July 4th

Hey everyone,
I can't believe it has been three months since I have posted. I apologize, but to be honest although I have been extremely busy not a ton of interesting stuff has happened. Well a little.
I took 8 weeks for my shoulders to heal completely. Amazingly, I have no pain at all and have been getting in the pool a little. I am slow and out of shape, but it will come. I began riding my bike and running quite a bit after the swim so I didn't lose too much aerobic base that I had built up over the swim months. I have been training for a handful of sprint tri's and will do a half IM in October. I began working with an old friend and coach, Terry Butts, recently. I will see the improvements quickly as he pushes me a ton. I actually like it though. I do not enjoy just doing workouts without goals and if possible i like to use a coach or set program. As I have said before I am coachable and will just about anything that a coach tells me, as long as I belive in the coach.
In May we had a get together with most of the Team at a friend of mine's house. Very nice to see everyone and hang out and talk about the swim a little. My mom made me a really nice scrapbook and framed a news article for me. I enjoyed it a lot. It is funny how on event can draw people so close together and then everyone goes back to there lives the next day. It is kind of a a surreal feeling. I have gotten to train with a few of the "boat people" and one in particular, Jeff Beck, has become a good friend and is getting more involved with Rocketkidz.
FRESH has completely blown up! It has been great. Business is basically double what it was as rocket. Funny how that works. I am planning another store sometime in the next year. The search for the right location has been trying as it truly is all about LOCATION.
Jeff Beck is going to help me get the Rocketkidz Foundation to the next level. I have decided to wait till later this year to do any events on the coast, camps or otherwise, as I do not want to just throw something together. In addition, Jeff and I are looking at many ideas for camps, events, and field days. We are excited and are working towards making this thing pretty big.
Jeanne is training for the second rocketchix tri and my kids are growing like weeds. will keep you posted as things progress and I start racing again. There has been a litttle bit of talk about the English Channel as my next big challenge. YOu have to plan 2-3 years out to get an optimum swimming slot with good tides and water temps. Amazing.

have agreat fourth!
Pat

now what?

the last couple fo weeks have been a whirlwind. reality comes hard and fast. after i rested sunday, i was back to work on monday the 2nd. I spent 2-3 days blogging. i don't feel like i even broke the surface of what this swim was and is to me. i just usually tell people it was awesome. many people who are not athletic just kind of look at me like it is crazy (or i'm crazy). money is still coming in and i am begining to contemplate what is next. i have run a few times and look forward to getting on my bike soon. i will swim for the first time on friday morning. i quit taking celebrex on last monday and have had some pain and creaks since. i wil take it easy for another few days and will contemplate the next move.

Cool Press Coverage

Hey,
For me this is very cool. Inside Triathlon picked up the stroy and put it on their website.

www.insidetriathlon.com

Satelite Swim Route

This is the swim route from g-map pedometer. It is 31.8 miles, but is straigh lines. I didn't swim straigh much as the boat gps had 34.1 miles. I will try and manipulate this to show different points i spoke about in my story. The 16 mile point is Gulfport Harbor. The Penthouse apartment pier is between the 23 and 24 mile points. The Pass harbor is at the 27 mile point. You can click and drag the map to see different points. To zoom in you need to type in gulfport, ms or another town and then change the zoom level on the right.
enjoy

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=834348

Finish Pictures

http://picasaweb.google.com/rocketboys32/RocketboyS32

Cut and paste this link to view pictures of the finish.
rocketboy

POST SWIM

POST SWIM
After the immediate finish there was a sense of elation on the beach that I can’t describe. The best way I can is to imagine the greatest accomplishment of your life, and then imagine that 50 people or so feel the exact same way as you do and are with you to enjoy it. I hugged my team; my family again, shook hands, cried and sat down on the ice chest. Joey and Brother Ronald from St. Stanislaus helped me take off my wetsuit top. Ed and Brady slapped a bag of ice on either shoulder. Besides being a little tired, I felt fine. This was an aerobic effort for me as my heart rate rarely got over 100. I looked at my HRM after and it said my avg for the swim was 74. At one point I stopped and rested on my back and the team asked me where my HR was and it was 34. I am unsure if it tweaked a little bit, but it made sense. I was rolling with the waves trying not to fight it all night. The only thing that makes me think it went a little haywire is that it said I peaked at 232. This is impossible for me as the maximum HR I have ever reached is 178. We took time, reveling in the beautiful day, and the sense of togetherness and relief was awesome. A group from Baton Rouge came over, Ann, Marie, and maybe someone I didn’t see. If so sorry. Friends from my childhood, Martha and Tommy Letard, Missy Alllen and others were there. W, Joie and SJ, I will not list them all, but you get the point. Tom Atkinson, one of the original kayakers was there to shake my hand. I had worried about he and Abe through the night. Brother Ronald and a group of students from St. Stanislaus who had walked down to the beach were there too. Various residents who stopped as they drove by and wondered what was going on this early on a Saturday morning also stopped. We got our stuff together and headed up the street to the home of the Letards, who so graciously offered it for our team to clean up and grab a bite to eat. I ate two bites of a muffin and had a cup of coffee. I wasn’t hungry. Must have been too much salt water. After the rush of adrenaline we all felt after the swim, everyone was starting to decompress and the underlying exhaustion was coming out. I got some first aid on my foot, could have had stitches, but after soaking in the water for 8 hours it was fine…I guess. I got a tetanus shot yesterday to be sure. We rode home and I took a 3-hour nap. Woke up ate some pizza and went to bed early. Shoulders were sore, but nothing permanent. I will be fine sometime this week.

I keep reading and re-reading this to see what I am leaving out. I am leaving out a ton. When I read it the swim sounds surreal. When I add in that I did it in the dark it sounds even more surreal, and when I add in the fact that the only thing that could have made it worse weather-wise was rain, or another hurricane, I laugh. You are making this up. While I was out there, I didn’t think it was any big deal. I know now that it was to others, but to me, it was what I had set out to do. I was completely surprised and unprepared due to the conditions, but I somehow didn’t think that much about it. I was too busy swimming to worry about it. I was more concerned about the Team and how miserable they must be. I was talking to my wife last night and told her that besides the points around Gulfport harbor, I never felt like it was dangerous. I had a great Team and I felt physically I could complete the swim. The reality is that it was probably two parts dangerous, one part stupid and one part what we planned to do. I never discussed the opportunity for bad weather, or what we would do if we thought it was too bad to start. We did not have a second swim date set up. I thought five or six hours in that we might need to stop for the safety of the crew, and then thought to myself, “What are you going to do? Swim to the beach, wait for better weather and start over tomorrow?” Screw it, go until they say they can’t go or you can’t go. The Team never once said they wanted to stop or that the weather was bad enough to stop the swim. They simply flashed lights and said, “Go left. Go right. How you feel?” We never had an exit strategy, which is probably good. The only exit was Bay St. Louis. This was not the safest plan, but a plan that worked. I am leaving out a ton I know, but it feels like I could write forever and never get it all in. Some have said I need to write a book. I might.

I want to add a few more things from the night. They are more like things I thought and things I saw. They are going to be in a kind of free form as they come to mind. They may bore you, but I feel like I need to get them out. My Team may say otherwise but these are some things I remember.

Every time I was to eat Joey would point a light at me and yell, “Dinnertime!” I always thought, “Its too late for dinner.”

Shelly would ask me “How you doing?” I think I said, “Fine,” every single time or “I’m alright.” Even though I probably looked like crap.

Francis always had an ear-to-ear grin and would say “Awesome,” from time to time. This was encouraging.

When I cut my foot, Joey said, “It looks fine.” Francis said, “Oh yeah you did cut your foot.”

In the days before the swim I asked Shelly about how my hands turn out with every stroke, she said, “Do they?” She had told Susan multiple times that she would have changed my stroke earlier in the training but didn’t. Shelly I believed you didn’t notice. Good poker face. I realize now you didn’t want me to change my stroke a week before the swim.

I thought about seeing Styx at the coliseum as we passed it. I also thought about ¾ length concert t-shirts and rednecks.

I had wanted to stop at my old street as I passed by but passed it before I realized where we were. Oh well.

I felt like I was slugging through the water and had no idea about my pace. I went slow as I could as I figured just keep the arms coming over.

In the Biloxi Channel, I actually thought that it might be easy if the waves stayed right behind me. They only remained behind me for 2 hours or so.

I thought we were out much further than the Gulfport harbor. We were not.

I stopped being able to taste the difference between flavors of gels, but egels were the only ones I could keep down. I could tell when they gave me an accel gel instead.

I threw up every single time I ate, but would not tell the team, as I knew they would freak. I just tried to keep as much down as possible.

I started drinking mostly water around the halfway point.

I never lost my mind as some people do when they go that long. I knew what was happening the whole time.

I had confidence the whole time that I would finish. I even started celebrating in my mind multiple times before the finish. This was funny, as I would have 3-4 more periods of “I am done,” after this.

