Navesink Swim 2017

Swimmers finishing Navesink Swim 2017 , rubber ducky inflatable served as marker

This weekend, I took part in the 11th annual Nave-sink -or- swim, it’s a an open water distance swim race and festival held in Rumson, NJ at the Navesink cove at Victory Park.This year there was a bit of fog hanging over the river at the start but  like  the  last few years the weather was perfect a few hours later, and the water was calm but  also rather cooolld this year.. then  myself plus a few hundred swimmers, got ready to take part in this open water swim.

ready for action 2017 Navesink Swim

Race Report 1.2 miles

This year I would be doing the 1.2 mile swim, same as last year. The course was somewhat altered due to current flows, we would be swimming out to about mid-river first then turning left (counter-clockwise) swimming “up” river before a few more left turns to bring us back along the piers.  The start was pretty good, tide was fairly low so a bunch of dolphin dives.. and I was going, contact was minimal going out , but I did take a nice slap to the face as approached the first turn buoy . I was swimming with my  Maverick ROKA wet-suit, which for a full-size wet suit has excellent shoulder flexibility. I was wearing a pair of Orca Killa vision goggles, pretty good, but my right eye always has a leak..

1,2mi Swimmers finishing Navesink Swim 2017 ,

Swimming up river with the sun at our backs for the first portion was pretty easy actually there was quite little sun glare this year thanks to the early morning fog.  I wasn’t able to establish a good rhythm on the way towards the turn around which is a  sandbar and walked for a good bit this year, was a lot lower than last few years, then it was back into the water for the return leg.

I felt better on the return leg establishing a nice steady tempo. It was here when I saw the first of a few pink caps as the women’s 1.2 mile lead swimmers blew by me, and no wonder the top overall three finishers this year in the 1.2 mile swim where all teenage girls, finishing in times around 27 minutes..

The return leg buoys seemed to come faster even though looking back at my times , I was about 30 seconds slower per 100yd than the outbound leg.. Finally  I sighted the last green green buoy and making the final turn right back to shore,   then I just focused on the the  volunteers  waving the red flags and the Sandy Hooker banners, it was easy to see and I plowed ahead.  A few more strokes a, and I popped up out of the water and up the few steps towards the finish..

Swimmers finishing NAvesink Swim 2017 , rubber ducky mascot in background

I completed this distance in 36:35 which is pretty slow . but as I know all too well these open water swim distances often vary year to year based on conditions so its hard to compare year to year.. .. .

Results

Post Race

With the race over , I grabbed some after race food and then chilled and watch some of the other finishers , this year the race finish had complimentary photos and finish race video which is pretty cool here’ s a link :