Late last month, TWIM Coach Tammy Koppelberger and her die-hard husband and fellow TWIMmer, Jason Koppelberger, traveled south to partake in the 27th running of the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim.
Their mission? To brave the shark-infested waters off San Francisco… er …. wait …. no … they tell me sharks have never been a problem. Okay, they braved 58-62 degree water and a 1.5 mile crossing from Alcatraz to Aquatic Park. How’s that?!
The Koppelbergers, along with friends Doug and Jerry Brooks, jumped from the ferries shortly after 9 a.m. and successfully traversed the infamous crossing with 593 other finishers on July 27th.
That may sound like a lot of swimmers until you read there were over a thousand participants entered…SHARKS, I knew it!
So, how did our dynamic duo do, you ask? They excelled, of course!!
Tammy smashed her competition by finishing first in her age group with a time of 29 minutes 55 seconds, roughly six minutes faster than the second place winner!
Appropriately enough, they awarded her with a bottle of “Bloody Red”. Congratulations, Coach!!!
Jason had a fantastic swim as well finishing with a time of 37 minutes 55 seconds. Asked about the race, he explained “it was actually easier than Swim Defiance a week earlier!”
The tides were not nearly as bad as Defiance and, as Tammy put it, the “weather and sea state in the Alcatraz Swim were marvelous with flocks of pelicans flying overhead as you swam.”
While Tammy and Jason both competed in this race last year, the Coast Guard had deemed the tides too unsafe to make the crossing and had folks swim along the shore. This year was the first time our duo actually got to swim from the Rock.
All in all, fun times and success were had by all in the City by the Bay!
