by Dan Underbrink – with comments from all of the swimmers and kayakers
Saturday, September 7 featured this year’s edition of the SAMI, the Swim Around Mercer Island! The swim is about 13.5 miles. 2024 marks my fifteenth attempt at this swim, and I was joined this year by a good-sized group of my TWIM teammates. I would attempt to swim around the whole island, with new TWIM member, Mary Underbrink, as my safety Kayaker.
A TWIM group of five: Kelly Vikstrom, Carl Haynie, Emily Castillo, Atsuko Takahashi, and Kathy Pelham, planned to swim the SAMI as a relay; switching off between swimming, kayaking, and their land-based vehicle, delivering the next swimmer to their relay exchange point.
Toward the end of my swim (about 2 miles to go) I was joined by TWIM teammate, Maoz Alsberg, who swam with me to the finish.
Planning for a 6:00 am swim start, we didn’t do too bad, pushing off from the Mercer Island Boat Launch (below the East Channel Bridge) at around 6:10. Dan and Mary started their long journey, while Kelly Vikstrom led off the swim for the relay squad, with Emily and Atsuko kayaking.
Here is what Kelly had to say about her swim:
I was lucky to have the first leg of the swim – which was calm, and smooth, with sunrise views the entire time. Having Emily and Atsuko accompany me in the kayak was such a luxury as I trusted them to guide me, and I didn’t need to worry about sighting beyond just spotting the boat. I am not a fan of wetsuits, so I was excited that we had those hot days, and the water was still warm enough to swim “skin”.
I’m guessing the water was in the low-mid 70s. Because the lake was so quiet and calm, we stayed pretty far out from land and were able to do a mostly straight shot down the “east coast” of the island. My Garmin reported that I swam 5569 yards – which is almost exactly 5k! My pace per 100 averaged 1:43 and my total time was 1:35:51.
I was surprised that the hardest part of the day – and the part that made me the most sore – was when I paddled leg 3 while Emily and Atsuko swam. We started from Groveland with the wind right in our face and choppy water. It was a relief to all of us when we got inside the “dip” on the west side of the island, enough to get out of the wind. But the first 30 minutes or so were really challenging. After that it smoothed out wind-wise while the boat traffic ramped up a bit and caused a different kind of wave.
The relay squad’s first exchange was at Clarke Beach, where Carl Haynie took over the swim, while Kathy Pelham assumed the paddling duties. Here are Carl’s comments about his leg of the SAMI relay:
Great job! All indications are that we had a blast doing the relay! Thank you for meticulously mapping out the route and stops for us.
I swam leg #2 after Kelly, and it was smooth sailing for me (with Kathy in the kayak) until we headed North into a North-wind-induced chop. I wore and started my Garmin watch at the start of my swim, but the distance and GPS track stats did not get started until after I was on the south side of the island (though total time swimming was accurately recorded). Maybe GPS didn’t get sync’d correctly at the start?
Fortunately, I started my Strava app in the kayak also. It recorded the distance and GPS track correctly, but some pace info got messed up somehow…
Putting it altogether from both recordings: Leg #2; Duration: 1 hour, 41 minutes; Distance: 5917 yards (3.36 miles); Pace: 1 minute, 42 seconds per 100 yards.
I believe Kathy had the longest swim of the 5 of us!
Kudos to Kathy who kayaked beside me the whole way, especially on that somewhat windy and turbulent northward track!
A note about why one of our pictures shows a camel riding on the bow. When several of us rented a house for Nationals in Mesa, AZ, five or six years ago, we discovered a toy camel in a random place in the house. From that point forward, the camel magically appeared in weird places for us, most recently in Chelan when some of us visited Coach Brian at his house last week. I was very surprised and charmed to see the camel again on the bow of Emily’s kayak Saturday morning. Must have hitched a ride in Kathy’s trunk without her knowing it.
(Note from Dan: Strangely enough, this is not the first camel I’ve encountered during a sports event. I came across this fine specimen, while running a half-marathon near Port Orchard!)
Bravo to Emily for not only driving us to the event but providing the kayak to boot. I agree with Kelly that kayaking was a big part of the workout. I paddled for Kathy on her leg, the last leg of our epic relay.
The second relay exchange took place at Groveland Beach Park, on the West side of the island, just across from Seward Park. Emily Castillo and Atsuko Takahashi were swimming the third leg of the relay, while Kelly took over the kayaking. Here are Emily’s comments:
I was lucky to have Atsuko, my good friend and pool lane mate, as a partner for the SAMI. We started out the day on the kayak while Kelly swam the first leg. This might have been my favorite part of the day. It was so peaceful to watch the sun rise out on the lake. We traded the kayak for the car at Clarke Beach and took some time to refuel with coffee and snacks. The car smelled strongly of bananas, so we took inventory of our snacks and realized that everyone brought bananas. We had about a dozen in the car!