I prayed often and tried to think of prayers etc. I said the serenity prayer and sang the U2 song “40” which is Psalm 40. The funniest thing that kept coming to my mind was a line from the Exorcist, when the priest is splashing the demon girl with holy water and yelling, “The power of Christ compels you.” I thought to myself, is that an okay prayer, and decided, yes, it was.

I tried to think of things that my kids had done or things that reminded me of them, but all I could do was think, “Yeah, you have two kids, Paige and Ian.”

Towards the end I would say the names of my family and every team member with every stroke I took. If I got through all of them it was like 20 strokes.

I tried a couple of times to count strokes. I lost track at 156 or so every time.

It was interesting to me that I had all this time to think, but couldn’t concentrate on anything but swimming and adjusting. I could only concentrate on everything you read above for snippets of time and then back to swimming. I really would have liked to have been able to relax more. Ha!

I wrote the initials of my kids and family on my cap as well as the name of my friend from high school who recently lost both of his parents. I also wrote 32 on each side of the cap.

I remember singing the following songs.
“40” by U2
“Best Thing That You Never Had”
“Don’t Move” both by Butch Walker
“Cold Roses”
“Magnolia Mountain” both by Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
That’s about it thankfully no bad songs got in my head.

The taper that Shelly laid out for me worked. I felt relatively good till about the 12-hour mark. About all you can ask for.

Thank you all, I will post the Team members accounts as I receive them.

Hours 7-15:50:00

HOURS 7-15:50:00
In the next few moments, the most stressful moment (from the boat’s standpoint) occurred. Shortly after I ate at the end of Gulfport harbor, I tucked the bottle under my wetsuit and started swimming again. At this same moment, the boat got one of the ropes to the kayaks stuck in the prop. I, of course, could not have known this. They were drifting in towards shore and I put down my head and kept going. I looked up a minute later and saw the Q-beam light scanning the horizon for me. They had completely lost me. Susan has shared with me that the boat was in complete panic. They did not know I could see them and they thought I could have been washed back towards the piers or worse they would run me over. For 90 seconds or so they searched and panicked. Shelly said to call the Coast Guard, Joey said don’t bother because he said they probably would have jumped in to find me, and the Coast Guard would find an empty boat. I could see they were looking and swam their way and stopped to wave. They finally saw me and we got moving again, but not before Joey tied a light stick to the zipper of my wetsuit. The next couple of hours weren’t too bad. I knew the trip around Gulfport harbor had taken its toll, but I was pretty confident that I could make it. I showed the boat that I had cut my foot. Joey said it looked fine. I ate dutifully and kept going. I passed the Long Beach harbor far enough out that it did not kill me. I told myself, that once I got to Pass Christian harbor I was home free. I could kick the last 5 or 6 miles if I had to.

One thing that was killing me was that the Team had told me how far we had gone and how long I had been going. I was wearing a heart rate monitor and had not looked at the running time at all. Somewhere around 10 hours the team told me I had been in for that long and for every stop from then on they told me the time. I of course had not told them not to do this or to stop doing it, but it was tough to hear it. I could tell we had a while to go, and knowing I had swum 20 miles or that I was hitting the 12 hour mark was not making it any easier. I knew that 20 miles might only mean 18 miles in the right direction and 2 zigzagging so it was not helping me. It was also around this time that Francis said, “You see those lights down there? Those are the lights on the railroad bridge on the Bay, you are getting there.” I looked up and could see them a long ways in the distance. I kept looking at them from time to time to keep focused.

There are only two traffic lights in Long Beach and only one in Pass Christian. I saw the two go by in Long Beach and realized we had passed the harbor without event. The next few miles were basically black but for some streetlights. There was a big cluster of lights that we passed and I thought we must be out further than I thought and that I passed the Pass Christian harbor without event. Now I just was closing in on the red and green lights, the railroad bridge across Bay St. Louis and the finish. I begin to relax a little with the feeling like I am going to finish this thing. I cannot believe it. Something in the back of my mind said, “It ain’t over yet boss. Keep your mind about you.” Another hour passes and all of sudden from the boat I hear, “Watch out for that pier!” I look up and expect to see the Pass Christian harbor, which is no biggie, as I know it is only six miles or so after that. I look up and instead see what I know is the remains of the Penthouse Apartments pier. It was approximately one half mile from my old neighborhood on the Pass Christian, Long Beach border. Four or so miles from this pier to the harbor which as I know is five or six miles from the finish. I am deflated. I am now about 10 miles away instead of less than 6. I realize now that the lights that the Team thought was the railroad bridge was in fact the stoplight at the Pass Christian harbor. I put my head down and try to get over it. I do a couple of strokes of breaststroke and SLAM! I look up and I have just hit a floating section of tree maybe 12 inches around and 4 ft long. I yell to the boat to watch out, and take another couple of easy strokes breast and deduce that I am fine. Ten miles to go. Four hours, maybe.

As I said in the beginning, I tweaked both of my shoulders doing my seven-hour training swim. My left one was far worse than the right, and I was concerned all week leading up that I was not going to physically be able to complete the swim. I felt okay about the mental side of this, but if you can no longer bring your shoulder over the top, you are out of luck. I tried to rest doing breaststroke, kicking or backstroke. Breaststroke and kick can take a brother a lifetime to go anywhere. Couple that with the fact that I was wearing a wetsuit, making breaststroke almost impossible to do fast. This was due to the fact that the suit raises your hips. This is great for freestyle but awful for breast. I would try to do it from time to time to take a break, but it was incredibly inefficient. Backstroke was a no go as well. This was for two reasons. First, I did not have anything to look at to keep going straight, and second the waves were coming from behind me and to the left. This meant they washed right into my face every few seconds. I was going to have to complete this doing some sort of freestyle, no matter how badly it hurt. Up until the ten-hour mark I had little pain in my shoulders. After the Gulfport harbor fight, they both felt like they were going to go at any minute, but nothing happened immediately. I did know that the Gulfport harbor crossing had taken its toll and that I would pay for it eventually. At the ten-hour mark I felt a twinge in my right shoulder. I say I was pain free the whole swim up until this point, and that is factually a little bit of an exaggeration. What happens is that pain comes and goes, but you kind get in tune with your body throughout your training. From doing some long swims, I knew that I would get a certain feeling, call it a pain, in a part of my shoulder and it would go away in 5-15 minutes or so. I am not a doctor, but I assume these are just muscle related. I had had those off and on all night, but I wasn’t concerned about them. The ones I was concerned with were join related. When those come on they don’t go away, they just intensify until it feels like you cannot even move your arm. Your arm stops responding. I began to feel my shoulder joint going. I was somewhat surprised that it was this arm and not the other. I was a little concerned with this because I now thought the left arm would go any minute and the right arm was going. Oh well. I knew I it was going to happen. Suck it up and keep going.

The light at the Pass Christian harbor was now trying to slowly drive me insane. Every time I looked at it, all I could do was run through the course in my mind. Was it four miles to Stanislaus or six? It could have been three. I don’t know. Forget it. Keep pulling. During this time I am also knowing that the Pass harbor could be bad due to the cross chop. I am stopping and slowing. It is taking me forever to get to this light that is not the Bay railroad bridge. Joey and Shelly are asking me if I am okay. My shoulders are throbbing. I am sometimes taking 5 strokes and stopping. I stand up once and my feet hit ground. This is kind of reassuring, kind of not. I take 10 more strokes. I want to stop, but not really, I just want to be able to swim freestyle strong and finish it. I want to get to Henderson Point because then all I have to do is cross the Bay. I can do that Bay in 40 minutes or 30. I can’t remember if the Bay is one or two miles. I get to the harbor and it is not too bad, thought it seems to take forever to get across it. Right passed the harbor Mandy suits up and jumps in. She is swimming beside me or in front and I get a little boost. I am not going too fast as I look up and she watches me with her arm half way through a stroke to make sure I am there. I am struggling but moving. I am swimming towards the end, but it is not getting here very quickly. Mandy gets out and gets in the kayak. I stand and walk 20 yards or so. This does my brain well, and I get back at it. I can hardly bring my arms over and I realize that stopping is not helping. I am passing the beach at Henderson Point.

I look up and Francis is walking over towards me. He tells me, “Pat, you have gone at least thirty miles, the point is a mile or so and then you have a couple of miles over the Bay. Why don’t you get in the boat and ride to the point and swim the last two miles.” I tell him no way. I appreciate it, but I am swimming beach to beach. He smiles and knows it was a futile attempt, but everyone in the boat was concerned about the last Bay crossing. I thought I would have a boost of adrenaline or something and that it would be okay. This was wrong.

