Alcatraz . . .

About six months ago Mike Crowley my fellow minister at Davis Park talked me into swiming across San Francisco Bay with him. Neither of us had ever swam open water before, and I was in ridiculously bad shape physically. The swim starts with a six block walk to a ferry that takes you out to the island. At the island your feet never touch dry land, you exit the door of the ferry straight into the water.

The moment of truth is the time when its your turn to jump. The water is 57 degrees and everyone before you has screamed as they enter the water. At the start line are 700 other people with black suits and yellow caps. All of which are being wound up by a guy with a bull horn and ever decreasing body temperature.

Finally the boats horn blasts and its time to sink or swim. The obstacles are many, feet, elbows, waves, fog(couldn't see the GG bridge). From the water the shorline looked miles away, although it was only 1.5 miles. So, thats what you do, you swim, you drink salt water involuntarily and occasionally you tread water to see if you are any closer to the shore line. Eventually you close in on the opening of the aquatic park, you dream of the nice calm water of the park and how close that is to the finish line. Then your in the park and you have about 25 percent of the race to finish.

At the finish line you come out of the turbulent water to find solid ground that is not mimicing the undulations of the water. Your first steps are awkard and the triage person asks you if your OK. Rule 1 is to lie to this person or she puts you into the care of a teenage emt, who is all about pestering you until you tell him to bug off. It was great to see friends and family at the finish line and it was great to be at the finish line before Mike. The good news is that we both survived the race without any major damgage to our bodies.

Thanks for all your prayers in this quest.

Buddy