Traralgon Cap @ Alcatraz!

Andrew Legge after Alcatraz Swim with Traralgon Cap

In September, former club member Andrew Legge swam in an Open Water event from Alcatraz to San Francisco – wearing the Traralgon Swimming Club Cap.   Andrew performed extremely well in this challenging event. We caught up with him when he swam in the Hazelwood event recently and he shared his story:

Event Name:             Swim with the Centurions

Location:                    San Francisco Bay California

Date:                           Saturday 27 September 2014

Distance:                   2 miles (direct line) 3.2 km

To register for this event I had to apply with a Swimming Resume of open waters swim and times in order to be accepted.

All athletes had to attend the compulsory pre-race briefing at approx. 6:30 am, the briefing did very little to calms swimmers nerves before the race.

The chief marshall focused on the extreme tidal and strong turbulent water conditions within the San Francesco Bay that swimmers would be facing, this making the swim a little longer than 2 miles to allow for current and drift in the water.

Next he had to ensure all athletes had appropriate attire to withstand the icy cold temperatures of the water.

The Marshall then went on to explain that there would be a strong likelihood of seals and sea lions swimming alongside us and not to panic, however due to the likelihood of these animals there was now 75% chance of hammerhead sharks joining us for breakfast!

After the briefing (frightening) swimmers made a short walk to board the boat which transported all of us to the Alcatraz Island.

Aboard this boat I had the opportunity to meet with swimmers from around the world, and had the chance to share a few nervous jokes and stories of other open water swims we had all done..

Once we were on Alcatraz Island a number of US Marine’s shouted at us “GO GO GO” which basically meant jump in the icy water, it’s time to swim.

The swim was amazing, I managed to navigate myself relatively easily through the currents.

I did see a number of seals swimming alongside us, this made me swim faster as I didn’t want to be anyone’s breakfast.

I was 6^th out of the water overall, placing me 2^nd in my age group.

Great story – congratulations, Andrew!