As we entered the Bay it was like the crossing of Biloxi Bay I had done some fourteen hours earlier. Unfortunately I wasn’t strong at this point, in fact, quite the opposite. I see Joey get in and start swimming with me. Mandy is in a kayak to my right. I am constantly drifting to my right. I see Our Lady of the Gulf church sticking out as my beacon, a castle-like structure. It is a beautiful church. Right now I just want to be closer to it. I can barely get my arms over the top and the waves now seem to be coming out of the bay a bit as well. Someone on the boat is yelling, “Get him out of the way of the ferry.” There is a ferry that runs from the Pass to the Bay and we are in its path. I hold on to the back as Mandy takes me due north out of the way. I don’t want to but figure she is not taking me towards the finish so I forget about it. I keep on plugging away. I am getting close to the halfway point of the bay. I am going to finish. I knew that I would but it has been a long night. Now the boat is yelling at me to get on the left of some crab traps because of dangerous debris. I have to swim directly into the wind. I am going nowhere but still fighting. Francis is swimming too. I do breaststroke and am still barely moving. I am a mile away and not getting closer. I tell myself, thirty minutes. I can handle anything for thirty minutes. I keep at it. Still not moving much, but at least approaching the crab trap things. I don’t care about debris. I am still three quarters of a mile, and it doesn’t look like it is getting any closer. Head down keep going. I think of everyone on the shore, I think of my Team, I think of God, whom I had asked to make this easier on me. HA! I think about my family and how they must be feeling. I look up two thirds of a mile. I am going SLOW. I don’t feel like I am ever going to finish. At some point, maybe a half a mile, maybe less than half, Shelly tells me to take ten strokes breaststroke, then ten freestyle. I push it and do 12-20 freestyle. The Team counts off my breaststroke when my head is up. Still feel like I am not moving. ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN, EIGHT, NINE, TEN, FREESTYLE. I keep going. I am pushing hard enough now that my shoulder is not killing me. There is a tipping point in my brain where cardio exertion blocks out physical pain. It is happening now and it is welcome. I couldn’t do this all night because I would have bonked two hours in. Now it is all or nothing. I look up and see people. The boat says they want you on the other side where they are waiting. I am thinking, tell their asses to walk 50 feet, I am coming up where I am coming up. I see someone walking out towards me. I put my feet down and I am hip deep. I dive back in for thirty or forty more strokes and stand again. I am done swimming I will walk the last 100 yards. My friend SJ has walked out to greet me. He is ecstatic. I am too; I am wondering why he walked out to get me. I can walk fine. I guess everyone on the beach was concerned I would not be able to walk. I keep trudging in. Everyone is running towards where I am coming in. Forty or fifty friends and strangers, I see my mom and dad are walking out into the water crying, my wife Jeanne is waiting at the shore. I hug my mom and dad, I hug my wife, and I am on dry land. I drop to my knees and let it all out. I did it. I stop my watch and it is 15:50:00. Again, Unbeleivable.

I will post the rest tomrorrow.

hours 1-7

You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things - to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals. 
Edmund Hillary

Let me start out once more by thanking God, my family, and my TEAM. Without my team I could never have accomplished this. They are the inspiration to me. They never let me see their true concerns (well for the most part, some things you can’t hide), and they did a stellar job keeping me going, keeping my family informed and keeping me safe. Susan, Shelly, Ed, Ty, Jeff, Joey, Brady, Joie, W, Francis, Mandy, you all are the best. We ALL shared and were a part of a great thing Friday/Saturday. I will start at the beginning and may have to post in parts as it may be a long one.

The two weeks leading up to the swim were pretty much uneventful after Sunday March, 18th, the day of my last long “open water” swim. I learned that the only thing that this open swim had in common with my the Coast swim was that it occeurred in water. So does a bath. More on that later. After 7+ hours on the 18th my shoulders, which had so far remained pain free, were toast. I woke up on Monday the 19th and thought the whole swim was over. I was panicked and stressed completely. Shelly and I talked and she said not to worry, she would take care of me. She got me some Celebrex samples, got the dosage and gave me three days to rest. Then I would start tapering. My swims over the next two weeks sucked. I had no power, and though my shoulders did not hurt, it felt like the pain was just under the surface and would surface 1000 or 10000m into the actual swim. This was going to hurt and knowing that for 2 weeks was tough on my brain. I stuck to Shelly’s plan, did a few swims and tried to keep it out of my mind. I was going to swim, I was going to finish and it was going to hurt. Deal with it. I did my best.

On the week of the swim I spent zero time resting. I had one day where I got up at 4 a.m., swam, worked all day, drove to Mississippi for an interview and drove back. The next day I worked packed and drove back to Mississippi for the big swim. It felt like the world was flying by as logistics, emails, calls, and the like kept me going till late Thursday. I went to bed after some spaghetti. I slept well.

RACE DAY
For anyone who has raced before, you know the feeling you get on race day. I guess if you played sports in high school many of you may know it to. I woke up on Friday March 30th feeling like I was jacked up on mini-thins. I felt good, my shoulders were so so and all seemed okay. I had 3 interviews before 8 a.m., I still needed to mix my nutrition for the swim as well as a host of logistical items. I am not a planner, and thanks to Susan, Shelly and Francis I didn’t need to be. T be more to the point, I had not talked to Francis in person in over a month. He said he would be there and Susan talked to him so I was cool. No worries. I drove to Bay St. Louis and made sure there was a beach to walk up onto. The wind was screaming due east, the direction I needed. I was freakin giddy. I prayed for the wind to stay out of this direction and I knew from the dependable weather forcasters, that it would change to the ENE at around 10 or 11 blowing me out and away from Gulfport harbor and would change to east again for a downwind finish. Perfect.
My former employee and fantastic runner, Brady came in early Friday around lunch. We headed to the hotel to set up a base camp of sorts and to mix up nutrition etc. I drove him through what is left of my old neighborhood. He couldn’t believe it. I was swimming for a lot more causes than I let you all know, but perhaps you could all glean that from my blog. I wrote a couple of notes, and rested for 13 minutes, then the phone started again. I got up and at 3:00 we left to go pick up Joey Lee at work. 3:30 and we’re on our way to Ocean Springs. We arrive right on time and the crew is there and arriving. Shelly, Susan, Ed, Ty and Mandy are there as well as Michelle Mayer and her son Stephen. We scout out a nearby harbor so they can get on the boat without having to trudge through the water and I go back for a live TV shot. My family shows up and then a number of people from the coast that I have known but not seen for a long time show up. A nice littler old lady in a rascal rides up and says she used to swim the Bay St. Louis races and that she had to come see me off. I am again taken aback. I get my wetsuit on and head to the beach for the TV interview. TV is funny. Here I am about to take on the physical and mental challenge of a lifetime, and I am talking to the TV girl about my exit into the water. Seems surreal kind of. I meet with the kayak team of Abe Kinney, a friend from home, Jeff Beck, from the backpacker, and Tom Atkinson, a local who saw a post from Abe on a kayakers message board and wanted to join in. I said the more the merrier, but also explained that he would be going slow and my nutrition and sighting had to be the priority. I briefly explained to them their role and got ready for my interview/entrance. I do my interview, put on my goggles and start walking….nothing says dramatic swim entrance like 8 inches of water. I wade out another 50 yards and finally can take a stroke. Did I mention the wind was still blowing out of the southeast, oh and 15-20 mph.

HOUR 1-3
Before we headed out I told the team I was going to go nice and slow across Biloxi Bay as I knew it was going to be a challenge. Although the wind was coming out the right direction, the starting point was directly into the wind so as to not add more miles to the swim. It was going to be a 1-2 mile crossing and then into the Biloxi channel for a couple of miles. I started out nice and easy. I did not want to expend too much energy this early. I was happy to be swimming and felt relatively good, no pain in either shoulder and all was well. I had told the kayakers, to not worry about me sighting off of them at this point and for them to get comfortable first and we could hone the method in the channel where it would be calm. At about 30 minutes in I see Abe capsize. My immediate reaction is to stop and help him. Joey says “Don’t worry about him, keep going.” 15 min later I see he has met up with the group. I have my first food stop, take in some h2o and keep heading for Point Cadet.

Point Cadet is the eastern point of Biloxi and is where many shrimp boats and most of the casinos are located. As we approached the waves started coming in the opposite direction and I was getting sloshed around. This was going to be something I had to deal with at every harbor along the way. It was like the waves came in and hit against the concrete and came sloshing back against the incoming waves. There was no undertow associated, just the top of the water was a complete mess. I kept cool and remembered that once I got around the Point it would smooth out for a while. Finally we get around and it is super smooth. I now have a direct tailwind and am working on getting into a rhythm with the waves and my stroke. I stop somewhere right after and eat half a cliff bar and some accelerade. I immediately put my head down and start throwing up part of it. The salt water is already taking a toll on my stomach and I have only been in the water for an hour or so. I am not happy about this, but, what can you do. I start swimming again and we are making pretty good time.
I cannot relax and swim though. Nausea, and the waves are working against me and my mind is racing. I can’t concentrate on anything. I would kill to have a song stuck in my head right now. I am constantly having to sight, forward and sideways and the kayaks are all over the place. I realize this is not kayaking weather. Joey is staying close and Tom and Jeff are doing pretty well beside me. I make a couple of stops and think to myself, “We are flying, we have got to be going 3 mph with this tailwind. I may finish in 12 hours after all.” I have had a goal of swimming this in under 13 hours the whole time, but that is in calm water. I thought I had a reasonable chance to do it IF I could have the right conditions. The conditions in the channel were perfect, 2 hours in and I had covered 5.47 miles. I told Joey sarcastically that there was a small craft advisory. I think I told Joey it felt like I was cheating it was so easy. This would not last long.