Atsuko and I started our swim at Groveland Beach. The first part of our swim was choppy, and I took a few waves to the face. Eventually the water calmed, and I could relax and enjoy the view of Seward Park across the lake. It felt great to spot Kathy and Carl waiting for us at Calkins Landing. Back on land, we made our way to the Mercer Island Boat Launch to watch Kathy finish her swim. It was really fun to do the SAMI as a team!
And here are Atsuko’s reflections on the day:
First of all, thank you to Dan who organized SAMI; it made us feel easy that day. Also, thank you to Emily who drove her car and brought the kayak. Without it, we might not have been able to do the relay as a team.
This year is my debut for swimming at lakes.
I bought a brand new wet suit and buoy that made me so excited. However, I was not sure if I liked lake swimming or not; even though I swam at a few lakes a couple of times. (Anyway, it was so fun, now I like it!)
The last thing we did was take the hot bath at the Columbia gym to ease our tired bodies. That was a good wrap up for our SAMI as a group and I hope to be swimming again next year.
The fourth and final leg of the SAMI relay featured Kathy Pelham swimming, and Carl paddling. Here are Kathy’s remarks on the swim:
I started the 4th leg of our journey at 11:42am from the very calm Calkin’s Landing – I was certain it was the calm before the storm. Having seen and paddled through the north winds on the south end of the island, I was sure I’d get pounded as I swam under I-90 and around the top of the island. It wasn’t nearly as wavy as I anticipated. I got to Luther Burbank Park unscathed by waves but found an abundant jungle of tall underwater plants and resorted to practicing excessively high elbow catch so I didn’t get tangled up in the aquatic version of Little Shop of Horrors!
At that point we headed southeast, and I figured there’d be a bit of a tail wind and maybe so, but the wakes of every boat on earth descended upon the area and reduced any advantage the wind would have given me. It was a little like being in a washing machine at times. The shoreline around the north part of the island has many little bays and Carl and I decided to live life on the edge and cut from point to point to reduce the distance, regardless of the fact that we might have put ourselves in danger of being fun targets for the yahoo boaters.
By this point, the I-90 bridge was visible on the east side of the island and became like the tall building in Fat Salmon… the object you’re aiming for that never gets any closer. Going under the bridge, there seemed to be lots of rogue waves determined to smash me into the bridge infrastructure, but I made it over to the dock to find everyone waiting for me.
It was 1:24pm, I’d completed 3.57 miles, and our trip around the island was complete!
Many thanks to Dan for his directions and inspiration! Despite my mildly sarcastic rendering, it was a fun swim and an enjoyable day hanging out with Dan, Mary, Carl, Kelly, Emily, Atsuko, and…the Camel. Great swimming, everyone!
Meanwhile, while all of that relay fun was going on, I was working my way around the island, stopping at the same places where the relay exchanges occurred for in-the-water nutrition and hydration breaks. The three breaks totaled about 50 minutes.
Trailing the relay team (they are all faster than me!) I did not encounter the chop reported by Carl and Emily. The lake was very calm for me almost the whole day.
At about mile eight I encountered a flotilla of Canada Geese, 16 or 17 of them floating in sort of a circle. As I swam close, they broke out of that formation and followed me in a long line. It was surreal.
Somewhere between mile eleven and twelve, I was joined by TWIM teammate, Maoz Alsberg, who swam with me to the finish. Here is what Maoz had to say about the swim:
I had the absolute privilege of tagging along with Dan on the last 3.2 kilometers of his epic 20K swim—because who doesn’t love a good metric challenge? It was an experience like no other!
I was lucky enough to spot Dan and Mary at the infamous North Sand Beach in Burbank Park. I noticed some onlookers giving me the side-eye as I dramatically dropped my clothes to join a swimmer and a kayaker. I mean, who doesn’t love a spontaneous beach fashion show?
We used the I-90 bridge as our guiding lighthouse, though let’s be honest, we mostly relied on Mary. She navigated us to shore like a GPS on caffeine—thank goodness for that!
I’m seriously considering joining Dan and Mary for perhaps an even longer leg next time. Maybe I’ll just bring a flotation device and some snacks. We’ll see… or should I say, we’ll float!
The whole swim took 10 hours and 50 minutes this year. Here is what Mary, my kayaker had to say about the experience:
Kayaking around the island as a safety boater was easy, compared to my husband, Dan, swimming it. I sat in the calm waters and the fresh air, watching the birds and enjoying the scenery, and feeling quite peaceful. The weather was perfect. Over the many years I have kayaked for Dan, this was the most pleasant. I could see that Dan gained strength and encouragement the last few miles of the swim, when Maoz joined him!
A huge thanks to Mary and Maoz and the SAMI relay squad of Atsuko, Carl, Emily, Kathy, and Kelly, for supporting me in this, my fifteenth time swimming around the island! TWIM really showed the Blue and White on Saturday! Nice job, team!
