Tsugaru Swim Attempt

A lot of difficult training goes into each marathon swim. However, for the Tsugaru Strait in Japan, the most challenging part of preparation was the logistics. Like many people around the world, my plans were disturbed by Covid. I was supposed to swim in 2021, but due to Covid, my swim was pushed back to 2022. Even by 2022, Japan was not open to tourism. I had to apply for a special event visa and fill out lots of paperwork showing Covid vaccinations and agreeing to follow various Covid related rules while in Japan.

My swim window was scheduled for July 14th-19th of 2022. As a school teacher and a mother of a toddler, I am able to train for about an hour and a half four days a week during the school year. Once school is out, that is when my training starts in earnest. I crank up the distance, start open-water swimming, and spend several hours in the water six days a week.

Training Background:
In June of 2022, I had some unfortunate events happen that made training difficult. I had two weeks at the beginning of June when I was sick and was only able to swim a small amount. Just as I started feeling better, I crewed and coached another person’s swim. I had a man reach out to me wanting to swim in Bear Lake, where I train. He was planning on swimming the English Channel in 2023 and needed cold water training. I told him I would kayak for his 10k, and provide a kayak for myself and for his wife as I helped train her on how to crew for a swim. Because I was helping him do his first-ever long open-water swim, I was so focused on helping him get all the gear that he needed that I forgot to take care of myself. As a breastfeeding mother, I didn’t bring any pumping things with me; I figured I would be fine for four hours, which is about how long the swim should take. I also forgot to put sunscreen on, bring a hat, or even a water bottle. During his swim, I felt fine for the first half. However, about halfway across the lake, I could feel my skin burning. I pulled my board shorts further down toward my knees and pulled my rash guard sleeves as close to my elbows as I could. After six and a half hours, the swim finished and I was very dehydrated and very sunburned. I did not notice the extreme burns yet. In fact, I provided post-swim food since the swimmer did not have food and the swim took longer than planned.

By the evening of crewing for the Bear Lake swim, I felt quite sick due to the dehydration, the sun exhaustion, and the sunburn that was getting increasingly worse. By the next morning, I had severe blisters all over both my legs. The blisters got worse throughout that day. By the next day, I could not walk at all due to the severe burns. Upon getting medically checked, I was informed that my burns were slightly worse than second-degree burns, but not quite third-degree burns. I could not wear clothes that touched my legs at all, so I hung out in a t-shirt and underwear for two weeks. I could not sleep with any blankets or a fan on (something my husband hated), and I could not walk at all. I spent all day lying on the couch. When I had to use the toilet, I had to slide on my butt, pulling myself with my arms. I took two ice baths a day to try and ease the pain and help cool the burns. My little boy would look at my legs and cry, because I would not let him touch them, and would put a hand up to block him if he even got too close. He suddenly wanted to nurse much more often, because that was the only time I would really hold him. Even then, I had to hold him carefully so he only touched the top couple of inches of my legs which were not quite so badly burned. Finally, after two weeks, I could wear a loose dress that would not touch my legs much and I started to walk a little. However, I could not get in the water yet. It was three and a half weeks before I could get in the water at all.

When I finally got back in the water, I had two days of training before flying out to Japan to swim the Tsugaru Strait. I knew that five weeks of little to no swimming would hurt my endurance. If I could postpone my swim to August, that would give me enough time to get that endurance back. When I checked with Ocean Navi, the governing organization for the swim, I was told it was not possible to delay due to all the Covid restrictions and the landing permissions. If I canceled, I would be out my money, so it would be better to go to Japan and try. I have pushed through difficult swims with less training in the past and knew I would be capable of it again, even if that meant I would have a more difficult time and would be slower. So, on July 13th, I headed to Japan with my mom and my brother as my crew while my husband and little boy headed to Hawaii with my in-laws.

Japan – Pre-Swim and Preparation:
On the first two days of my five-day window, the weather and the wind were bad, so swimming was not an option; it was cold, windy, and very rainy. It looked like we might have bad weather for the whole window. Even though the weather was bad, we needed to meet the boat captain and the local crew to go over logistics. On the second day of my swim window, we drove an hour and ten minutes from the city of Aomori to the village of Kodomari, where the swim starts, so we could go over the new swim regulations and sign the agreement.

There were two boat captains; my observer, who did all the translating; and the next swimmer, who would swim the day after me. In our meeting, we were told the new guidelines for the swim. The Tsugaru Channel Swimming used the two-year break of doing swims due to Covid to train new boat captains for the Strait, since the other boat captains retired. The new captains have strict rules for swimming speed and for the swim path. There is a certain arc the swimmers have to follow. There are checkpoints along the way. If you do not meet each checkpoint, it can push you off the swim path arc. The chance of a successful swim is much lower if you are not on that arc. There is also a cut-off time now. The baseline for the swim time is ten hours. After ten hours, extra money must be paid each hour in order to continue swimming. The absolute maximum time allowed is fourteen hours because longer swims tend to get pushed too far east and miss Hokkaido altogether.

