20 Bridges is an iconic swim. A circumnavigation around Manhattan, passing under the it’s 20 bridges and swimming through it’s three important rivers. It’s one of three swims in the triple crown of open water swimming and while it’s the longest at 28.5 miles, it’s also the easiest because of the massive currents that hurl swimmers around the island in blazing times. It’s one of the most popular and swum courses, with swim dating back to the early 1900s and has a reputation for being just a really fun swim.
But I was not excited.
Well, not as excited as I should have been leading up to it. I was still recovering from an impinged shoulder I acquired after another 21 mile swim earlier in the season, my training wasn’t nearly to the volume I would normally want it to be (due to the shoulder injury) and quite honestly, I was suffering from major burnout after a huge spring and summer of training. Mentally I wasn’t there.
But despite a strong desire to just close out this season early, I wasn't giving up on this swim. Just getting in was a process (with tons of swimmers who apply every year, my application was waitlisted the first time), so much preparation had gone into this. Plus swims like these are BIG investments and I’d be out a lot of money. And it’s 20 Bridges – despite feeling burnt out and tired, I had had this swim on my bucket list for years, I couldn’t give upon this opportunity. So despite the advice from a few people that I should just back out this year, I made the (probably stupid) decision to proceed as planned.
Training for this swim with an injury was very different than any other big swim I had done. I dropped my yardage to the bare minimum. Did 6 weeks of physical therapy. And only allowed myself to do one "long swim" of 10,000 yards “long” swim that I ultimately had to cut 2,000 yards short because my shoulder started to flare up mid-swim. I was feeling very unprepared.
Then 2 weeks out, I had one last really good lake swim. It was only 5,000 yards, but I felt really strong, had no shoulder pain and was going sub 1:30/yd pace, which is faster than I’d been in a while. Later that same week I had a really strong 9,000 yard masters practice in the pool, again no shoulder pain. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad?
The sunrise from my last outdoor training swim
A week or so out from the swim, NYOW sent us an itinerary which included an estimated time to each bridge and estimated finish time. They predicted I would finish in 7 hours and 45 minutes, which is really fast. Way faster than I was anticipating. It would be pretty awesome to go sub-8 hours but I mentally prepared myself for an 8-10 hour swim, unsure of how my shoulder would react.
The day-of conditions were less than ideal. Overcast, a chilly 50 degrees and rain all day. The water was 65 degrees so not warm but not super cold either. For me and the other swimmers, it wouldn’t be too bad. Rain is pretty much a no factor when you’re swimming. But it would definitely not be the most fun for the crew and kayakers that had to withstand the cold air and wet conditions. (Huge shout out to dad for crewing this one! It was not an easy one).
The race started at Mill Rock, in the East River and we had about a 30 minute boat ride to get out there from where we boarded the boats on the southern end of Manhattan. By the time we got to the starting point, I was shivering from the wind, cold and rain. And I really did not want to jump into the water. When I get into 65 degree water I’m usually cold to start but warm up pretty quickly and figured if I was starting out this swim already cold, it would be a lot harder to warm myself up. But when I did jump into the water, I was shocked by how warm it felt. The warmest 65 degrees I’ve ever jumped into, could’ve been a hot tub compared to the air temp. I instantly relaxed. I was going to be ok.
Boarding the boat!
The first two hours of the swim were through the Harlem River, which everyone says has the least amount of current and feels the slowest. But honestly, I felt the best in the Harlem (but maybe that’s just because it was the beginning of the swim?). If I’m being honest, I didn’t really feel the current, but my stroke just felt strong. My strategy going into this swim was to really pull back on the effort for the first half to try to prevent any shoulder flare ups and it was kind of hard to go slow. I really just wanted to go full throttle. I was feeling good. And not only physically good, but mentally good too. The Harlem has most of the bridges and so it was easy to feel like I was making progress with each bridge we sailed under.
Bridges in the Harlem
20 Bridges used to be organized as a race. With 20+ swimmers and kayakers racing around the island on a couple chosen days in the summer. In recent years, they changed it over to individual swims, with 1-3 people swimming each day. And today, I had two other people swimming with me. They started one person at 10:45am and then I started with another person at 11am. At around the 1.5 hour mark, I could see the guy that started before me only a couple hundred yards ahead and I passed him at hour 2. Which was kind of a nice moral boost. It made me feel like I was ahead of the predicted schedule.
