Today I swam the route known as “County-to-County” (or “Just the Tip” if ya nasty), it took me 5hr35min, to cover roughly 21 miles, a circumnavigation of San Francisco. It was a very tide-assisted swim, I’m not normally able to swim 3.5mph.

My swim was piloted by Sylvia and Bryan of Pacific Swim Co. I know them from a North Channel training swim last year, as well as the Sausalito to Aquatic Park swim we attempted. Sylvia and Bryan know the area and the tides in the bay super well, so their plan for the swim worked out flawlessly.

On top of their great plan, conditions were amazing. I had glassy water and a clear day almost the entire time (well, except for some texture right around Mile Rock). I think I kept a fairly consistent pace, there’s always room for improvement, but at the end of the day, I had a ton of fun. It was totally worth waking up at 3am for.

This year, I had some different swim plans, but thanks to COVID-19, travel hasn’t worked out, so I’m super grateful that I was able to get this on my schedule do such a fun swim this year. Another thing that makes it a special swim is that I’m now only the fourth person to have been recorded doing it! My forebears being Joe Butler (the pioneer, and one of my SERC mentors), Maryam Sharifzadeh (a fun swim friend), and Spencer Hammaker (a fast swim friend). It’s great company to be in!