Somewhere out of the Biloxi channel, Abe and Tom opted out. I can’t blame them. By this time Joey had flipped, and I think Abe had again. I worried for all of them and kept going. The perfect conditions left once we got around the end of Deer Island, they weren’t awful, but they weren’t great either. As we were a half mile or so from what used to be the Broadwater Harbor. The same sloshing affect started well before the harbor and I realized this would happen at every harbor. I told Joey this as I needed the team to know how much these were taking out of me. The next one was going to be Gulfport harbor, but it was still 3 hours or so away.

HOURS 3-6
Somewhere after the Broadwater harbor, Joey and Jeff were done. The kayaks couldn’t handle the waves Joey had flipped for a second time and managed to save my body glide and some rope or something. Jeff flipped too and I was concerned. I could not sight off of them any more. This would mean I would have to get everything from the big boat, which was harder and more dangerous in these conditions.

Joey had told me on the way over that there would be a time when I would think that I would want to quit. He said it may feel like I couldn’t go on at all. He said when he it had happened to him, it lasted for 20 minutes or an hour and then he was good. I had a strange moment in Biloxi. Though I was making good time, I was wearing my mind out. I couldn’t get a good rhythm due to the waves, and I was completely nautious. I would take in a gel and throw up part of it. I did not dare tell Susan and the Team as I knew they would freak. I just tried to keep down as much as possible and keep rolling. It was around here I just thought, “This is too dangerous, it is not worth getting someone else hurt over. I keep throwing up, my mouth is torn up from the salt water, and I can’t relax.” This lasted about 5 minutes, but was a very strong feeling. My next thoughts were, “My shoulders feel fine, I feel strong. The nausea is here, forget about it, and the team will tell me if they want out.” It came and went and I was ever determined. Head down and swim.

Somewhere around here, I relaxed for about an hour. I don’t know when, but I had somehow just let my mind go a little. It was nice, I tried to enjoy how I had gotten here. The early mornings, swimming by myself, 90% of the time. All of this helped, and I tried to revel in the moment. Biloxi passed as did most of Gulfport. I looked up to see familiar “sights” and streets. This part of the coast was a little recognizable because I knew where the stoplights should be. I would tell I was still making okay time. I thought of my family and friends and hoped everyone on the boat was okay, especially Shelly as she is 20 weeks pregnant. I had finished about 12 miles or so I guess and told myself I had this. I was also at this time getting ready for Gulfport harbor because I knew it was going to be a huge challenge. Little did I know.

I knew I was swimming all over the place as I had to sight off the big boat. The waves would at times knock me 90 degrees in the wrong direction, and I would see the light flashing at me meaning one of two things, I either needed to eat or I needed to get back on track. In hindsight we did not do enough planning on signaling. It wolud have made it easier to know that one flash was for “wrong way” and another for “come eat”, but what you gonna do. Eating from the big boat was difficult because I would have to swim to chase it down, and then eat. While I was eating the boat would drift away and I would have to swim back to throw my bottle back on board. I started putting the bottle up under the back of my wetsuit and swimming with it until I got closer to the boat again. I would have a small dorsal fin for these periods and I wondered if it helped at all. Not really.

I keep looking at the stuff I am typing and I am leaving out a lot (unbelievably). I would like to take a second to talk about swimming this at night. I read up on long swims leading up to my swim and found that many of them were planned for the night as the sun just drains you, burns you, and usually the weather calms at night. This was a tactical decision that I do not regret. The actual swimming in the dark was not as big deal for me. Flourescent phytoplankton (or something like that) would stream over my goggles every stroke, so much so that I grew oblivious to it. It was cool to watch the moon move from a 7 o’clock to 2 o’clock. It was a little cloudy so there weren’t many stars. I would feel a small jelly fish (non stinging type) go through my fingers from time to time, and once a big fish hit my legs, making me speed up a bit and raised my heart rate, but other than that no real contact with sea creatures. I half wanted a porpoise to swim with me, but probably would have soiled my wetsuit had this happened, but thought it would have been cool to have flipper along. All in all the dark didn’t bother me. It did make it harder on the boat and seeing where we were with regards to the land.

HOUR 6
Somewhere around hour 5 Francis asked me if I was in the mood for sex. I thought “Huh,” but didn’t really know what to say so I said “Sure, I guess, but not from you.” He then chimed in 5 hours and 13. something miles. I figured out he was asking me if I wanted stats. I really didn’t. I did not want to know anything until after Gulfport harbor, but so be it. Now I knew how far long I was in with every feed stop. It was kind of nerve wracking. We were still a couple of miles from the harbor. I knew I was in for a huge challenge.

At least a mile from Gulfport harbor, I began to feel the affect of the wind and waves. I knew that Gulfport harbor was actually 3 harbors in one. It had the small craft then a freighter harbor where Dole has a large banana boat complex, and then one more commercial harbor, I don’t think the team knew this. The winds were out of the southeast still and as they hit the east side of the first harbor they began heading back out to sea and me. I had one more feed stop around here and knew that was it for the next hour or so because the harbor was at least a mile wide, possibly more. Combine this with the seas and I knew I was in for it. Again I just put my head down and kept going.

I had thought in the hours leading up to this point that we were out far enough to get around the harbor. I was very wrong. As I swam in he tumultuous waters, I noticed that I was drifting closer and closer in. I was half way through the first section of harbor and fighting hard. The waves in here were at least 5-7 feet high and the boat would completely disappear with each wave crest. I kept going and at some point heard the boat yelling that I was getting to close. I looked up and saw the light at the end of the small craft harbor. It was on top of a jetty made of broken concrete and rocks. I thought I was okay and took a couple of strokes of breaststroke to get my bearings. I wasn’t far enough at all, I slammed my left foot into a pile of debris putting what would turn out to be a 2 inch cut that probably could have used stitches. I had to head straight out at this point and fight to get south enough to not get my whole body slammed into this jetty. It was brutal for a short while as I headed directly into the wind an waves. I got around the first jetty and headed west again. The boat was telling me to head towards a set of lights and I did. What we failed to realize was that there was a concrete pier in between us and these lights. This was in the freighter part of the harbor and the waves and backsplash (wrong word) was at its height here. At one point my whole body was lifted completely out of the water. I was getting slammed from all directions. The team realized I had to go straight out again so I headed back straight out. It was crazy. I made it around this one and had a little ways to go before I was to be clear of the harbor. This was taking it out of me. I knew I would get a break in a while so I just kept going. There were two huge silo looking things and I knew if I got passed them I was almost done. The third harbor was set back a bit so I didn’t think I would have to go straight out again. The team I don’t think knew about this third harbor and as we finally got a little clearance they said come eat. I would have liked to, but I was now feeling the effects of getting slammed and drinking gallons of salt water. I stopped for a second and began violently throwing up, and I mean the body wrenching can’t stop to I have thrown it all up kind of barfing. I just lost all of the nutrition I had diligently been putting in my body. I had an extremely brief moment when I thought, “Well, that’s it I am done. I can’t believe I just threw up everything and cut the shit of my foot and I am done at 6 or 7 hours.” It lasted only for a second, because I all of a sudden felt great. My stomach was settled and I was calm. The boat called me to come eat, and I said after the last point. They thought I had lost my mind cause they couldn’t see another point as the last harbor was indeed farther inshore and not going to be an issue. I came in and ate and swam around the north side of the boat. I noticed that one of the kayaks we were towing was gone. I thoutght, “That is gonna cost me.” Jeff Beck from the Backpacker, who was ultimately responsible for them said to forget about it, that the boat had to stay with me. Unbeleiveable.

I am going to get a tetnus shot. Hopefully i will complete this afternoon.
rb

33.9

i will post tomorrow so set a side some time, there is a lot to tell.

i finished 33.9 miles (possibly more, i explain later).
15:50:00

i am sore and tired but in great spirits.

thanks to my TEAM without whom i would not have been able to complete.
thanks to ou for all your prayers and support.

rocketboy

32

i wear a shirt with the number 32 on it. it is my new number. when i was young i wore 13 and 17. now 32. just like all the 32's that have gone before me, i strive for greatness. to conquer what i haven't before. to set an example for others. to be. my 32 is different from others. it is a number that may define a chapter of my life. it is a number that may haunt me till the next time. or it just might be a number. nothing more nothing less. 99.9% of the people on the coast will go to bed and wake up to see that nothing has changed in their world. my world will change tonight. it may not be earth shattering, but it will change.
i would like to take a second to thank you all for following my journey. know this is not the end. i will attack something else. the money has not been raised in a way that i am satisfied with so i am using the swim as a start, not an end. i am so thankful for my loving wife, kids and parents. Jeanne, Paige, Ian, Mom and Dad, i could not even attempt this without you. you will be in my mind and heart the whole night. thanks to my coach shelly, who volunteered for this task. thanks for my business partner Susan for her details. i would probably have me and a friend in a boat if it weren't for her making sure i had what i needed. thanks to Francis, whom i know not well, but who has so generously brought his boat time family and energy to this event. again i couldn't attempt without him. thanks to joey lee for setting up interviews and coming along for part of the ride. i will rope him into the next swim. thanks to ed and brady for coming over and supporting me. thanks to mandy for coming over to swim and for the time she put in in the pool with me. thanks to nan and all the masters at crawfish aquatics. thanks to billy coach ripple and the kids of crawfish as well, the tuesdays and thursday workouts helped get me here. thanks to Adam and Paul for manning the FRESH ship while i am away, ya'lls hard work has given me the time to train.

thanks to God for giving me the all the blessings i have and for the courage and life to swim 32 (and for the east wind i prayed for!)

going to take a nap and start swimming.

rocketboy

SEE 32 is Significant

In mathematics

32 is the smallest number n with exactly 7 solutions to the equation φ(x) = n. It is also the sum of the totient function for the first ten integers.
The fifth power of two, 32 is also a Leyland number since 24 + 42 = 32.
As with all power of two 32 has an aliquot sum one less than itself; the prime 31. 32 is the first member of the 31-aliquot tree.

