The La Jolla Rough Water Swim fielded a record turnout of more than 2,500 participants this year. Held Sept. 9 at La Jolla Cove for the 77th year, the “granddaddy” of all rough water swims is a San Diego tradition that draws competitors and noncompetitors from all over the country. The swim has earned a status as both a beautiful venue and a fun, professionally run event.
The fact that it attracts Olympic-caliber swimmers and fair-weather pool dippers alike is part of the appeal and the challenge. You don’t have to be a swimming Adonis to jump into the brine and tackle either the 1- or 3-mile course, provided you’re age 13 or over. (They also have a 250-yard course if you are younger than that.)
This writer falls into the category of the “once-a-year distance swimmer,” and this is the event that stokes both my interest and desire. Although I spend a lot of time in the ocean surfing, I rarely do much distance swimming since I’m mostly paddling around on my surfboard. The La Jolla Rough Water Swim is the perfect venue to push myself physically and participate in a fine, local, late-summer tradition.
As is usual for this event, the sun came out and shone brilliantly with not too much disruptive wind or swell. The ocean temperature was around 68 degrees, and crowds of spectators ringed La Jolla Cove, cheering on friends and family members as they sprinted in and out of the surf.
Even though I have swum the 1-mile Masters Men event five times over the years, I still get a little nervous energy as I gaze out at the mile course’s first marker buoy right before the swim. Was it just me or did that first set of balloons on the triangular course look farther away than in years past? I admit it, I’m a wimp compared to the Anne Cleveland and Alan Voisard English Channel-crossing types. The 3-mile round-trip Rough Water Gatorman swim to Scripps Pier and back is more than I feel like dealing with, but the 1-mile swim? I can suck it up for that, and it still feels good every time I finish it.
With more than 600 Masters Women and 711 Masters Men competing, the starts had to be staggered in waves of several hundred people every six minutes. Even with that, there was a lot of jockeying for space at the start to avoid getting kicked in the face by swimmers ahead of you while the surrounding water is loudly being churned into a bubbly maelstrom by thousands of legs and feet.
Once you clear the initial 100 yards, things progressively spread out and the swim can be relaxing, almost peaceful as you fall into your swimming and breathing rhythm. At some stretches, I would just close my eyes and enjoy the solace as I stroked out into the deeper blue. The water had decent visibility this year, and I noticed kelp bass and bright orange garibaldi cavorting below me.
When I passed the final buoy turn, it was time to pick up the tempo since I had been pacing myself. When I hit the beach, I darted ahead of a swimmer who had just passed me in the water and beat him to the finish line. That felt good. My lat muscles under my arms were also swollen from my annual effort. That didn’t feel so great. However, the satisfaction of completing the event in a respectable time for my age group was very satisfying. It’s just a lot of fun to participate, and even the straggling swimmers who come in last get met with applause and cheers by the next group to start. Just finishing these events are a big deal, and the crowd respects that. It’s nice to see people share the love.
It’s always inspiring to watch the really incredible swimmers that make a big splash in the La Jolla Rough Water Swim, and this year saw a number of 2008 Beijing Olympic hopefuls racing to victory in the main events.
Fran Crippen, 22, of Mission Viejo won both the Masters Men 1 mile (18:47) and the Gatorman 3-mile event (54:10). A close second place in both events was Mark Warkentin of Santa Barbara, 27, with a Masters and Gatorman time of 18:49 and 54:17, respectively. Warkentin was also the defending Gatorman champion.
Chloe Sutton, 15, of Ladera Ranch won the women’s division of the Gatorman (58:27) followed by Micha Burden, 26, of Huntington Beach, who was victorious in the Women’s Masters 1-mile race (20:12). Alexander Polyak, 15, was the first La Jolla resident to finish the challenging Gatorman course with a time of 1:12:08. Also Ben Weston and Nancy Kemper were the first La Jolla residents to finish the Masters Men and Women’s 1-mile divisions, respectively.
As for me and my two kids, who also swam in the day’s events, we were just proud to have entered and finished and received that shiny “2007 Survivor” medal handed out at each race’s end.