Ocean City Swim Results

Kevin_in_MD

The results from yesterday's Ocean City, MD swim are here.
https://www.lin-mark.com/raceresults.aspx?guid=6d611be1-fd5a-48c0-9728-d93684fa5505

Heard that the conditions were rough yesterday though not as cold as last year.

Apparently about half of the support kayakers capsized at the start and more capsized during the swim, some multiple times.

According to one of the swimmers, a head current picked up a little over halfway through the swim.

Franco

This is a challenging swim that I would recommend to others. I am surprised that only 25 people signed up for 9 miler. There aren't that many opportunities in the area for swims of this distance particularly in the rougher water. Although swim was a little slower than last year I didn't find conditions tougher other than entering and exiting. We definitely swam into a head current in second half.

I had a tough experience after the swim when my swim bag with all of my stuff including car keys, wallet, phone etc. was nowhere to be found. Kudos to the organizers for making the best of a bad situation. They bought me a wardrobe, fed me, put me up for the night and eventually my bag was located in Baltimore Sunday morning. Special thanks to my wife who drove three hours with my spare keys and then picked up my bag in Baltimore.

All is well that ends well.

jroyer

I would like to second Franco's recommendation. The water was great and the swim was a ton of fun. This was my first time doing a distance like this in semi-rough ocean conditions and I learned quite a bit (most notably: have backup feeds in case your kayak gets flipped entering the ocean and a couple feeds get lost. Have a plan in case your kayaker starts getting sea-sick).
Finishing at the heart of the OC boardwalk a nice bonus. Mint chocolate chip shakes from Dumser's make for really great recovery drinks. Looking forward to returning next year.

Franco - I'm so glad to hear you finally got your bag back.

sjwhitemd

I am very impressed with those who did the 9 miles. Wondered about the current, the organizers kept remarking on how beneficial the current direction would be. I did the 3 and couldn't figure out why I was going so slow. My Garmin Fenix2 said I did 3.8 and some of my track shows me going backwards(?). Definitely would have helped me to have some additional sighting buoys. I plan on doing the 9 next year but didn't think I had it in me after Key West a month earlier. Pretty happy that I handled my first semi-rough ocean swim even at 3 miles, don't know how it compares to a channel crossing that many of you do but I remain in awe, and hope to someday reach that level. Ocean City presented itself very well!

Corey

I want to thank each and everyone of you that participated this year. I was pleased to see many people return for the second year. Especially Franco with his bag situation and understanding....a total gentleman in all ways! I learned many things last year and more again this year and sure I will learn each year too. The entire team we have was great and a special thanks to the Coast Guard, OCBP and onsite RN for their support too.

Corey

@Kevin_in_MD It was challenging conditions for the kayakers and also the swimmers.

Swimspire

I participated in the 1-mile swim at the Ocean Games this year, and was very impressed with the professionalism and enthusiasm of the event organizers. Safety was a top priority and despite the rough ocean conditions, all of the swims ran very smoothly and on time.

If you'd like to get a visual sense of how the day went, I also did a write-up and posted a photo gallery, which you can find here! http://www.swimspire.com/2nd-annual-swim-ocean-city-rough-conditions-warm-hearts