No. 16 Vol. 8
www.mypaperonline.com
August 2018
Long Valley Woman Swims Around Manhattan
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By Jason Cohen or Long Valley resident Susan Kirk swimming isn’t about racing or being the fastest, but rather the experience. On July 14, Kirk completed her longest swim ever when she swam around Manhattan. The event, which was titled, “20 Bridges,” is a 28.5mile swim around the Big Apple. It featured 10 men and five women from throughout the world, who swam from Battery Park, to the East River, along the Harlem River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek before reaching the Hudson River. According to New York Open Water, the organization that hosted the event, Kirk
finished in 12th place in 8 hours, 26 minutes and 29 seconds. This was her first-time swimming around Manhattan solo. In 2012, she did it with a four-person relay with a group called the “Jersey Girls,” Sarah Clark, Lynn Ascione and Mary Guilfoyle. “Finishing was my goal,” she said. “I’m not a super-fast swimmer.” New York Open Water (NYOW) was founded in 2016 by marathon swimmers David Barra and Rondi Davies and paddler Alex Arevalo. Its mission is to provide swimmers and kayakers with safe, challenging, and open water adventures in and around the waters of New York City and New York State.
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“The open water just has so many challenges and it makes it so interesting,” Kirk said. “It’s also about connecting with nature and being able to experience the beauty we have around us.” Kirk, 58, explained that swimming around Manhattan was not easy. It was a sweltering hot day of about 90 degrees, there was boat traffic, dehydration, lack of energy and each body of water had different temperatures. Throughout the event, kayakers followed the swimmers and each swimmer would stop every 30 minutes with a kayaker for food and water. She noted that she would not have been able to finish the swim if not for her kayaker Lizzy Tabor. “I don’t do well warm water so the Harlem River was a challenge for me,” she said. “The Hudson was physically more demanding, but it was cooler, so I liked it better. It’s
Photo credit by Lizzy Tabor
really about leaning what works for yourself.” While this was her longest swim, this was not her first rodeo in the open water. On Aug. 4, she swam in the pouring rain from the Verrazano Bridge to Sandy Hook, N.J. While it was only nine miles, it took more than six hours because of the weather and extremely rough current. She has also participated in a swim in Lego Key, Fla. since 2015; has been doing a 10mile swim in Chattanooga, Tenn., in the Tennessee Riv-
er since 2014; in 2008 and 2010 did a swim in Bermuda; and does one several times in Barbados as well. Kirk grew up Indianapolis, Ind., and swam competitively from age 7 to 12. At 12- years-old, her family relocated to Canada, and she put swimming on the back burner while she got accustomed and enjoyed life up north. She didn’t swim in high school nor college and stayed out of the water until she was 29. In her 20s Kirk was often running and at one point decided she wanted to do a triathlon. As soon
as she began swimming again she “found her happy place.” “It was a wonderful welcome back,” Kirk recalled. “I felt right back at home in the water. As I got more involved with the swimming and training, I discovered that’s what I wanted to be doing.” In 1984 she moved to New Jersey with her husband Tom. Five years later the retired pharmacist joined Master Swimming and has been swimming ever since. While she swims at the cont. on page 2