47.9 F
Wrightsville Beach
Friday, March 29, 2024

Just like a wave

Must read

Jellyfish making stinging, sentimental appearance at memorial swim

A splashing mass of 228 swimmers stretched between Crystal Pier and Johnnie Mercer’s Pier Sept. 12, speckling the dark blue ocean with hundreds of pink-capped heads.

Leading the pack were some of region’s top collegiate swimmers, but it wasn’t just the challenging nature of the 1.7-mile Pier-2-Pier race that drew them to Wrightsville Beach. For many, a deeper motivation for participating was written in three words on each bright pink swim cap: Ryan Alea Young.

Ryan Young was a University of North Carolina Wilmington swimmer who passed away in a 2009 car accident during her senior year. Since her death, friends, teammates, competitors and family have raced in the annual Pier-2-Pier swim in her memory, but this year’s event was officially dedicated to Ryan, not just in the event name, but in the abundance of pink brightening the dreary race day: pink swim caps, pink awards, pink t-shirts.

“Ryan’s favorite color was pink,” her father, Glenn Young, explained after the race. “When I do triathlons I have pink handlebar tape and pink running shoes. Whenever I race, I have pink on.”

Glenn Young started training for triathlons after his daughter died. He hired Ryan’s swim coach and channeled his grief into endless laps in the pool. He has become a competitive athlete, completing Ironman Triathlons, but he said he feels especially close to his daughter while swimming in the ocean.

In Ryan’s favorite quote, the ocean is a metaphor for the unpredictable nature of life. While friends and family aren’t sure whether she wrote it herself, they agree she lived her life by it: “Life is just like a wave, you can’t change the way it breaks, just the way you ride it.”

“I think it sort of defined her,” her UNCW swim coach Dave Allen said. “She was a free spirit.”

Ironically, Ryan had been wary of ocean swims, fearing the sea creatures lurking just out of sight. Her worst fears were realized while swimming the Pier-2-Pier course during a July 4 training session with Allen. Allen could tell Ryan was nervous, so he swam beside her, but halfway through she stopped suddenly.

“I heard the most ghastly loud scream,” Allen said, “so I swam over to her. I thought maybe she’d lost a leg or something, but she was screaming ‘Jellyfish! Jellyfish!’”

Ryan managed to turn her traumatizing jellyfish encounter into a humorous creative writing piece titled “July 4 Fireworks” and when her father came across the story after her death, it inspired him to dedicate the annual Pier-2-Pier swim in her honor. He didn’t realize how prophetic his daughter’s story would be.

Exhausted Pier-2-Pier swimmers emerged from ocean near Johnnie Mercer’s Pier Sept. 12, many rubbing red welts on their arms and legs. Contest organizer Annie Sullivan said out of the hundred or so swimmers who managed to finish the race, she only saw one person who avoided the venomous jellyfish currently infesting local waters.

Annabel Tomes, who travelled to Wrightsville Beach with her United States Naval Academy swim teammates, crossed the finish line eighth in her age group despite swimming face-first through a swarm of jellyfish. With painful stings across her face, arms and legs, she debated whether to seek medical help from the nearby safety boat, but she was motivated to keep going by her teammates’ perseverance. One of her teammates, Ally Warnimont, won the female division, finishing just steps behind the overall winner, UNCW swimmer George Vlahos.

“My mindset was, might as well finish it once you start it,” she said. “I got stung three more times on the face, once more on the arm, and twice more on the hip, but I swam through it.”

A few of her teammates joked the stings made them swim faster because they didn’t feel the fatigue of racing. Tomes agreed.

“I said, the sooner I finish this, the sooner I can get out of the water,” she said, adding she still enjoyed the event, which her team used as bonding and preparation for their upcoming season. She doesn’t see the jellyfish as a bad omen, either.

“I think they’re good luck,” she said.

Swimmers continued to cross the finish line, reaching for bottles of vinegar instead of water. While they dumped the liquid over their skin to numb the stings, race organizers and participants alike made the best of the situation, even holding an impromptu competition for the worst jellyfish sting.

And Dave Allen, standing nearby, couldn’t help but smile, imagining how the race’s namesake would have sympathized with the swimmers’ plight.

“Ryan’s probably looking down right now, chuckling a little bit, saying ‘I know those jellyfish!’”

 

- Advertisement -spot_img

More articles

- Advertisement -spot_img

Latest articles