The Santa Barbara Six Mile Report from an Anonymous Participant (7/8/01)

See the news article on this race.

Sunday, July 8 was a great day for the Santa Barbara 6-mile challenge. KTYD was playing its weekly "Breakfast With Bob [Marley]" for that Caribbean flavor to the morning drive. The sky was blue at the finish, grey at the start, and significantly colder at 61 or 62 degrees than the prior week's Semana Festival swims (No Morton Shivering Scale numbers available. Editor's note: complete data collection is a constant statistical challenge.). The reasons why it was a great day for the swim included the helpful, hospitable management of Jane Cairns who not only managed the logistical challenge of a start 6 miles from the finish by sea but about 12 miles by road, and the organizational challenge of finding kayakers or paddlers for almost every swimmer in the race, but also managed to swim the race (Editor's note: Hey, Clay, pay attention here. Hint, hint.). The race had 30 entries and 27 swimmers lined up on the beach for the swim--which is almost double the largest prior field. The swimmers came from as far as San Diego, Santa Cruz, and New York. All contestants complied with the strict race standards outlawing wimpy accessories and carefully set aside their Mr. T starter kits. The finishing buffet was generous with muffins, bagels, Cliff Bars, Coffee, Water, fruit, and Gatorade -- and was supplied by Jane Cairn's parents, who contributed greatly to the success of the event, together with Mike Manley.

Every finisher received a lovely poster print of dolphins dancing in the Sea of Cortes donated by Dave Schrader, a gifted Santa Barbara photographer. The top 5 finishers in each gender received original color or black and white photographs of dolphins in mid-flight -- also from Dave Schrader.

"Results?" you ask. Well the other reason why the swim was a great day was the Force was with the swimmers. The Force was strong and going south along the coast speeding the swimmers to the finish -- together with their own training and effort, of course. Jim McConica, fresh from his 7 records in 6 swims performance at USMS Nationals finished in 1:39, shattering the previous course record. The former record-holder finished second overall, and was the first woman, setting a new woman's record of 1:46.45. Who was it? Jane Cairns, of course, despite a reported average of 4 hours sleep while responding to countless telephone and e-mail inquiries. The third finisher, and second man was Scott Zorny, and the 4th overall, and 3rd man, and first SCAQer was Bart Simmons. He and the fifth overall finisher Scott Reed were also under the old course record. The second woman (and 6th overall) was a Santa Barbara local, Lynn Nesbitt. Anonymous was the fifth man, and seventh overall, in 1:52. Rounding out the overall top ten were Bryan Kerr (8th), Chris Guest (9th) and Dan O'Meara (10th). Alexa Dixon of Santa Barbara was the third woman, and Cindy Hertzer was the fourth woman. The fifth woman overall, Sue Osborne from San Diego deserves special mention not only for her solid 2:05 time, but because she finished, rested very briefly, and then charged back out into the surf to turn the single swim into a round trip. While the round trip simplified her logistics by swimming back to her car, the impetus was training for her later in the week departure to attempt a crossing of the English Channel--following in the footsteps of Capt. Matthew Webb, the first crosser, Penny Dean, and Carol Sing. Michael Suttle, a former SCAQ member finished strongly, and several other finishers were training for later attempts on the Catalina channel. The final swimmer, Sergio Valdez finished 27th to a hearty round of applause, in slightly over 3 hours -- possibly setting an unofficial fastest ever time for the final finisher.

The no shows included David Nelson, Clay Evans, and Parks Wesson -- the first two of whom actually discussed attending (Editor's Note: I personally find that hard to believe although Anonymous claims to have reliable sources for the statements as to both potential competitors. Actually the one I really have trouble believing is the possibility that Clay would do the swim. David has been seen repeatedly in the ocean this summer. Go Dave!) The latter's absence explains why there are no available photographs for this swim, unlike the Newport Pier to Pier, which not only had the Morton Salt Report photographs, but also made the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times (sorry -- cannot get a link online to this pic) although the masters swimmers depicted looked suspiciously youthful (Editor's note: they were children, that's why they looked youthful. We need a new stringer with more attention to detail and less verbosity. Please apply. Phone operators are standing by).

Signed,
Anonymous.

Editor's Note: Thanks Bill - oh I mean Anonymous!