Misery Challenge 2019

Leading up to this years race there were reports of a shark sighting. Race directory Josh Crosby even sent out an email offering a partial refund for those that were too nervous to swim. My friend Mike and I were not deterred and I picked him up and off we went to do the swim.

Unfortunately we did not make the first bus from the offsite parking lot. You might think, no big deal. However, it seems that if you are not one of the first people there you don’t get a shirt. Even though you are supposed to get one when you sign up. We were both told that the shirt would be mailed to us at a later date, I’m not sure when that date will be but it is now August 31, 2019 and I still have not received my shirt. This is the second year in a row that I did not get a shirt after pre registering.

Anyway, on to the race. It was was perfect weather day and the water was between 67-70 degrees for the swim. Mike, Karen and Dave did the swim without a wetsuit. I prefer to be as fast as I can be and used the wetsuit. I started out with Mike and swam pretty much along side of him for the first half of the race. Once we got to the turn buoy I started to pick up the pace and ran into a pack of swimmers. It took me a while but I managed to get around them. I felt pretty good the whole race and the water was perfect with no waves or chop really.

I ended up being first in my age group. Probably won’t get anything for that either, a lot of races would mail it to you if you are unable to stay around for the awards ceremony.

As much as I enjoy the swim, I’m not sure what I’m paying for. For the second year in a row I didn’t get a shirt because they ran out before I got there. This is probably the fifth or sixth year of the race, by now these issues should be ironed out and if you signed up ahead of time you should get a shirt. By the time I walked over after the swim all of the pizza was gone. There were no oranges/bananas like in years past. As far a race amenities it was pretty poor.

Bottom line is that it is a nice swim, but not worth the money. You are essentially paying $75.00 to swim 3 miles, that’s what you get. Mike has a boat in the marina next door so we might just show up and swim on our own.