Ah, the Santa Cruz Roughwater - a classic here for over 20 years. I've been training well and was ready to make a try for a personal best on this, the most dependably unchanging of all race courses - a one mile swim from one side of the Santa Cruz Wharf to the other. There were about 260 entrants in this year's race. Among other friends, Liz Devit, Marta, and Bruckner were all competing. I took up my position on the left side of the starting line, intending to swim out wide and avoid the traffic jam of the first half of the race. I took a good line, I swam hard all the way, and focused on good technique the whole way. Now, my PR was 23:57 set back in '96; my Ironman year when I was arguably in the best overall shape of my career. So now, 10 years older and with only maybe 1 1/3 good legs instead of the two I had back then... it was asking a lot to PR. But I came pretty close! 24:14 was my time; good enough for 111th place out of the 260, and 11th in my age group of 24. It was a tough age group (50-54); all three medalists came in under 20 minutes. The overall winner in fact was a 40-something woman, in about 17:20.

I tried getting more pictures, but the Dimage 5 reverted to its habit of eating batteries. Got just this one group shot. From right; me, Bruckner, and Liz.

A good race, and good to see I haven't lost anything in the last 10 years in the water.