In science

The atomic number of germanium
The freezing point of water at sea level in degrees Fahrenheit

Astronomy
Messier object M32, a magnitude 10.0 galaxy in the constellation Andromeda which is a companion to M31.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 32, a star in the constellation Pegasus
The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on September 24, 1957 BC and ended on March 10, 460 BC. The duration of Saros series 32 was 1496.5 years, and it contained 84 solar eclipses.
The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on June 11, 1691 BC and ended on August 9, 375 BC. The duration of Saros series 32 was 1316.2 years, and it contained 74 lunar eclipses.

In music

The number of variations in Bach's Goldberg variations
The number of completed, numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven
In the title and lyrics of the song 32 Footsteps by They Might Be Giants
In Regina Spektor's Oedipus, it's sung "32 is still a god damn number" several times.

In other fields

Thirty-two is also:
The number of teeth of a full set of teeth in an adult human, including wisdom teeth
The size of a databus in bits: 32-bit
The size, in bits, of certain integer data types, used in computer representations of numbers
The winning car number of Ray Harroun in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911
ASCII and Unicode code point for space
In chess, the total number of black squares on the board, the total number of white squares, and the total number of pieces (black and white) at the beginning of the game
The code for international direct dial phone calls to Belgium
Retired number of L.A. Lakers Magic Johnson's jersey
Retired number of baseball pitchers Sandy Koufax and Steve Carlton
Retired number of Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns running back
O.J. Simpson's uniform number
In the title Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, starring Colm Feore
Article 32 of the UCMJ concerns pre-trial investigations. Such a hearing is often called an "article 32 hearing"
Sometimes considered to be the occult opposite of number 23 (see 23 (numerology))
The (supposed) age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified
One of the Nissan Skyline versions
Pump water up an open tube and it can be raised to 32 feet - at that point cohesion is lost and the water column will break or cavitate. Pumping may not be necessary under the sole action of capillary action
According to the U.S. Census Bureau of places in the United States with the word "eagle" in their name.
Carlos Alberto Tevez uniform number in West Ham United
The short form of ThirtyTwo, a producer of snowboard footwear
A traditional (soccer) football is made up by 32 panels of leather.

22 hours

i am in ms gettting ready. factually i have benn chasing kids and my dog around my parents house, and finally it is calming down a little. i was here yesterday for an interview and then back to BR. i woke up today and have been going ever since. someone asked me today, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" all i could do was laugh. i am glad i didn't have to workout this week much as i have had zero time to do so. anyway whah whah whah. no complaining.
my shoulders will hurt. i have been coming to realize this more by the day. it is all part of it. i tweaked something in both on my last long swim and through the power of celebrex i have been pain free, but as i have told shelly, it is just beneath the surface, 1000, 10000, 18000 m in. again, no complaining.
it is a night of some irony as there is zero wind tonight, flat and an almost full moon. tomorrow nights forecast when we push off is 15 mph winds out of the south east. luckily we are going east so i should gain some benefit from this. during the night they will switch and i will get some dead downwind swimming which will be awesome. i am going to want to hammer at this point but know better. no hammering this swim. it is a patience, slow game. this is not my style. i am a 90 to nothing type of racer. though this is not technically a "race". it feels like it. same aprehensive feelings, check, double check, got my goggles, looking for my race belt and remember this is not a tri. finish it finish it finish it. slow down slow down slow down.

rocketboy

reality

i like one word titles. more dramatic. also if you use a long titles you do't have anything left to write about. if the title was, my shoulder is fried, 32 miles is forever, i have some siblings, and ohh crap you would know it all and there would be nothing left to say. i have one week left and things have been tough.
as i said in my last blog i swam for 7 hours last sunday. it started off fine and steadily got worse. i did great with nutrition, but my shoulders were feeling the last two weeks of workouts. the last hour, my left shoulder was toast. i finished the last of 70 400's and probably couldn't have done another one. i had to get my freinds Mitch and Joe to put the kayak on top of the truck as i couldn't lift my arms over my head. i loaded up on ibuprofen and iced them off and on all day, but on monday morning i still couldn't lift my arm over my head. i usually sleep on my stomach with my arms over my head. sunday night i slept with my left arm by my side. on monday it was darn near locked up. i could not have swum one length. my coach and now good freind Shelly said she would take care of it for me and got me in touch with a doctor to get some strong stuff. it worked and by monday evening i was feeling more confident. i took monday and tuesday off. on wednesday i went to the pool to do an interview for a local tv station. i ended up swimming a bit and did not feel too bad. the shoulder was what i would like to call "tentative", it didn't hurt, but i could tell that the pain was within my reach if i pushed too much. i swam an easy hour wednesday without incident. no snap in my arms but i wasn't hurting so it was positive. i swam 18 miles or so that sunday, 32 miles is going to be forever if my shoulder hurts that bad next week.
fund raising has been okay so far. i have finally seen why people have development jobs. it is a full time job. i am looking forward to haveing some time after the swim to continue what we are doing and to raise more money and awareness.
a lot of friends and family are turning out to help out with the swim. one in particular really means a lot. i grew up for all intents and purposes an only child. my dad was married prior to marrying my mom and had three kids, Susan, Bill and Craig. Craig is 10 years older than i am and Billy 2-3 older than him and Susan 2 older than Billy. we never lived in the same house and only when i was very young did we live in the same town. i cannot imagine what their world must have been like growing up. divorce is hard on every party involved. mostly on the kids. my half brothers and sister were always good to me and besides craig calling my "brat" for the first 6 years of my life, we have always had a loving and good, although distant relationship. i have always wanted more, but besides a decade between us, we all live between 1000 and 3000 miles apart. its tough. we talk from time to time and see each other every 2-3 years and it is what it is. last week my brother bill called and told me to call him when i got a shot. i talked to him thursday and he said he is going to try and make it down for the swim. he lives in kingston ontario, canada (america jr.) which is 2 hours north of syracuse, ny. i was shocked (in a good way). he may not be able to work it out, but the fact that he would come down for it meant the world to me. he wants to get in and swim with me. how awesome is that.

i can't follow that with anything clever or otherwise, this swim is bigger than me.
rocketboy

one week

i am dreaming about my swim. this means one of two things. i am excited about it, or i am stressing about it. i think it is the latter. for the first time since i started this idea i am actually confronted with the magnirude of it. 32 miles is a long way. i can't run 32 miles right now. i could ride 32 miles but it would be a lot slower than i would be used to and i would feel it the next day. that is a funny thought.
part of my concern comes from last weeks 7 hour + swim at the lake. i was tired all last week from the 57k the week before. i had trouble getting any snap back in my arms all week. i told my friend chuck at the beginning of my swim sunday that i was apprehensive about the swim that day. i got in and things went well for the first 3-4 hours. somewhere around 4 hours my shoulders started hurting. around hour 6 they were bad and by the end i did not think i could take another stroke. on monday i couldn't lift my left arm over my head and i could not have swum 25 m let alone 32 miles. i have been eating anti inflamatories for 5 days now and got in the pool a coupld of times over the past two days to loosen up. it is feeling better, but not 100%. in addition i am still tired. i will rest a lot for the next week.
did an interview for baton rouge tv wednesday. it was on last night. nice.
more to come...
rocketboy

