Marathon Swims |
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SWIMMING THE NORTHUBERLAND STRAITS only 9 miles...
I swam from Cape Tormintine to Borden Prince Edward Island, four major rip tides and thousands of jelly fish, the toughest nine miles I had ever raced.
The jelly fish there are a variety that sting but are not as bad as some others I have experienced. They were in patches about 50 yards across and 100 yards in length and I went through several of these patches. I was stung all over my body.
Half way through the race due to the stings I started seeing things. Every time I looked at the side of my attending boat I saw bacon and eggs . The most disappointing thing about this swim was as I walked out of the water after finishing, some one walked up to me and handed me a dry tastless ham sandwich, but all I wanted was the bacon and eggs that I saw on the side of the boat.
After the race was over and the prize money was given out, I was on the search for a restaurant that would make me bacon and eggs and found one who did. For about a week after that when swimming I could see jelly fish tenicales whenever my face was in the water.... even though I was swimming in lake Ontario - no jelly fish there just lamprey eels.
SWIMMING THE SAGUENAY RIVER (1964) 28 miles
The race started in Chicoutimi, Quebec, just as the full 22 ft tide was in. We covered the first 20 miles in 2 1/2 hrs and arrived at the entry to the Bai de Ha Ha just as the tide was coming out of the bay.
George Mazadra, the great Argentinian marathon swimmer, called this spot "coffee break point" because he said "no one is going anywhere for a few hours anyway!" We were swimming against the full force of the tide.
As the story goes...Champlain, on his quest for a passage to the east (China) while travelling along the St. Lawrence, and Saguenay Rivers found himself in the middle of a bay and he exclaimed "Ha Ha une Baie"! From then on, it has been known as the Bay de Ha Ha.
I selected a course 200 yds off shore which allowed me to make very gradual headway, covering 1/4 mile in about 1 hr. Ed Forsby and I finally made the break out into the Bay ahead of the others - no one else got around the corner, through the tidal waters and into the bay. It took the rest of the field two more hours to get through the heavy going.
Ed was exhausted, and I was finally able to pull away from him. I was hugging the shore line fighting the tide until I was three miles from the end of the race. I then swam into the middle of the Bay to the finish line at Port Alfred.
It nearly ended my career as a marathon swimmer - I had frayed the tendons in both arms.
I finished in 9 hrs. 18 min. The second place finisher, Armond Cloutier, 11 hrs. 18 min.
This race had only six finishers, the rest were pulled from the water after 13 1/2 hrs.
It was a tough swim for me, and I was hurting. The story in the french language newspaper Le Presse, said "TOM PARK WINS THE SAGUENAY MARATHON" and the story went on to tell how my brother Tom came out of retirement and won the race. The other paper the Le Matin wrote the story as it really happened and called me the "SEA WOLF" a name which stayed with me in all the Candian french language newspapers from then on.
I swam in a thirty hr. marathon in Montreal. The course was 1/3 of a mile around and around. It was relay style with two swimmers on a team. My Partner was Billy Barton from Florida USA. We changed every lap which took us a little over 7 min.
Half way through the night, Billy could no longer swim because of the cold. I then started to do all the laps. I had tried eating chocolate, glucose powder mixed with tang, and chicken, but nothing seemed to bring my energy level up. I was exhausted after about 15 more laps around the course. My coach asked Billy if he could go in to relieve me. Billy then went in for two laps. I went to the rest tent to lay down.
A friend of mine who owned Pepi's Pizza, passed by and asked how I was doing. I told him I wasn't feeling too well. Pepi happened to be carrying the largest pizza I had ever seen. He was delivering it to some of the other teams' coaches.
He offered me the pizza, and I devoured it. When it was gone I went back in the water. It was strange I had been ready to quit before I took my break but after the pizza I felt like super man. I never swam better.
After the sun came up, Billy was able to continue doing his laps.
The usual Marathon swims were 10 miles to 28 miles. I have seen other swimmers eating bananas, whole chickens, soup, dates, etc while they were swimming. During the races I stuck to glucose and a tang mixture.
You can read about these Marathon races in Conrad Wennenberg's book Wind Waves and Sunburn.
