but I am always so amazed at the peacefulness of swimming ¼ mile off the Manhattan shoreline. I am also amazed at my fearlessness in comparison to the last 2 years. I knew I would finish and I knew there was no possibility of drowning. I thought to myself “Enjoy this.” and I did.

As I finished the swim, popping out onto the dock, I hear a loud cheer in the distance “Baker!” A large portion of the Runner Army had come out top support me and cheer me on! I was thrilled! After they hosed me down, I came around for some serious high-fives. Role Call: Maria, Maura H, Susan, Elyssa, Erica Sara, Matt6, Steph, Jess, Rick, Claire, and Abbe!

Time: 43:39, 10 minutes faster than the year before! PR!


(Thanks Erica Sara for the awesome photos!)

I found Todd and Sam and we high fived.

Before we all headed out for coffee, Maria (my Reach the Beach Team Captain) presented me my honorary finishers medal and tee-shirt. Due to my Dad getting sick so fast last week I had to bail on the relay. This gesture made my day, it was so nice of all of them and they pretty much rock. Also, now I had 2 medals… who else had 2 medals?!

There was a lot of love floating around that day, thanks everyone!

RACE REPORT: 038 Great Hudson RIver Swim

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Time Distance Place
53:43 1.3 Miles
155

This is my second year of racing or being ‘athletic’. Therefore, I have been repeating races I did in 2009 the last few months, the Great Hudson River swim being one of them.

It’s a time to reflect, compare, contrast and ask “Why on earth am I swimming 1.3 miles down the Hudson River on a Saturday morning?” Bragging rights are cool even though all my friends are over me swimming in the Hudson, BUT, I have my first ever Half Ironman race (the Quassy Rev3) this weekend so I looked at it as a training swim, especially since the distances are almost exact.

The night before the swim I made some stir fry and basically did a lot of work. Unpacking that is… I was still sorting through boxes after my move a week ago. Erika was away this weekend it was a perfect opportunity to stay in and organize!

RACE DAY

I was up at 7… unpacking still…

I went to (Coach) Todd’s place at 11AM so we could walk up to the start. He cooked up some egg sandwiches and gotta say, not great pre-race food. Ila, Todd’s wife and my good friend, said she would just see us at the finish. Last year she escorted us to the start, took pictures, etc, etc. BUT like I said, it was year 2 and all our friends were way over Todd and I’s crazy swimming stunts.

We made it to the Christopher Street Pier by 11:30 and got checked in. I was number 12! No, that doesn’t mean I’m fast, it is merely because my name is Baker and ‘B’s’ are in front. This is also a bad thing which I will explain in just a hot second.

Todd and I quickly jumped into our wetsuits and greased up any areas that might chafe… ie: armpits, neck, ankles.

Marty from NYC Swim started to make the pre-race announcement when Regina from Chiu on This introduced herself! We follow each others racing history but have never physically met! It was awesome to hang out and as it turns out she is also racing a Half Ironman this weekend! A few words from Marty and then LINE UP for the start! SIDENOTE: I’m not normally one to get upset, but this one gal asked “what happens if someone doesn’t show up on the other side?” with a little chuckle. Well, during the Brooklyn Bridge Swim in September that happened because a man died during the swim. So, yeah, I was upset at that comment.

LINE UP means exactly that, you line up in numerical order. I am number 12 out of 250 so that’s in the front. Fine. Then, once we are ready everyone moves into the water single file starting with 1. The problem is that if you are in the front you have to wait until everyone is in the water before starting, duh, it’s a race. Did I mention that the water is ice cold?

We started filing in off the pier and I made it in okay with just a slight shock from the 60 degree temperature.

SIDENOTE: Lets have a talk about experience for a moment. It’s critical. I was flashing back to last years race (my first open water swim) and how I was freaking out when I jumped into the frigid water, hands in the air (like ya just don’t care) so they wouldn’t freeze, heavy fast breathing. Ha! Now I was bobbing around having a blast. Todd and I were even BS-ing about what we did the night before. “Not much man… *bob* *splash* just unpacked some boxes and made some stir fry.” “cool… cool.”

As soon as all the swimmers were in, which took maybe 5-10 minutes, Marty sounded the horn and we were off!

Unlike last year, I didn’t wait for the fast swimmers to go ahead, I started right into the soup! People are on top of you and touching your feet, it’s mayhem and if you have any fear of drowning, this isn’t the place for you. As soon as we rounded the first buoy and took a left into the Hudson going South someone kicked me square in the eye socket; 1- inducing pain, 2- flooding my eye with toxic water. I quickly released the water and dove back in, unfazed, but a little pissed off. I kept saying “Its not their fault, they didn’t know I was behind them.”

This was my third pair of goggles and by far THE BEST! They are the Aqua Sphere open water goggles and aside from the kick to the face I didn’t have any water leakage the whole swim and my visibility was great!

Unlike last year where I stopped at times to take in the fact that I was in the middle of the Hudson and I was tired, I dug right in and didn’t stop. I learned a new trick the Tuesday before the race, swimming at Todd’s pool. “Sighting” which basically is every third breath, you look forward and fixate on a target.

I noticed that during the second half of the swim I was zoning out and just cruising through the water. I was really having fun out there and had no fears.

As we entered the Battery Park stretch (or the last 1/4 mile) things got bumpy. Giant swells were making it difficult to sight at a very crucial moment, the point where e needed to make a hard left to get into the Marina and not get dragged out to the Statue of Liberty. Once I saw the sea wall on my left and knew I was in the safety of the Marina I picked it up a bit to try and ‘sprint’ the finish. Its a lot different than running, that’s for sure.

As I climbed out of the water I was thrilled to have completed this race yet again! We got our medals and then I hosed down in the clean water area. I then found Todd and Ila (Todd finished 5, 6 minutes ahead of me) who were hanging out watching the swimmers come in. My time was 53 minutes and change, which is wild as it shows you just how many variables go into open water swimming. That’s a full 10 minutes slower than last years race where we had the current gong with us!

Swimming is by far my weakest of the three triathlon disciplines. Its not that I’m bad at it, as I wasn’t fatigued from the swim, I’m just not fast for some reason. Oh well, I will just play catch up on the bike and on foot!

We proceeded to go to the Lobster Roll Cart and get some food. It was a perfect swim, and a beautiful sunny day down on the Battery.