57000m

i laugh to think about my old swimming routine. back 3 years or so ago, i was in pretty good triathlon shape. i was placing in my age group and even in top 3 in a race or two. i felt fast in the water. i swam twice a week 3500-4000m per workout. 8000 a week tops. i am almost laughing aloud at the thought of 8000m a week. to put it in perspective i swam 24000 on sunday alone, and 57000 for the week. i swim 8000m or more workouts 2-3 times a week. i was talking to shelly the other day and i said that i did not know what i was going to do with myself after the swim. i dont know if i can go back to 8000m a week. i will proabably come up with another hairbrained idea (i already have one or to cooking). i am going to let my wife and kids get some time with me, work on putting on some races and race some short stuff....maybe. and by maybe i mean it may be short.
i swam in the lake in prairieville sunday. the aforementioned 24000m workout. i felt good until the last hour. then my arms were hurting. nutrition was pretty good. i fed every hour. i never got week, so i guess this will work. i will probably go every 45 minutes or so just to be safe. i had a lot of good support from Ed, Tom, Brandon and Heather. it was nice to see people from time to time. i actually got sunburned on my face from breathing. i was out there for 6 hours so i guess you get more sun than you think. funny.
i am a pace slave. i am obsessed with keeping my pace for this thing. i know that i should not care about how fast i do it, just as long as i complete it. i know this, yet i am a clock watcher and i will push to make sure i keep up. i am obsessed with 1:30 pace for this swim. i don't know why this is so significant a number, but i keep it in the front of my mind. IF i can keep this pace i will finish in the 13hour range IF i don't swim too side to side. i would love to finish under 13 hours, but don't know if it is attainable. i certainly want to finish in less than 16 as i think that may be the upper end of my endurance. not really sure though because i've never gone swimming for 16 hours. 18 days and counting.
going to the coast to shoot a spot for their news this weekend. another marathon trip. leave baton rouge at 3 there from 5-7 eat with my parents. drive back to btr.
big week for my daugther paige's athletic career. she had a bike a thon for st. jude on friday. i told her in the morning that "it is not a competition, so just find out from the teacher who has done the most laps, and then do one more than them so you win." she is four. my wife was unstoked. it appears paige did not need to find out who did the most as she was 3 laps ahead of the rest of her group anyhow. woohoo! then on saturday she had her third soccer game. they do not keep score for these games, but my wife did and our team the Cougars, got beat 8-1. paige scored the only goal for her team. pride baby pride.

keepin the dream alive,
rocketboy

honesty

that lady would swim better if she would slow down, i wonder how long that gatorade bottle has ben there, 19,18,17,16, 4 25's easy, 1 fast, 1,2,3, breath, 17, 18, flip, "so much for my happy ending", stretch out, let your left hand extend, pick up your tempo but don't bounce, head down, am i done yet, i am going to make this swim, i wonder if my mouth will get eaten up by the salt water, hey there goes helen, i am the first one in the pool, i am th last one in the pool, i feel good today, 1:19 flipturn, 3 more hundreds, i wonder if anyone at practice wants to come swim half of this set with me, only 5600 left, i got this, no problems, i wonder if i can hold this pace, "t-t-tonight!". this is just 30 seconds of what my brain feels like each swim. i spend a lot of time by myself in the pool. mandy and shelly would swim with me from time to time, but other than that, no one on the masters team can hold the pace or distances. conversely, i cannot swim with the crawfish kids because i cant hold the pace. so i swim alone, a lot of the time i am the only one in the building. i grew up an only child so it does not bother me too much. you can't talk during it anyhow. swimming to me is not a social activity. a lot of time to think.
this past week i went to the Coast for a marathon trip. i drove into Biloxi, saw my parents then i was off to do a presentationbefore the Biloxi Rotary. it was very productive. i then jumped in my car and went to Bay St. Louis for the funeral for both of best friend from high schools parents. it was surreal. you don't expect both of someones parents to die and without getting into it, the circumstances surrounding this were bad. i then left and drove back to Biloxi to pick up my dad from a small surgical procedure he had on his back. he is fine (as fine as having a needle digging around your sciatic nerve can be, ughhh). i then drove him home to Gulfport and then back to Baton Rouge. it was during the wait in line for the funeral and in the days since that the idea of honesty has kept returning to my mind.

everyone is from somewhere. i had a slightly different upbringing in that i moved to Mississippi, the deep south, from Michigan, the upper midwest, when i was just about to turn 7. it was a bit of culture shock, i must say. yes ma'm, no ma'm, yessir, nosir, i was not familiar with any of this. but i was 7 so i adapted easily and moved on. i made pretty good friends and then after 6th grade, swithched schoold to attend St. Stanislaus College. it is an all boys school in Bay St. Louis and it was a big change. i basically had to make all new friends, and kind of start over. a lot of the kids at the school were either from the Bay and had grown up together, or were "sent" there for various reasons, ranging from getting an education to mostly discipline problems. it was a change, but really 12 year olds can adapt pretty easily too. my best friend from 7th-12th grade and then roomate for my first 1.5 years of college was Scott the guy mentioned above. he transferred to Ole Miss after his stint at LSU and we didn't keep nearly as in touch. my mom called and told me the horrible news about his family the friday it happend. i packed up tuesday and went to the Coast. i arrived at the chucrch and school i have only been to two or three times since 1989. i recall stopping by with a friend from LSU who also went there and we were passing through. i then was in Scott's wedding in May of 1995. i was now entering the same church that i graduated from high school and Scott's wedding. now i was there for a funeral. i got in line outside the church and caught up with a friend Jeff, that i hadn't seen in 5 or so years (oh year, i went to my 15th reunion). as i was speaking to him it struck me that i had not spoken to hardly any of the guys from my school. in fact none of them except Scott every year or two. this is probably quite normal. what struck me was the realiztion that i have been trying to distance myself from the Coast fro 17 years, for no real apparent reason. i mean i swore i would never go back there to live work etc. i had no interest, so little that i didn't bother keeping in touch with hardly anyone still there. this hit me as very sad and unneccesary. i mean the Coast may not be NYNY, but it is (was) really nice. Very laid back, really nice people. i still can't figure out why i never wanted ot go back there, small town mentality i guess. we all run from something. i can't quite figure out what it is yet, but hope to. my friend Scott and i spoke today (3/7) and he kinda said the same thing. it must just be what people do. it sometimes just takes you being really honest with yourself to 1. realize that you probably didn't give someone, somthing or in this case somewhere, a chance, and 2. that you can change this with a minimal effort.

one reason i have not written in awhile is because i completely changed the concept and name of my restaurant. it has also been an eye opening experience. i will expound in my next post.

24 days till the swim.
rocketboy

patience

many of you who read this probably have dealt with fund raising in some capacity. I am learning through experience that it is a full time job. A full time job that I have added to my full time jobs of owning a restaurant and having two kids. Oh, and swimming 40000 m a week. I constantly feel like I am neglecting something, either work, family, or the swim. I just try to be patient and keep on plugging. My mom had joined the fight and is really my fund raiser/do it all helper. There is nothing better in the world than your parents. They put up with all your nonsense and still help you when you bite off more than you chew. I read a book called Swimming to Antarctica by a lady named Lynne Cox. She planned swimming the Bering Strainght for 12 years and didn't have approval from the then Soviet Union until the day of. She just kept at it, had patience and it all came together. I have been working on this swim since November. I can afford a little patience.
I had some great workouts lately. I swam over 5 hours Saturday and more importantly got back in on Monday and had a strong workout. Yesterdays workout was a little slower, but solid as well. Weekly totals were 42000m. I am on back on track after being sick.
More to come....
rocketboy

1 step back and the brain freeze

It has been bound to happen. I had had 12 positive weeks in a row and was due a setback of some sort. I am sitting in bed sick and unable to train. Not the end of the world, just frustrating.

Last weekend I swam my longest workout to date, 19000 yards. I planned on swimming it outside but I had to swim it in the pool at crawfish after as a test I swam in the outdoor pool on Thursday that week. It was in a word, freezing. I put on my wetsuit and dipped into the pool. I thought to myself, this is cold, but i just need to get used to it. It is always cold to start out, but your hands and feet go numb. After a minute or so your face gets numb and you are good to go. Well at least in theory. I go in and the hands went numb, i start swimming and my face feels like a hundred frozen ice picks are jamming into my eyes. For some reason it hurts worse because of the speed at which I am swimming. If I just put my face in it is cold, but as i start swimming it is like i am haveing a brain freeze from the outside in. Flipturns are the worst as when I push off it is like someone is poking around my eyes and forehead with chunks of ice. I endure this for about 5 minutes and say to heck with it. I will swim tomorrow. So I hop out and swim 6000 on Saturday. On Sunday, Dr. Rip opened the pool for me at 5 and I started swimming. I knew that I couldn't just get in and go. For some reason, it is hard to get in and not count laps when you are in a pool. I combatted this by swimming 30X600's 10 swim 10 pull 5 swim 5 pull, for 18,000 yards. My goal was a 4.5 hour swim so I got done with the 18000 and had 23 minutes left. Talk about killing me. I floundered around for another 1000 and called it a day. Actually felt okay after so went home and watched the super bowl with friends. I could have cared less about the game, but got to hang out and relax, so it was nice.

The next week (last week) was odd. I took off Monday as i was whipped from the swim Sunday. On Tuesday, work stuff got in the way of training and I found myself getting into the pool at 6:00 p.m. I swam about 3100 and went home. I just didn't care, and I hate swimming in the evening. I know people fit stuff in whenever, but for whatever reason, I never swim well at night. I woke up Wednesday and got in 8000. It was a tough workout mentally, but i got through it and was happy. Shelly gave me some sped work on Thursday and felt better again. Yesterday, I tried to get up at 4:30 and knew it wasn't happening. I am congested and my body aches all over. No swimming again. I am taking off Sat and Sun and will swim 5 hours Monday. Should be interesting.