Swimming past the Columbia C and Yankee Stadium
The Hudson River was next. Again I didn’t feel a current, and it was actually pretty choppy. Overall, this 3 hour stretch was mentally the hardest. There’s only one bridge in the Hudson so it was hard to gauge how much progress I was making and it honestly felt like I was going very slow. This was also where my shoulders started to get a little tired. But they didn’t hurt, just general soreness and I could manage that. Somewhere along the Hudson, Alex the kayaker told me to just keep swimming straight and he would be right back. I had no idea where he went, but he disappeared for about 15 minutes and when he came back it looked like he was paddling with a literal tree branch (water cowboy). It turned out to be just a really thin wooden paddle but in my mind it was just a tree branch, it just fit his character.
Under the George Washington Bridge is a little red lighthouse only visible from the water
When the one world trade center came into view at the end of the Hudson, I felt like we were in the home stretch. Just the East River left and it was supposed to have the strongest current of them all. At hour 5 and as we rounded the end of Manhattan, Alex told me we were ahead of schedule (yay!) but that meant we would get a little push against us (not yay). Not exactly what I wanted to hear but still when we entered the East River I was excited, we were so close!
The East River turned out to be nothing like I expected. The wind picked up at this point and there was a pretty steady surface current and very choppy waves the whole way up. There were many strokes that were abruptly stopped as waves knocked my arms backwards. I felt extremely slow and was worried I was going to lose all the time I had made up for myself earlier in the swim. Around this point, my left shoulder (not the injured shoulder) started to hurt. It wasn’t bad like Tahoe, but I felt it and just hoped it would hold on for the last couple hours.
Right as we turned into the East River a ferry was about to pull out in front of me, but my crew radioed and asked it to wait and it did!
Somewhere along the East River, I saw Alex’s kayak make a sharp 90 degree turn to the left. Confused, I lifted my head up and saw him waving his hands towards the left side of the river, signaling we had to cross to the other side. I wasn’t really sure what was going on but it seemed pretty urgent so I did my very best to sprint as hard as I could across, which at this point in the swim, was very difficult. Once we got to the other side and turned back north, though, I understood the urgency. There was a massive 200 ft boat headed straight down the river and we must have been in it’s way.
The sun started to set and the last bit of the swim was actually a little dark. The city lights started to illuminate in the dusk and it was a nice, different view of New York. I had settled into a little groove and the left shoulder pain had subsided a little when I heard the whistle blow. The swim was over?? I almost didn’t want it to end. My stroke felt good, I was having so much fun watching night come alive, I kinda just wanted to keep swimming. When I crawled back onto the boat my observer told me I finished the swim in 7 hours and 29 minutes and that was the fastest swim he’d ever observed. What an honor. I was so shocked and so happy to sub 8 hours let alone sub 7.5 hours and to also be faster than they predicted!
Finishing the swim
There’s so much I could say about this swim. First, it was really just so. dang. fun. The scenery was engaging. The currents were fast. And I was so at ease with just being in the water and doing what I love most – swimming. Compared to Catalina and the English Channel, which are the other two swims in the triple crown, I was always a little confused as to why Manhattan was the third, it just seemed out of place. But after doing to swim, I fully understand why it’s there. It definitely deserves it’s place.
This swim taught me a lot too. I now know that I can train and compete with an injury. I now have a much better method for planning training without killing my shoulders. And I now have a feeding plan that is quick and gives me all the nutrition I need. And lastly, no matter how burnt out I get from this sport, I won’t ever lose the love I have for simply being in the water.
There are of course so many people to thank for making this swim possible. Thank you to New York Open Water for organizing this crazy event, keeping me safe in the busy NYC waterways and making it all possible, despite the cold and wet conditions. Thank you to all the people who trained with me the last 10 months – all the swims, all the bike rides this past year prepared me for this epic adventure swim. And a huge thank you to my parents, Dad for being on the freezing boat and keeping me well fed and Mom for running around the city to briefly see me swim past her.
