Nubble CHALLENGE

Been a while since I’ve written up a race report. Actually, before signing up for the Nubble Challenge that I completed this past weekend In York, Maine, I didn’t even contemplate writing a race report for an event such as this which is part and parcel to what will follow next. 

To elaborate on the above, I still consider myself a tri guy. Yes, there are plenty of epic cross training events and other activities in the universe of endurance like swimming around obscure landmarks and even, marathons, and bike time trials.

I’d like to say in advance that the event was something I’ll want to do in the future and would recommend it to those who are equipped to take on an event like this. The organizers did a good job and being that it was the first year it’s not reasonable to think that a new event is not going to have some wrinkles. Ok, now that all the disclaimers are done, there were a few things I can contribute that were issues that are my opinion only and that I’ve read similar feedback. I’ll leave those until the very end.

Since Ironman St George, my training has been more on maintained mode and transitioning into higher run volume in order to take on Ultra’s. I did do a 1-mile swim time trial up in Vermont two weeks ago and felt ok. The swim volume has been low, but candidly having a race with only a 2.4 mile swim as a stand alone vs. having to do that distance with 110 mile bike and a full marathon to follow seemed doable even though I’m not in Full-blown Ironman mode. I have competed in the Ocean in California, and in St Croix. I was not swimming in hand-to-hand combat with 2500 other athletes (Ironman Race), so how hard could this be? Another mistake you shall see.

I followed my normal Olympic Tri carbo loading routine and Applesauce in the AM. The race was to start at 8:30AM. Got to York Long Beach no problem. Beach was buzzing with people and there was a heavy fog hovering over the shore.

There was Kayak support and I was going solo on this because for one, I had signed up a little late and there were no volunteers left, and last, my confidence got the best of me and I declined.

I met some old friends and milled around at the start. I jumped in the water to see how the temps were and as expected, Maine water was cold. Nothing too severe and two days prior I swam the coast for 30 minutes and it was not bad. Certainly no worse than St George on May3rd..

I did notice that it was very hard to see the lighthouse from the beach and boy did it look far. I was excited but my approach was to just finish the race with good technique and to add to the resume and to try and become a better swimmer. I was racing this race to have fun. My approach and game-plan was to head out into the gut of the lighthouse at around the 1.2 mile mark and if I felt strong, push it hard around the coast and into the Short Sand’s shore. So that was what I planned.

I was in wave 4 and we cue-up and are off. Did a little high-knee action and I’m timing waves to swim under. Well, they are pretty consistent and I’m not doing that great of a job timing them. I ate the first two and I do not like the rolling so fast.

I settle into a pace and was counting air in between rollers. I felt good and think that that this could be fast. I’m swimming at a pretty hard effort and working on sighting and notice that I’m all alone. With the rolling waves, I could not even see the lighthouse or that buoy that was discussed on shore. Fog was more intense now, and I see Kayakers near by, but more than a few are dumping over. I swam by another Kayaker and I popped my head to ask which way to go and this poor guy head a fearful look on his face. He was not in a state where he could help so I continue.

I catch a glimpse here and there of the lighthouse and the coast guard boat. All of a sudden, boom!!!!! I have no idea of how cold it became, but it knocked the wind out of me. It felt like low 40’s and it rolled in and out like a breeze. My feet and anything not in the wetsuit were on fire!! My lungs were up to mouth. Immediately I see I Kayaker raise his flag and blow his whistle, there were people having some major issues I guessed. I was rapidly trying to asses my health and I felt tired, but ok. I was getting a little worried because I’m pretty far out, at least a half mile and I felt a little sick with all the rolling and banging from the waves. 

I continue through another ten minutes and can’t see the Nubble anymore and I continue to go through patches of crazy cold. I stopped to look at my watch to figure out how long I’d been swimming and to my surprise, I’d been swimming for 44 minutes and had barley crossed a mile. The waves, poor sighting and currents made everything a slow go for me. Normally this would take me I’d say 29 minutes. As I stopped, my legs started to cramp. I’m def all alone looking around and there is no one in sight. I started to panic and knew I was in trouble and wondered if this was the way I was going to leave this earth.? Honestly, as funny as this sounds now, I said to myself, “Dude you can’t die like this, no one will know you even disappeared. If you go out, it’s at least got to be dramatic. All they will do is float some stupid wreath for you next year!” I really did. My next thought was of course about my kids and wanting to fight and see them again. So as is the case with all these endurance events, you plot and compute how you can overcome what is in front of you? I set on the plan of putting in ten minutes in the direction I thought I was to swim and to try and heat my body up and to try and get out of the water before hyperthermia took me down. My BMI is usually pretty low and at 150lb’s there’s no room for cold. So that’s what I did and found a kayaker to hold onto for 2 minutes to cough up some seawater. As I did that, it looked like his wife was holding onto the other side and she tipped him over and they both started panicking and swearing at each other. This by no means was comforting and I saw the “gut” of the Nubble and pressed through.

As I swam through “The Gut” with currents kicking the shit out of me and crap on the bottom of the ocean and seeing people on shore waving and getting glimpse of the historic lighthouse, I joked to myself, and said, “geese this is it, looks the same from the shore”. I began to laugh because it reminded me of the Chevy Chase movie, Vacation in Europe when he keeps driving around the rotary going insane making his kids see Big Ben.  “Onward, Let’s get outta here and onto food”, I say!!

The sun started to emerge and I was heading into the other side of the lighthouse and there were very little waves and the temperate improved greatly. So did my spirits and my confidence got back to where it usually is. I could see swimmers ahead of me and I decided that I was going to try and catch some.

I was able to catch up to a couple and actually bumped into another swimmer on the way back. I felt badly, because all I could think about was how pissed he must have been fighting through that whole swim and he’s all alone in the ocean and another swimmer had no etiquette. Sorry pal, but you were my carrot!!

I rounded the buoy and the shore looked close, but not close enough. 1K yards ahead I say another swimmer and chased them all the way to the finish with every thing I had. Could not catch up with them, but it was the way I like to try and finish an event.

As I exited the water the volunteers helped me out and the feet and hands were literally frozen useless appendages. I crawled to the blanket where my wife, mother and sister-in-law undressed me like I was a newborn. I had made it!!

After getting warm I ran into my friend Sue to compare some quick notes. I made her laugh when I told her I wanted to give up so many times out there, however there was simply none to surrender to.

That night I was praying and thanking God for seeing me through. It was hairy and I know I used up a couple of my 9 lives.

In the end I think 7 people were pulled with issues/hyperthermia but most did pretty well.

The next day I was walking along the coast with my wife and watching the ocean swells. Watching this actually made my stomach sick because it reminded me of the teacup ride I was just on the day before.

So here is my unsolicited opinion of the event/my "do over’s".

Make everyone use a Kayak. 

Delay the start if there is Fog.

Increase the number Buoy’s. First one was too far out. I think I swam 3.4 miles.

Put the festivities at the finish.

Again, these are small things and I think these guys did a great job and I’m very appreciated and thankful to all the supporters. This was a non-profit even and I’m sure the tasking and effort to pull it off was monumental!

Next up, Pumkinman 70.3! (In a lake!)

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