Felt like a pro athlete the other day, when I received a package of Endurox, Accelerade, and Accel Gels. It was actually kind of cool. I don't know why I was so stoked. I told my friend Susan I felt like a pro when I opened up the box and she said, "You didn't feel that way when you got a wetsuit?" For some reason not as much. Strange isn't it. I am still trying to figure out how to be a pro athlete at the age of 35. HAHA! Yeah right.

We are getting closer to nailing down the format of the camps for this summer. It is looking like we will be trying to offer 3-4 3 day camps free for a couple hundred kids. We just need money. I am continually frustrated with all I have on my plate. The charity and fund raising itself is a full time job, as is training and, oh yeah, my full time job. I can only do so much. I am pushing forward as best I can. If any of you reading this have experience and a little time, let me know as I need help. My email is pat@rcketburrito.com. Feel free to shoot me any ideas you have.

NOW FOR THE IMPORTANT STATS:

FAVORITE TV SHOW: The Office- There are few things in this world that make me laugh out loud. This show makes me laugh out loud weekly. If you use iTunes you can download Podcasts by Ricky Gervais, the British comedian who originated this show. That is also some funny stuff if you like dry and or British humor.

MUSIC: Usually I reccomend some sort of album or band. For the last week I have been listening to this one song over and over. Run by SNOW PATROL. They have a hit right now that I am unaware of the name. This song is from their last album Final Straw. I like it a lot.

NUTRITION: Accelerade and Endurox still. Post swim, as much pizza as I can eat. I must be losing more salt than i realize as I crave it after my workouts. I ate 5lbs of Hot Tamales last week as a part of my scientifically regulated training regime.

COFFEE: Perks, house blend, or Community Between Roast.

Ejoy your weekend,
rocketboy

the finish is the start and mental toughness

First the updates
1. Had a day of interviews on the Coast it went well. People were very excited about the swim and what it can mean for the Coast. First did a TV interview on the morning news show followed directly by a radio interview. Both went well and both pledged to help where they could.
2. Met with Drew Allen, a long time family friend who owns a Pepsi distributership on the coast. He offered to help with contacts and a sponsorship.
3. Stopped in at the Lynne Meadows Discovery Center (a kids museum) in Gulfport and met with Betsy Grant, the mother of my best friend from 9th grade. I would like their museum to see some benefit from the swim and they offered any asssistance they could give.
4. Met with Kathy Short, the wife of Dr. Short, a friend of my father. They are also helping with Coast contacts and the Mississippi State Government. A wealth of ideas and opportunities.
5. Have pretty well decided that the charitable arm of Rocketkidz will be free one or two day camps for kids that will be health and fitness based. We will look to raise enough money to put on multiple day camps in each town. If the cash is there.
6. Had a recovery week swimming which was fun as I always get some fast workouts to do.
7. Spent the weekend in New Orleans with my wife. Had an incredible time. She is an incredible woman.

As each day passes this thing grows another leg. What I am begining to realize is that what I thought was the end, the actual swim, will in fact probably be the start. I am cool with that. It is a challlenge that will push me to the edges of what I know is possible swimming, but in essence it is a cry of HEY DONT FORGET ABOUT THE COAST! The kids there need this. A one day camp with education adn fitness and fun would be a day they didn't have to think about the troubles on the Coast. Our goal is to do 4-5 one day camps in each town. Each day would be the same, but we would offer it to a different group of 100 kids each day so as to get maximum impact. We would provide a means for them to carry on throughout the year as well. I am fired up about it. It is going to be a lot of work, but very rewarding.

The actual swimming is coming along well. I will do another long swim next weekend 5hrs. It is kind of weird. Right now typing 5 hours makes me begin to think about how long it will take, but in reality, once I get in the water the time goes by pretty quickly. The hardest hour is always the second one. I guess it is because it still feels lik you are on the way out and not on the way back. Shelly and I have talked a lot about mental toughness and her concerns with me being able to not go crazy doing all this. I have thought a lot about "mental toughness" and have figured out some things.
1. I decided from the get go that I would do whatever it took to prepare correctly for this swim as to do otherwise would risk not finishing it. Having done that I almost look forward to every single workout, no matter how long it takes me. Since I look forward to it, I never give myself the opportunity to dread them. I get a little boost everyday that I finish one.
2. I have the ability to ignore what I am doing. In other words, I just don't even think that what I am doing is that hard so I just keep on doing it. It never enters my mind to stop as I just keep on rolling.
3. I was reading an article on mental toughnes by Joe Friel (relatively famous triathlon coach) and he broke mental toughness down into four components. i have forgotten all but one of them. I could align myself with the three of them I have forgotten, but the one that caught my eye was confidence. I am confident that I will finish the swim in the time frame I have set for myself. The reasons behind this confidence are simply the facts that I am completing the training I need to and see and feel tangible results. I don't know how my confidence level would be if I were say swimming a meet. Probably a bit different, but possibly still confident enought to swim a certain time in a certain event. If that time was one of the fastest, I would think that I would have confidence in winning the event. What is interesting to me is that I do not race triathlons with the same confidence. I am confident I will win every swim and that I will do well on the bike, but I never feel like I will run with confidence to finish the race. I have come off the bike winning the race and beleived in my heart that other racers will chase me down. I press on the run and eventually they do. I have also come to realize that if I trained for the run like I have trained for this swim I will gain some confidence because I will know what to expect. That is the deal. Confidence comes from knowing what you are capable of because your training will dictate the paces you can hold and what you can expect on race day. You may not win, but you will be able to go out and have a performance expectation. In addition, if you have trained at certain speeds and paces, you will know how fast you have the potential to go. Then you go and do it. Now that I have broken it down it seems simple, right? Hahahaha!

I am sitting here getting ready to play an acoustic show tonight at a local bar. One of my best friends Bill Rhodes is in town and the band he played in in college is doing a reunion show. I was supposed to have my band together for this as well, but my guys bailed on the idea. No worries, I will go at it alone! I still got the rock in me.

I was thinking of tracking different weird stats for my training, like avg. calories a day, strokes per lap, etc. but to be honest I am not a numbers tracking type of person. I think this is part of the reason I love to have a coach. I just do whatever they say and don't question it. If I had to come up with it on my own I tend to do nothing. I never keep training logs etc. So you get the stats and other interesting things I think of when I am swimming. Here are some of them:

1. I take 360-366 strokes per 400 m in open water. I tried to count to 1000 a couple of times but my mind wandered. If I carry that out I will take 3600 per hour (6 min per 400m, so I cover 10 400's per hour) and if it takes 16 hours i will take approximately 57600 for the 32 miles.
2. I will try to listen to only songs I love for the hours leading up to the race. All this does is guaranty that I will get some god-awful song stuck in my head. Here is an example. This past week I had a 3 hour workout. I usually get up 30-45 minutes earlier than I am going to go swim so I can wake up and have some coffee/eat something. I listend to a playlist of songs that only has stuff I like on it. I hit the water and Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows popped into my head and stayed for the entire time. Suffice it to say, I am not a Counting Crows fan, I don't neccesarily hate them, but all I could imagine was this dude, Adam Durst's voice wavering all over sounding so whiny and serious...ughh I wanted to ram my fingers in my eyes. I searched through my brain to see what had malfunctioned and when I had heard that song and figured out it was 3 days earlier over breakfast in New Orleans. That just ain't right.
3. I swim with my mouth open. I don't know why, I just do. I guess I slowly let air escape my lungs as I put my head in. I swim a long looking like a humpback whale straining kids pee and whatever else is in the pool straight through my mouth. I need to stop this as salt water is probably going to tear my mouth up, not to mention I am going to be filtering plankton and sewerage and whatever else is in the gulf. Anyone who has any tips let me know.
4. I realized the other day that I don't stare at the black line in the pool. Some people dread staring at the line. I somehow focus soemwhere else, or just let my eyes go out of focus and not look at anything until i am just about to slam into the wall, flipturn and go the other way.

MUSIC SELECTION FOR THE WEEK: Wired All Wrong-Nothing at All. Got this free on iTunes a month or so and it grows on me. Kind of out there.
KISS-I Was Made for Loving You. Always reminds me of "playing" KISS. I was always Paul Stanley or Ace Freely. Me and this kid Kevin Riser used to play boat paddles and rock out to KISS ALIVE II and LOVE GUN when I was 9. My parents actually took me and 4 other 9-14 year olds to a KISS concert at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Some stoner blew dope the whole show and poured a 32 oz beer on my dad, then a 49 year old Pavorotti fan. Classic.

