Karen Gaffney's Boston Harbor Swim

I've been a bit lax the last couple weeks with posting here, but I've got lots to share today. Yesterday, I helped out as a pace swimmer for Karen Gaffney's 8-mile Boston Light Swim. The goal was to swim the Boston Light Course, but the wind had other ideas. Gusting up to 40 miles per hour, and sustained winds of about 20 miles per hour meant that we were getting tossed around in the waves like corks. We decided to give it a try anyway, since Karen and her family had come all the way from Oregon specifically for the swim.

Karen has Down's Syndrome, and she takes on these marathon swimming challenges to prove the point that she can do anything anyone else can do, regardless of her "disability." She stands a mere 4'9" inches tall and weighs less than 100 pounds, so she's a tiny thing, but man, was she determined.

Karen's parents are very supportive of her swimming and had arranged for three boats to accompany us during the swim. We left from the Boston Harbor Yacht Club and motored out to the Boston Lighthouse on Little Brewster Island. Conditions were rough the whole way out. Whitecaps, waves 3-4 feet tall breaking in open water-- it was downright ugly. But the sun was shining and we were all ready to go, so why not give it a shot?

Chris, the kayaker, got in the water first and was immediately pushed around by the wind. He struggled to keep position in the waves for most of the swim, but he's an experienced kayaker who handled the situation beautifully. Then Karen slipped into the water. She wore a full wetsuit, a neoprene cap, and goggles. The water was 55 degrees, and being so tiny and not acclimated to water quite that cold, it was a good thing that she had on the wetsuit. I hopped in afterwards, of course not in a wetsuit because I can't stand the things, and for a moment I wondered if leaving my wetsuit at home might not have been the dumbest thing I could have done. I was gasping, shouting, and being tossed around by the chop. It took me several minutes to calm my breathing and get past the gasp reflex. In the meanwhile, I was swimming head up freestyle and trying to catch up with Karen and the kayaker. I slowly relaxed and was finally able to put my face in. Instant brain freeze. That took a few minutes to absorb, and then finally I was settling into a pace where Karen wanted me, about 10-15 feet in front of her. I found that swimming backstroke made it easier to keep an eye on her, since she wanted to be chasing me. I did a fair bit of breaststroke, too, as I dodged the waves. Once I settled in and got used to the temperature, I felt really good and smooth out there despite all the chop.

We swam along until the first feed, and that's when the danger of the situation really started to sink in. It was going to be virtually impossible to feed from the main boat as we had planned, as the boat was being pushed all around in the wind and waves. We nearly got crunched at one point by the boat as it rolled in a wave. We finally managed to grab hold of a rope hanging off one of the smaller boats that was escorting us. To make matters more tricky, it took several minutes for us to get to the boat, and that period of not swimming as fast meant that our body temperatures had dropped a bit. The cold had started to seep in. The Coast Guard boat nearby was also watching closely, and I gather that they weren't too happy with the situation, either.

We decided that the best plan of action was to hop into the small boat and motor a little further into the course to where we might get a bit more protection from the lashing wind from some of the islands. As soon as we got out of the water, though, the exposure to the wind became an even greater danger. We eventually transferred over to the larger boat and got bundled up in sweats and towels. We were both shivering.

We motored in closer to the finish line, over near Castle Island, and about an hour later, Karen and I got back in the water and swam in to the finish line. Laura Collette, another pacer and open water pro, hopped in with us for the last mile or so, and we swam into the beach at the L-Street Bathhouse. All told, we estimate we covered about 5 miles in the harbor, and while we may have missed out a few miles from the middle of the course and had to think on our feet to adjust the course to best suit the conditions, it was still an incredible swim in atrocious conditions.

As we arrived on land, there was a crowd on the beach waiting to greet us that included several photographers and writers from the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe, as well as Fox News and Channel 7 news. It was really neat. I've posted links to all the media I know about below.

Once we go into the beach, getting warm and dry was the top priority, so we headed into the bathhouse and the showers. It took a while for my feet to completely thaw out, but all-in-all I was really pleased with how I tolerated the cold water and lousy conditions. Karen handled it all like a pro, and I know it wasn't easy out there, so my hat is off to her and I am in complete awe of her capabilities and her motivation. A lot of other "fully-abled" swimmers would have taken one look at the water and said, "No way!" But Karen wasn't going to back down! What an inspiring day and a neat event to be a part of.

http://wbztv.com/local/kathy.gaffney.boston.2.1237090.html


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/10/09/woman_with_down_syndrome_gets_into_the_swim/


http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1203336&format=comments#CommentsArea


http://www.katu.com/news/local/63793457.html

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/woman_with_down_syndrome_swims_boston_harbor_100809