Juan De Fuca 50K Race Report
The swim Saturday July 20th from Dungeness Spit to just off the shores of Victoria Harbour was such a breakthrough for me as an ultra athlete I find myself filled with joy and appreciation not just for my mind, body, and spirit holding up better then I could have ever imagined but also from the overwhelming support of the local Port Angeles Community, Rotary District 5280, and the Westchester/Playa Venice/Playa Del Rey communities.
According to our official trackers on Trackleader
http://trackleaders.com/juandefuca19i.php?name=Captain_Jack
Our start time was 5:57:55 at Dungeness Spit and the swimmer (myself) got out of the water at 11:21:01 for a total of 17 hours 23 minutes and 6 seconds in the water, covering approximately 31.25 miles (50 kilometers).
If you can’t get enough of following swimmers across the strait I would encourage you to follow the only two current swimmers that continually take on this incredible body of water.
Susan Simmons – A Victoria BC swimmer with MS that raises money and awareness for MS and marine conservation.
Jill Yoneda – A Victoria BC swimmer raising money for Canuck Place Children’s Hospital.
https://www.canuckplace.org/jillyoneda/
Highlights of the day:
1) Safety – Our crew is a little worse for wear but no injuries, no accidents, and personally nothing that will take more than about a week to heal up from on my part as the swimmer. Only physical issues that came up during the swim was major calf cramping for approximately 5 minutes a few hours into the swim when I hit a stream of cold water and was quickly alleviated when I drank pickle juice and hit a warmer water patch. The tips of my fingers are still slightly numb and the back of my throat is still swollen from “salt mouth”.
2) Community Building – Again the outpouring of support from the ultra community, my friends in both Port Angeles and Los Angeles and so many other places is overwhelming and I can’t express well enough personally what it means to me to be a part of such healthy supportive communities.
3) Raising Awareness and Funding for Human Trafficking Prevention – Our original goal was $2,500 which was quickly passed up and shifted to $5,000 and then later raised again because of the overwhelming support. When all was tallied up we have over $10,000 raised on the facebook page and another chunk of money pouring in from cash donations going into the District 5280 Charitable account which will be utilized for human trafficking causes in the upcoming year.
4) Having fun – As my niece would remind us these are fun experiences and we chose to be out there. The highlights of the swim were talking with the US Coast Guard, seeing our friends and supporters on the Coho ferry all dressed in red “End Human Trafficking Now” shirts cheering for us after the Captain announced that a local man from Port Angeles was swimming the straight that day, crossing the US/Canada border, and doing a facebook Live with my local Rotary club, Playa Venice and the District 5280. Also having my mother in law Holly jump into the water and experience its chilling salty properties and the almost constant positive headspace I was in didn’t hurt.
5) The original reason I wanted to do a swim this year was to prepare for an event known as uberman (http://www.uberman1.com). After feeling so strong in the water and overcoming many of the fears of my youth (deep water, and darkness) I have every confidence in the world that I have a fighting chance of getting through stage one of uberman strongly when the opportunity arrises.
6) Finishing well – In ultra endurance events one of the things that I love about them is that most of the major things I take on have about a 50% finishing rate, this one much lower. That’s part of the beauty of it is how technical, difficult, challenging, and logistically complicated these endeavors are. It’s important to me “the way” I and others pursue these goals. I am proud of my team for upholding the “integrity” of the expedition. marathon swimming rules, no touching the boat, no touching another person, my only addition was the use of a wetsuit. I’m also proud of the way we encouraged each other, worked well as a team and each person performed their role with style.
Learning lessons from the day:
1) Currents – The unpredictability of currents and how strong they are and the direction they will push us was a continual factor for our team on Saturday. Whenever anyone else swimming the Straits talks of currents I have a much higher respect and understanding of what they are talking about. Like many things in life sometimes things out of our immediate control steer us off course from our intended destination.
2) Not making it to shore – Unfortunately I am not the 10th person to cross the 18.3 mile stretch from Port Angeles area to Victoria and that spot will be reserved for another daring soul willing to take a risk and step into the water. I feel closure to this event and won’t likely return to swim it, although I might attempt it on a kayak sometime in the future… :)
Crew of Captain Jack : Jack Church, Madisyn Heistand, Gay Hunter
Crew of Psalm 93: Justin Church, Luke Rafferty, Kristin DeCou, Holly Cunningham