Penny Palfrey:  one of the main organizers of the Taupo swim.  Swims include: 2 x English Channel, Cook Strait, Gibralter Strait, 2 x Manhattan Island Marathon swim, San Miguel to Mainland – Santa Barbara Channel, Tampa Bay Marathon, 8 x Rottnest Channel, Pan Pacific Italy.  Motto: Swim, Swim, Swim, Love it, Live it, be safe, have fun and kick ass!  Penny has a passion for swimming and she is a supporter of all swimmers and helping them achieve their goals.  That and she is an amazing chaser.  I think given the chance she could chase down Michael Phelps.  For more information visit http://www.penny-chris-marathonswims.blogspot.com/ 

Chris Palfrey: one of the main organizers of the Taupo swim.  Swims include: 2 x Manhattan Island Marathon swim, Tampa Bay, 8 x Rottnest Channel, Santa Barbara Channel, Gibralter Strait.  Motto:  No I’m not swimming backstroke   I can’t wait to see what Chris accomplishes when he semi-retires.  I thought I had a list of swims to do.  I think Chris’s list is 10x as long as mine.  But he has some amazing determination, so I know that given the time those swims on his list will be ticked off one by one.

Julie Bradshaw: one of the main organizers of the Taupo swim. Started marathon swimming career at the eary age of 14.  She has followed her passion around the world and participated in many world first marathon relay swims.  In addition, she is hte current world record holder for swimming the English Channel butterfly.  For more information visit http://www.getset4success.co.uk/index.php

Steve Junk:  Swims: Rottnest Channel too many times to count including a double, Gibralter Strait, Sydney Harbor to Manly, 2 x Manhattan Island Marathon swim, Ederle Swim, Torquay Bay swim in England, English Channel Relay, Swimming between the Cinque Terre villages in Italy.  Apart for traveling the world for swims and work, Steve is a connoissuer of wine which he is taking to the next level by purchasing a winery.

Stephen Spence: Swims: Magnetic Island swim Queensland (Dude this was done in a shark cage…scary man)., too many 2k – 8k swims to list.  Stephen has an unusual story as just last year he was diagnosed with leukemia.  The strength that he has to overcome leukemia and then say “Yes” to the very persuasive Chris Palfrey.  I don’t know if you remember but 2 swimmers unfortunately had to drop out at the last minute.  Chris was in email conversation with Stephen and proposed he join us for the Lake Taupo Relay swim.  I don’t think anyone can turn down Chris (see my hiking account earlier).  Stephen did an amazing job and I would have never known about his previous battle.  He is a true inspiration.  Here is a great story in his own words – pages 6-8 swimmers_news_-_december_081

Mark Cockroft: Now this guy is completely crazy.  He with Steve Junk for the English Channel relay.  Plus his list of triathlons, marathons, marathon swims, etc.  Way too long to list here.  I mean he was so crazy that he after this swim he competed in an ironman just a mere 2 weeks after this swim.  I don’t have his results from this event…sorry.

Dougal Hunt: A relative newcomer to swimming and he jumped in big with marathon swimming.  In the past 2 years since starting swimming he has accomplished the English Channel and the Gibralter Straits.  In addition, he has raised $64,000 for cancer research.  In addition to swimming, Dougal has a passion for traveling.  As we speak he is trekking around South America for 6 months.  I can only imagine the adventures and probably swims that he will do.

Barbara Pellick: Barbara like everyone has a long list of swims on her resume including; 22 x Rottnest Channel including the first double.  This makes her the queen of the Rottnest Channel a title that she humbly accepts.  English Channel – Solo and Relay, Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, inaugural winner of the 10k Lake Argyle swim, etc. etc. etc.  Barbara is also just a strong supporter of the team.  On the boat it was Barb who helped me after my last leg and helped me put everything in perspective.  I am eternally grateful for that support.

