Race Prep: Brooklyn Bridge 1K Swim

Hey All,

Yesterday I competed in the Brooklyn Bridge 1K swim. Before I tell you about how amazingly awesome it was to swim UNDER the Brookyln Bridge, I’m going to clue you in on the steps leading up to the race.

“Hey Kristen – I thought you did CrossFit and dabbled in running. What’s up with the swimming?”

Well my friends, guess what. Before there was CrossFit, before there was running, before there was rowing….there was swimming. Lots and lots of swimming. I spent most of my summers at the pool and trained year-round on a competitive team at my local YMCA from the ages of 6-18, in addition to swimming on my high school team for 4 years (back-to-back State Champs 2005-2006, what up?!?). That’s a lot of time staring down at the black line on the bottom of the pool. A LOT of time.

As you know, I like to shake things up with my workouts so I decided to sign up for the Brooklyn Bridge 1K Swim through NYC Swim to get back to my roots. In order to prove that I was sea-worthy East River-worthy, I had to swim a mile non-stop for time beforehand to qualify for the race.

Isn’t that pool magnificent? 50 meters and 8 lanes of olympic-sized glory…not to mention the double 1m springboards and low-dive. The Asphalt Green 50m pool is about as good as it gets for a swimmer living in New York City, and the perfect place for me to do my 1-mile qualifying swim. I woke up bright and early (5:15AM to be exact) about three weeks ago to embrace the chlorine and take care of business.

I had never visited Asphalt Green before so I signed up for a 1-day guest pass to check things out and inquire about a possible membership (aka swim in the pool fo’ free). As you can see, the facilities are pretty impressive.

I walked in to see the youth team busy staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool  busting their butts with their early morning training. I spotted a gaggle of lifeguards hanging out and sauntered over, praying that one of them would count my laps and verify my swim. To my surprise, one of the lifeguards grabbed a stop watch and readily agreed to count my laps for me (apparently they get this request a lot).

Without delay, I jumped into the “fast” lane and swam 32 straight laps at a pretty easy pace. Although it was the first time I swam in at least a year, the basic technique never really leaves you – kind of like riding a bike. Thanks to my CrossFit training…yet again…the mile swim was a breeze and quite an amazing way to clear my head and prep for the work day ahead of me.

I finished the mile with a time of 29 minutes and 30 seconds swimming at a moderate pace. I felt a bit rusty, but all in all not bad. Just another drop in the olympic-sized bucket of my time spent staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool.

Forever Wandering (& sometimes swimming),

– Kristen