Our meeting lasted about forty minutes, and as we ended, I was told I would swim tomorrow. We would leave at 3:00 a.m. It was about 2:45 p.m. I was caught off guard. Did they mean tomorrow morning as in that very night? Originally, they had said we wouldn’t go that soon. Yes, I would be swimming in 12 hours. We quickly rushed back to Aomori to get everything ready, eat dinner, and catch a few hours of sleep before heading back to Kodomari for the swim.

Due to a previous trip to Japan and a failed attempt at Tsugaru, I knew that I needed to eat food familiar to me before swimming and not eat foreign food. I brought my own stuff to make chicken alfredo pasta. I also brought my own peanut butter and jam for sandwiches as well as honey and powdered Gatorade for my food and drink during the swim. I made up my swim-drink mix of warm water, Gatorade, and honey mixed together. I also made enough sandwiches for 14 hours of swimming. We all grabbed a quick nap and then headed back to Kodomari for the swim.

Japan – The Tsugaru Strait:
We arrived in Kodomari about 15 minutes early. I changed into my suit and we headed to the boat to meet our crew. It would take us about 35 minutes to get to the swim point; once there, I could grease up and get ready to go.

While heading out to the point, I ate a banana and kept my body warm in my sweats. I always get really nervous before a big swim. I have a combination of excitement and nerves knowing that the next 10 to 20 hours will be challenging, fun, and maybe scary. This time, I was definitely nervous, but not as much as I often have been in the past. My mom helped me with my cap and helped apply grease (lanolin, petroleum jelly, and sunscreen), I was off. There was a ladder for me to climb in the water. It was only 3:45 in the morning, but there was just a hint of light in the sky. Since it was pretty dark and the swim starts near some cliffs, I was told to get in and just go about 25 meters from the boat to start the swim. Once I started swimming, I would move next to the boat to swim just above the white streamer they drag that keeps you about 3 to 4 meters from the boat. As I put my feet in the water on the ladder, I paused for a minute to adjust my goggles and take a deep breath to calm myself. My observer asked, “Is something wrong?”

“No, it just takes a second because I get nervous.” I guess that was all the push I needed. I was in the water ready for the swim. I was immediately surprised by the temperature. The water was warm and pleasant the moment I entered. I started swimming and got into a groove. Even though I had been out of the water for five weeks, I felt pretty good. The streamer below me almost felt like I was swimming in the pool, following the line in the middle of the lane. For my first couple of feeds, my crew told me I was doing well and staying on the required arc and meeting the speed requirement. I felt good and the only annoying part was the local boat crew smoking. I could smell and almost taste their cigarette smoke every time they lit up, which was about every ten minutes.

I do a drink feed every 30 minutes, with every third feed (hour and a half) being a quarter of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I try to not keep track of the overall time or distance because it goes by faster if I don’t. After about 6 hours of swimming my mom and brother told me my speed had dropped significantly and that I needed to pick up the pace. I was surprised because I didn’t feel tired or feel like I was going slower, but I worked on swimming faster over the next half hour. During the next feed, they told me I was still too slow, so I worked on going faster. I did go faster, but it was hard. I felt like I was sprinting. I could keep it up for an hour, maybe an hour and a half, but not four or more hours. At seven hours, I was told that I was on track for a 15-hour finish; no more than 14 hours would be allowed. Due to my speed, there was no way I would finish that day. I would have to pay a lot of extra money to go over the ten hours, but I still would not finish unless I suddenly went much, much faster. We decided to have me try for another half an hour before deciding anything. During that half hour, I pushed as hard as I could, while deciding what to do.

I am not one to give up, but I also did not see the point in paying a lot of extra money and swimming for six and a half more hours if the crew would not let me finish. I knew I could continue for 15 hours; I have done a couple of swims longer than that. I also knew that with five weeks out of the water just before the swim, I could not go faster than I was currently going. At seven and a half hours, I was informed that I still was not on track. I could swim for two and half more hours just to make it to the ten before having to pay or I could get out of the water then. As much as I love swimming, I did not want to swim pointlessly for several more hours. I decided it was time to share my secret with my crew. “Well, I was worried about endurance due to being out of the water for so long. I was out for three weeks with my sunburn, but I was out for two weeks before that with morning sickness; I am pregnant. I am currently 14 weeks along.” My brother’s reaction and my observer’s reaction were priceless. My mom did already know.

So, after seven and a half hours, I got out of the water. I was frustrated because I was not tired and I could have easily swum for the 15 hours that I was on track for, but I had signed the papers agreeing to the terms. On the boat ride back, while I was using the breast pump (Yes, I was nursing while pregnant-my children are close in age.), my observer told the boat captains about my pregnancy and they were all shocked that I still chose to attempt the swim. I explained that I had already paid and would lose my money if I did not try, so I might as well try.

Japan – After the Tsugaru Attempt:
The worst part about the unsuccessful swim was having to call my family and tell them, as well as post it on my social media. My pregnancy was not known yet, so I couldn’t explain that part, just the sunburn part. I did have a couple of hours after the swim attempt where I decided to take a several-year break in my attempt at Oceans Sevens swims until I’m done having children. However, by the next day, I was fine and was planning my swim for the next summer.

I may have had an unsuccessful swim that time around and it will take some time for me to save up the money to attempt the swim again, but I know I will be back in Japan someday to swim the Tsugaru Strait.