Heather Osbourne:  I don’t think that there is a swim in New Zealand that she hasn’t completed or attempted.  As I’ve said she immediately gained my admiration by choosing to swim behind the boat.  I don’t have the same mental fortitude to always feel like I was chasing after the boat.  I think that Heather’s swim resume will soon include a solo crossing of Lake Taupo.  In addition to swimming, Heather has a knack for having anything and everything that anyone would need in her car.  Need something for a quick lunch, she has chips and dips in the car.  Need a scissors…it’s in the car.  How about some olive oil?  Yep its in there.  I would have loved to see her on that TV show where to get on the panel you had to provide the host with whatever he asked for.  The name of the show escapes me right now. 

Lucy Roeper:  Now trying to get Lucy to tell me about her swim and other history was like pulling teeth.  In fact, I’ve got nothing on her.  I do know that she has participated in another world first relay swim besides this one.  She is one of the best hikers I have ever seen in my life.  If we do another hike, I’m totally hitching a ride on her back.  I’m sure she would still motor through.  She has competed in marathons, triathlons and many other adventures.  She is also an amatuer boxer and has one all of her matches under the fighting name of Razer Roeper.  She says there are YouTube videos, but I couldn’t find them.  I think this is more my search skills rather than them not being there.  She has a wit that sneaks up on me and has me laughing for days afterwards. 

That’s the swimmers and then we had the shore crew of Peter and Michael.  When we would get in the water for our morning swim, this father and son duo would head out for a quick run.  Now we were only ever in the water for 40 minutes tops.  Peter and Michael would already be back from their run.  I of course assumed they had maybe run 3 miles.  I asked once and they looked at me and mentioned that they had run probably 6 miles.  WHAT?  6 miles in 40 minutes.  That and they nonchalantly state that it was an easy run.  You have got to be kidding me.  Geepers I can’t run 2 blocks let alone at least 6 miles in 40 minutes. 

Besides the running, Peter and Michael were there all the time for the swimmers.  They let us talk and talk and talk about all the different swims around the world and they geniunely seemed interested.  I partially think that Michael thought we were all nuts.    And I guess in our own ways we all are Peter and Michael included

I didn’t know what to expect as I climbed on the plane to head down to New Zealand for the Triple Lake swim.   However, like I said before, you don’t turn down an opportunity to meet some of the big names in marathon swimming when they have asked you to participate in a relay.  Plus this was another great excuse for me to get back to New Zealand.

I climbed on the plane ready for a great adventure and an opportunity to get to know more swimmers.  The plane was half empty which means that I had 3 seats to myself which is great on a long flight.  I managed to work my way through one book, 3 movies and a few hours of sleep.  As we hit midnight on New Year’s eve the flight attendants quietly walked through the cabin and whisper blew some horns and quietly whispered “Happy New Year”.  I thought it was pretty amusing.  Plus they had taken the time to decorate the plane with streamers and balloons.  There was some pretty bad turbulance where even I was white knuckling it for an hour or so.  There was one point where there was such a large drop that I think the whole plane was jarred awake and there was some screaming.  The pilot only came on the PA and asked the flight attendants to take their seats.  It wasn’t until we landed that he explained that the plane and their skills were fully equipted to handle that type of turbulance.  I was thinking that announcement could have come 10 hours earlier.

Ok so I landed in Auckland and then it was one last flight before I met the Palfreys in Taupo.  Luckily my 2 bags were 49.7 and 49 pounds respectively so they squeeked under the baggage charge, with the exception of the little puddle jumper to Taupo.  After I saw the plane I was wondering if they would even take my bags.  They did…thankfully as I had the t-shirts for the team.

I landed in Taupo and Chris and Penny arrived shortly afterwards to pick me up.  Chris and Penny are from Townsville Australia Queensland.  Now I had only met Chris and Penny for about 30 seconds before we jumped into the Hudson River for the Manhattan swim.  I wasn’t sure what I was in for and I bet they felt the same way.  I didn’t need to worry.  We got on like gang busters.  Chris and Penny took me back to our little cabin.  It was a small but very cozy place and it had a great view.  We sat down for a great breakfast and time to relax.  After breakfast, we headed out to Huka Falls. 

That afternoon we went for a nice stretch out swim.  Lake Taupo was a beautiful temperature.  My guess was that it was around 66 degrees.  It was nice to be back out in some open water, as I was getting very tired of training in a pool. 

