Results of the Great Salt Lake Open Water Marathon

I feel like such a slacker this week.  I've been so involved in organization and last minute To-Dos that my swim training this week has been less than ideal.  However, my body aches and sleep deprivation have reminded me that it still has been no picnic.

On Saturday morning I was up at 4:30 and got the kids in the car and drove the marina.  I setup the tent and the check-in booth and got all the kayaks laid out and helped Josh get the 8 milers taken care of.  There was one cancellation at the last minute so there were a total of 12 swimmers.  I got my brother, Russell, to drive the huge trailer.

While the 8 milers were about to leave, my new found friend, Becky Richins was at the boat ramp about to leave on her own adventure: a double crossing of the Great Salt Lake length in a kayak.  She is a dreamer like me and I admire that.  I gave her the spotGPS and her tracking can be found here.   She's doing awesome!

Once the 8 milers left the 1 milers started checking in.  We had out raffle, and Henry Hudson won!  We had our safety crew meeting and we got them out in the water.  Then we had our swimmers safety meeting and got them out on the water.  Since the water level was so much lower than the past two years, we had to pull the course back a little to make it a legitimate one mile.  I put the buoys in on Friday evening and measured the course with my GPS.  I  had the "finish" of the swim at about 300 yards away from the waters edge.  I didn't want it to be a one mile total with only 70 percent of it actually swimming.  So the time for the one mile this year is not really comparable with last year.  We need to figure out how to get the finish line to be in the water for the one mile cause it really should be a one mile timed swim, not a one mile swim and then a long wade in the water while the clock is still ticking.

I had the swimmers get in the water on the east side of the marina by Silversands beach.  Many of them took their sweet time getting in the water even though I gave them plenty of time to get to the red buoy just north of the observation deck.  I gave them a 10 minute heads up, then a 5 minute heads up, 4,3,2,1 and then a 10 second count down, and there were still a couple swimmers very slowly making their way to the red buoy.  I wasn't about to wait another minute.  They were given plenty of warning and chance to get to the buoy on time.  I had the dozen or so people watching at the start yell out the count down from 10.  They all took off and I jumped in a kayak to help support.

There was one swimmer who was pulled from the course.  That was a first time that's happened.  Typically in the one mile event everyone who started finished.

Anyway, it's a level playing field for the entire field of swimmers, by year.  You just can't really compare year to year in any reliable way.  The ONLY thing that went less than ideally, was the lack of an organized awards ceremony.  I ended up giving the awards to the winners back at the marina, rather than at the finish.  I was unable to do this because I was in charge of safety and we still had people in the water.  I was unable to be at the end and cheer for people when I was in the water supporting the last of the pack.

I got my sister to help shuttle people back to the marina which was good.  Then I went to Blackrock to get one of the kayaks and start getting the two buoys out of the water.  One of the swimmers showed up and reported in.  He was about 4 miles into his swim when he ingested too much water and was throwing up.  He called Dave Shearer and got picked up.  So the field was down to 12 swimmers.

Traditional pickled tongue pic.  Winner:
Micki Poole

On my way back to the marina with the buoys, I noticed a few of the 8 milers coming in.  They were ahead of schedule.  When I got the buoys out and back to Blackrock I found out that Will Reeves won and came in at 3:10:10!  That is an amazing time!  Annie came in second place with 3:36:44.  That is the fastest time ever by a female swimmer.  Congratulations Annie!

After they all came in we went through the process of getting them and their kayaks all transported over to the Marina.  What a long day!

Here's the results, and some pics for the one-mile, and for the 8 mile.   Now back to focusing on my own training.  Tomorrow I'm heading to Pineview in the morning.