Open water swimmers crammed the narrow dock at Dockside Restaurant Saturday, Oct. 11 for the third annual Swim the Loop.
As the race began, competitors approached the end of the dock one by one and plunged into the Intracoastal Waterway with varying degrees of gracefulness. In keeping with the fun nature of the event, race director Kristen Smith said she was offering a prize for the most creative entry into the water.
Many competitors accepted the challenge, attempting backflips, cannonball jumps and the occasional belly flop.
“It’s just something to get people to have fun with it and really enjoy it,” Smith said, adding she had another special prize for the 11th-place finisher, in honor of Oct. 11 not only being race day, but also her birthday.
After jumping into the water, competitors turned and swam with the current, passing underneath the Heide Trask Drawbridge and through Lees Cut, Banks Channel and Motts Channel to make a 3.5-mile clockwise loop around Harbor Island. Swimmers seeking a shorter distance competed in the 1.3-mile Motts Channel Sprint from the Blockade Runner Beach Resort to Dockside Restaurant.
Paddleboarders and kayakers kept an eye on swimmers and the U.S. Coast Guard was on hand to help anyone in distress. Aid stations were set up at miles one, two and three to provide racers with energy drinks, water and gels, and 18 anchored buoys helped competitors stay on course.
Around 25 minutes after the start of the race, the first sprint competitors began crossing the finish line at Dockside Restaurant. Special Olympic gold medalist Andrew Smilley finished third and several of his fellow Olympians were not far behind.
Smilley’s coach, Penny McDowall, said a group of Special Olympic athletes came from Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Cayman Islands to compete in Swim the Loop. McDowall said they had 10 options for various races to use as preparation for the 2015 World Summer Games in Los Angeles, and they chose to come to Wrightsville Beach.
“The water temperature and the water clarity will probably be similar [to Los Angeles],” she said. “So it was a good location. We heard it was a good race.”
One hour and 22 minutes after the swimmers left the dock, professional triathlete Matthew Wisthoff came into view, sprinting for the finish line and well out in front of his nearest competitor.
Wisthoff said he used his experience from last year’s race to better pace himself this year.
“Last year, I came out way too hard, so this year I tried to swim smarter,” Wisthoff said. Experience proved to be key for Wisthoff, who lives in Wrightsville Beach and swims Banks Channel regularly.
“You’ve got to be really attentive to where you are, because whether you’re in the middle of the channel versus off to the side it can be significantly easier or harder because of the currents … and today we’ve got a pretty stiff southwesterly wind straight up the channel, which made it more challenging. I swim those stretches a lot so I don’t have to think about those too much, I just go off memory.”
Second-place finisher Gregory Sargent from Connecticut discovered those difficult conditions while navigating the course for the first time on race day.
“I didn’t know the course at all, so there were so many nooks and crannies going around the loop that kind of threw me off,” Sargent said.
The challenge was part of the appeal of the race, Sargent said while drying off to go join his family and fellow competitors for post-race celebrations on the dock.
“Work hard, play hard,” he said.
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