FOOD FOR FUEL-Mornings 1 cliff bar and 2 cups of coffee. During Endurox mixed half strength. Post swim Endurox and whatever else I can get my hands on. Usually a burrito. This may make some mad, but since I am swimming so much I eat and drink whatever I want within reason. I have to be careful though as I could eat a bag of Hot Tamales and forgo dinner. This is counter productive.

this has been a long one.
thanks for your support and continuing to read and dontae.
rocketboy

PS Stealth training begins this week...yes that means more training for other events.

i am a freak

That is an over or understatement, depending on how well you know me, so before you start trying to figure out why I declare my freakiness today I will explain. My heart may possibly be as big as a horse's, and I don't mean from a "he's got a lot of heart," standpoint. I mean physically my heart is either big as a horses or just extremely efficient and strong. For those of you who are not avid endurance athletes, heart rate is a key indicator of your physical fitness and a good way to measure your exertion level. Most athletes have a lower resting heart rate due to an "in shape" heart. Lance Armstrongs resting heartrate is 32. An average resting heart rate is between 60-90. My resting heart rate is 38. Maximum heart rates are approximately 220- your age. Interestingly his maximum is 200+. My max is somewhere around 175. WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?? For reasons I don't know I am able to maintain a relatively large effort while maintaining a low heartrate by comparrison. Today was possibly the most freaked I have been by my heart rate.
This morning, Ed Hardin, a friend of mine, met me at my house so he could come row while I swam. I had 3.5 hours planned, but Shelly and I talked about it Friday and decided if I felt okay I would go 16000m or 4 hours whichever came first. We got to the lake at 5:45 and I was in the water for 6:00. It was still completely dark. Really a strange sensation to say the least. It was good for me though as I will be doing the 32 in the middle of the night so as not to have to swim in the sun. The first 4000 was a little slow as I couldn't see at all. I fell into a rhythm after the 2nd hour and really felt smoother than last week. I never even considered not swimming the full 4 hours and was easily on my 4000 per hour pace. I got some body glide for the neck chaffage this week and the neck felt pretty good too. So on and on I went feeling smooth and relaxed and hitting my pace. I figured my heart rate was staying below 120 and it was not going up. I finished up and stopped the watch. 3:56:14 for 16000 m. Average heart rate holding 1:30 pace, 97. BEHOLD THE FREAK!
On other notes, I have a media day in Mississippi next Thursday. I have a TV and radio interview Thursday morning in Biloxi and then a meeting with a lady who has big contacts to folks on the Coast. I am excited. It could mean a lot to getting the sponsorship going. On that note I had a friend from high schools father email and say he would personally donate $1000. I was blown away. I am the type to give a lot of what I have to others, but am amazed to find not as many big companies are lining up to. Maybe that's why they are big successful companies. I just know that if I am ever a big company and some yahoo emails me and says he is going to swim 32 miles (or run marathons or do pushups) for kids charities, that I will whip out the checkbook...fast.

MUSIC OF THE WEEK: I spent the whole ride to Prairieville today listening to a band called Verbow from Chicago that played the mid-late 90's. Dec 23, 1998, I think, two friends of mine and i were bored and we drove to New Orleans on a whim. We ended up @ Jimmy's and this band was playing. We were the only people in the club. They blew me away. A chick played cello through a Marshall half-stack and nearly peeled the skin off my face. AWESOME! Irony, I listended to 3 songs by them only to have My Poor Brain (no pun intended) by the Foo Fighters stuck in my head for 4 hours. I hadn't listened to that song in a month easy.

FAVORITE WORKOUT: Did this on Thursday and for some reason loved it. I think if i have a favorite interval distance, it is 400's. Just long enough to be long and short enough so I don't lose count.

1. 800 (every 4th 50 back or breast)
400 pull
200 kick choice

2. 4 x 400 @ 6:10 breath every 3
4 x 50 @ :45 pick up heart rate
1 min rest
3 x 400 @ 6:00 breath every 3
3 x 50 @ :40 fast
1 min rest
2 x 400 @ 5:50 breath every 3
2 x 50 @ :40 fast
1 min rest
1 x 400 @ 5:45
1 x 50--try to go :35 or :36

3. 100 easy

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: After finishing swimming for four hours I am staggering up the dock as blood begins to return to my extremities, my friend Ed who just rowed for 4 hours says, "Man are my hip flexors sore, that was hard work." I nearly passed out from my eyes rolling so fast. He gets a pass though as he rowed around in the dark and in circles for 4 hours.

rocketboy

why do it?

what motivates you?
what defines who you are and what you stand for?
what do you want to be when you grow up?
who do you want to be everyday?
if someone were to describe you to someone else who never met you, what would they say?
you mean you aren't getting paid for this?
is your heart in it?
are you for real?
can you make it?
are you really going to swim 32 miles?
why would you do that?

I don't have the answers to most of these questions. I ask them to myself everyday. They are hard questions and some have no logical answers. Last night I sat there fumbling for words when my father-in-law asked me one of the above questions. He didn't know it, but in essesnce he was asking me all of them. I tried to explain about everything, sponsors, the coast, proposals, swim a thons, but the words sounded foolish, as if the notion and idea that I could raise a lot of money for kids fitness was a joke. I shut up and let the conversation move on. In the end the idea made no sense to him. I would go swim 12 miles and swim everyday to prepare to swim 32 for nothing? It is funny how people react to the idea of this swim. They seem to be all in, all out, or simply it doesn't register. I am not a mountain climber. I do not have the "I swam it because it was there" mentality. I choose my challenge. This is not a race against others. It is a race against and for myself. We all have the moments in our lives where something has to give. We have to do "something". Many of us never seize what may be the one chance to do that "something". In a nutshell, that is what I am doing. In my past I have made and broken promises to myslef and to others. I have talked a big game. This time I am backing it up. How much of what we say on a daily basis can we deliver on? Many who know me have heard me talk of many things that I would like to do, restaurant ideas, quitting everything to start a new career, coaching, directing races, ironman, whatever. I truly beleive I will do many of these items but sometimes I put too much on my plate and some say you can't do everything. I may not do everything, but I will try to do as much as I can.
I will be 100% up front and honest with you. This swim is about kids, it is about the coast, it is about the unattainable, it is about swimming and it is about the biggest physical and mental challenge I have ever taken on. It is also about who I am and what I stand for. I have no horror stories. I have a great life. I am truly blessed. I am not super human or better than other people. In the end, I am just a guy who said,"I bet I could swim the length of the Mississippi Coast to raise money for the people there." How many times in life have you said you would do something and not followed through. Once, twice a thousand times?

I may not raise $1,000,000.00, but I can assure you all of one thing.

I will see it through to the end, until the 32nd mile, and at least one kid will live a healthy life because of it.
I guess that is two things.
I thank you all for your continued support.

rocketboy

PS and I may raise $2,000,000.00

stoked

12000 m (8miles)
2:51:37 (1:25 pace per 100)

I am stoked to say the least. I swam at a friend Darryl's ski lake today. It is cool because it is 400m one way so it is easy to break it up. The time went by pretty quickly, more so than if in a pool. Had two great support guys, Jody and Ty who rowed in circles for almost 3 hours. I also used watered down Endurox, essentially Accelerade for my nutrition. It seemed to work okay. It is hard to tell as when you swim for 3hrs your shoulders are going to hurt, whether that means your nutrition is working or not, I am unsure. I am most happy about this swim from a heart rate standpoint. Because of the wetsuit i am able to stretch it out and get a lot of distance out of each stroke. This also keeps the heart rate low and makes it easier overall. One negative was how much I had to sight. My neck will be sore tomorrow and i was actually finding it hard to lift my head all the time to make sure I was swimmming straight. I will say this, my speed per 800 picked up when i wasn't swimming all over the place so watching where you are going has its perks. I also feel like I wore a sandpaper necktie for a day or so as even though the DeSoto wetsuit I have has a low neckline and is extremely comfortable, anytime you turn your head to the side 3,000 times in a row you are going to get some chaffage. No worries.

We have some big days coming up from a sponsorship aspect this week. The contact at United States Masters Swimming is going to try and get the Masters Board of Directors on board for our swim and may possibly get it sanctioned. This is parramount to getting teams on board. In addition, I have a preliminary commitment from a guy at Accelerade/Endurox to help in a sponsorship realm. Another call to Times is coming in this week as we will know something one way or another from Nike. Finally, I sent in a sponsorship form to CLIFF bar.

Our website is up but not completely filled with content. It looks great, but know we will have information up this week. There will be a payment gateway for donations, picture, and information on the swim. We will also have t-shirts etc. available. Here is the address: www.rocketkidzfoundation.com.

MUSIC FOR THE WEEK: one of my employees gave me a gift certificate to iTunes and I ended up getting two classics.

U2: Under a Blood Red Sky: I could close my eyes and be transported back to the coast in 1986 driving around town listening to this tape over and over. U2 is the band that got me into music. It was like nothing else I had ever heard. It moved you emotionally. It made you want to be a rock star.

Journey: Greatest Hits: Who doesn't smile when you hear the beginning of "Anyway You Wannt It?". Classic cheese....velveeta style.

2. Book of the week: The Starbucks Experience: % principles for Turning Ordinary to Extraordinary

3. Quote of the week: Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing. 
William Feather

Have a good week.
rocketboy