Chris, Penny and I enjoyed a great dinner and realized as we were getting ready for bed that it seemed like we had been on vacation for weeks and that it didn’t seem like we had just really met about 7 hours earlier.  I knew this trip was off to a great start.  

Friday January 2nd

We started getting into the normal routine of a morning swim and breakfast.  And honestly, I can’t remember what we did this day.  Oh I think we spent some time in town as I didn’t bring the right international adapter, so we were looking for this.  And then we also did some shopping for folks back home. 

Then in the afternoon it was time for a nap, which was also part of the normal routine…I could really get used to this pattern.  Philip Rush, event and boat organizer, came over for a little chat about the swim.  Man did he have some great stories.   

For the afternoon swim, we met up with Barbara, Peter, Michael and Steve Junk.  This crew came from Perth Australia.  Peter and Michael took some photos of the swimmers and then were off for a run.  And then Barbara, Steve, Chris, Penny and I went out for another short swim.

After the swim, we hit a local pub for some drinks and socializing.  I quickly became the target for many smart comments.  I suppose I was at a disadvantage as being the only American.   But it was very educational for me.  Apparently swimsuits are togs.  Plus it was just another fun evening.  This was turning out to be a great adventure. 

January 3rd

We began our normal routine by heading down to the Lake for a morning swim.  The water was a little chopper today as there was a wind and it was kind of rainy.  We swam out to the floating golf green.  Apparently it is a challenge where people can tee off from the shore into different golf holes and if they get it inot certain holes they win money.  Chris and Penny figured that we could work out some sort of trick by putting a golf ball in the hole while swimming and then go to tee off.  We never did try it.  Our goal was to not get beaned in the head as we circled the floating golf green.

After swimming we always headed back to the cabin for breakfast.  Then it was off to our next adventure of Orakei Korako, a geyserland and cave wonderland.  It was beautiful if only a little smelly. At Orakei Korako there is a cave pool where if you put in your left hand and make a secret wish, it is guaranteed to come true.  Needless to say, we all made our wishes.

For dinner, we ate in and invited Stephen Spence who had just arrived into town.  This evening we also had Heather Osborne, Julie Bradshaw and Lucy Roeper stop by.  This was going to be so much fun.  I had to continually pinch myself to believe that this was all real.

January 4th

It is the day before the swim and of course we go for our morning swim and breakfast.  Then the team is going to arrive at the cabin for the safety meeting.  Over the past few days, the team have been rolling into town and now we were all here. 

At 12, we all met for the meeting and to go over the rules.  We were swimming in FINA approved suits, maintaining same rotation throughout the swim and if a swimmer was injured or couldn’t continue the team would continue with one less swimmer.  It would end up being about 120k swim (~63 miles).  Rotation would happen after an hour of swimming.  Unlike running relays, open water swimming relays go by time not by distance, so each swimmer swims for an hour and then another swimmer gets in to take over after an hour.  We took some team photos and set the order of the swimmers.

After the team meeting it was over to the Pack N Save to do a group shop to get all the food for the boat.  It was an interesting shop as the men’s team was together and the women’s team was together, but we kept looking at each others carts and there was some borrowing of goods.  The men had made it to the bakery first and cleared out all the scones.  The women weren’t exactly pleased so we borrowed some of the scones.  Once the shopping was done it was back to the cabin to rest and get ready for the GREAT adventure.

Early to bed as we had to have the boats loaded and ready to go by 2:30am.  Ugh. that is early.

Pre-swim photos.  I did put comments to help explain.  Hopefully they come across.

So I signed up for some critical tests to get a baseline of where I was.  I did a VO2Max test to determine how in shape I really was and how effective I was at using oxygen. (Note: this is the number that they always give out for the cyclists of the Tour de France to tell who is expending the most energy.  And yes I realize that I may be the only one that watches the Tour de France every day.)  I also did a Hydrostatic weighing and Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) test.  Hydrostatic weighing is where you get into a tub of water, drown yourself and then see how much you float.  Yes you practically drown yourself as you have to release all your air and then submerge underwater for a few seconds.  The REE is how many calories your body burns at rest in a state of wakefulness (to be precise).

