Back from the pier-to-pier swim with Anthony.

I don't know what got into Anthony today; he buried me at sea! (Above is a graphic of swim routes from ALcatraz. The circular port in the bottom right quadrant is Aquatic Park. I will get to that later.)

In an open-water start I am really good at both getting out to the buoy and getting into shore. I duck dive, I do butterfly and when a big wave comes, I triangulate off the bottom by diving down to the sand and thereby push off the sea bottom like it is a wall at a pool. (I learned all these skills through decades of surfing.)

Today, Anthony and I began our swim with a pod of triathletes. I felt great this morning so I just comfortably swam out in a rip-tide to save time and just stretched out. Anthony and the triathletes swam pretty much against the surf so when I got to the end of the pier I was waiting for everybody. You should of seen the look on Anthony face when he looked up and saw I was 15 meters ahead. Hence, that set the tone and Anthony just swam HARD.

There was a lot of chop today, the tide was low, and spotting was difficult. At the end of the swim Anthony probably beat me by 100 meters at least and possibly 200 meters at most. I joked that I was pulled over twice for a sobriety inspection because I was weaving so much hence the lost time.

At the showers we saw other swimmers we knew and it was very pleasant. Next week is the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim and my strategy is to hold Anthony and then out sprint him in Aquatic Park! Hear that, Anthony! It's only 1.5 miles this time. No more 1/2 mile, pier-to-pier, back-half, to drop me! Oh, and I know the darks arts of Alcatraz; see ya' at the finish line in my street clothes. ;-)

Okay, I will be nice, here is a page called "Be Recruited" dedicated on how to swim Alcatraz: [Link]