The Wild Woman Water Day at Manhattan Beach Report by Jenny Cook (Thanks Jenny!) (7/8/01)

Although the weather looked promising after Saturday's sunny day, we arrived down to Manhattan Beach to find it to be a gray windy day. The ocean did not look too much better. This is the third year that Mary Setterhom , founder of the Surf Academy has put together a calendar of all women events. Long board surfing, paddleboard races, run-swim-runs, and of course the 1 mile swim. The winning purse was doubled this year, total cash prize of $1,000 (for the swim).

Forty women entered to swim, some of our very own vying for the cash prize. I can only report the story of the top three finishers as I was in the water at the time. But the story goes that our very own Dawn Heckman was leading the race, with both Diane Grainer and Heidi Hannenian in close pursuit. (Dawn will now be publishing a book on how to go from $500 to $100 in one easy wave). Diane "jumped" through first with Heidi in close pursuit and Dawn followed. I was having my own close encounter with the tall Maria Elm . As she approached me on my right side, I noticed a movement on my left, thinking, I am being surrounded!!!! I lifted my head to look again and much to my surprise it was Eric E and Pat cheering me on. Maria finished 4th and I finished 5th.

Fun and many nice prizes were had by all participants. Two additional Wild Women Days are scheduled for Carlsbad on July 28th and Malibu on Aug 18/19. For additional information check out the Wild Woman page.

In other outstanding performances, Allison Rapp finished a close 1 mile paddleboard race in 2nd place, followed by Diane G and our own Emily from SCAQ.

Editor's Note: Thanks Jenny!