The first baseline tests were conducted in October and drumroll please….here are the results:

REE – 2077 calories

VO2Max/Fitness test:

• Resting Heartrate = Excellent
• Direct VO2/Gas Exchange = Above Average (Amazing since the test makes you run on a treadmill with this space age contraption strapped onto your head to measure the results.  Think mouth guard with hoses attached and a nose plug)
• Sit-ups = Excellent (I crushed this test!)
• Push-ups = Excellent
• Flexibility = Average (Can’t believe I hit average with this as I’m very unflexible)

Hydrostatic Weighing – 27.6% bodyfat

Every 3 months we do a reassessment of the REE and Hydrostatic Weighing, so here are the results for January.

REE – 1971 calories

Hydrostatic Weighing – 26.7%  Which means that I’m winning the battle against the fat.  Overall my weight remained the same so I put on more muscle while losing fat weight within the 3 months. 

FYI – for a woman my age (sometimes I really hate that phrase) the typical bodyfat is between 18-23%.  Lynn Cox the famous fabulous fantastic cold water swimmer had a bodyfat composition of 35%.  (Charlie – Quite right I used the wrong word to describe the wonderful Lynne Cox.  My sincerest apologies.)

So overall a very good result.  I’m not adding to much muscle bulk, as that would put too much strain on my shoulders over long distances and I’m slowly saying good-bye to the fat weight.  Next results are scheduled for March.

Full Torture team roster:

• Cathy – my athletic trainer who has now added her own new forms of exercise torture.  I now have stregthening work on top of the physical therapy.
• Dr. Greenleaf – orthopedic surgeon.  Hopefully I don’t have to see him again for shots or x-rays.
• Dr Kort – chiropractor.  He keeps everything in alignment and feeling like my joints have just been greased.
• Dr. MacNeal – primary care physician.  Surprisingly she keeps signing and approving all my medical forms for my swims even if she thinks I’m completely nuts.  Gotta love her! 
• Michelle – massage therapist.  This tiny woman can inflict some serious pain.  I believe that my muscles now have a permanent memory of her thumb.  I bet I even have a thumbprint or two permanently etched in those shoulder muscles.  She better keep that in mind.
• Tiffany – acupuncturist.  I get to spend time every two weeks looking like a human pin cushion.  Very happy with the newest addition.  She did mention that about the only thing I’m missing is a naturopath.  Hmmm….

This last week I received my official acceptance email from the Manhattan Island Foundation.  Jane Barry has signed on to be head crew again.  She must be a glutton for punishment as well.  I’ve also convinced Cathy McElevey, my athletic trainer,  to sign on as well.  She has been immensely helpful in strengthening my shoulders.

Now I have a new goal and I hope that I can do well on the swim, but the field of swimmers is immensely talented. 

I made good on the promise to my friends. I ran a race. I decided to start the New Year off right by running the First Run in Portland Oregon. The race starts at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Yep, midnight on New Year’s Eve. This would probably be the first time in 5 years that I actually saw midnight on New Year’s Eve. And I decided that I would be running at this time, I must be crazy. Actually I think crazy amounted to agreeing to this in the first place.

The evening started with a dinner at Randy’s place and plenty of time for me to think about backing out. However, my sister was in town and I had roped her into this run as well so it didn’t seem like I had a choice. The clock continued to tick closer to 10:30pm which was when we were planning to head downtown. We arrived on time…dang it and we got into our gear. Did I mention that we were running it in costume. Oh yes, my friends managed to get us all dresses from a thrift shop in Hawaii. My dress was kimono style down to my ankles with a fun Hawaiian print.

The run went off without a hitch. I made it through, but I didn’t feel very good. I had some stitch in my side, so I wanted in the worst way to stop. The race results state that there were 934 finishers and I was 564th. WOOO HOOO. Time = 32.46 which is a 10:33 mile pace. Yep there are a lot of things that I couldn’t outrun, so why even try. Needless to say I did have fun with my friends and I’m still running as it is good cross training for my swim events.

So here are the pictures.