Liberty Island Swim 2009

Today Dave, Paddy, and I swam NYC Swim’s inaugural Liberty Island Swim - a 1.2k counter-clockwise swim around the island (and the statue). Registration was limited to swimmers who have finished in the top 60% of an NYC Swim event in the past two years. Since all three of us just barely made the requirement, our main objective was not to be the last swimmer out of the water.

As expected, the start of the race was delayed and the tides were not cooperating. Right before we jumped in the river, Morty warned us that the stretch between the second and third buoys was going to suck. Well, Morty was right. For once. I had flashbacks to the 2008 Park to Park Swim and swimming for my lift while I was fighting the current getting to the third buoy - fucking brutal. I managed to finish in 41:00, which was good for 108th place out of 117 total swimmers. I’m not that strong a swimmer.

Paddy and his Budgy Smugglers finished ahead of me, but I managed to just beat Dave. I guess the smaller the trunks, the faster you swim. All in all, it was a good time. You can’t beat the views of the Statue of Liberty from the water.