Any of you Californians participate in or witness this? Pretty funny. A golden retriever made the swim in around 42 minutes, if I remember the story correctly. He beat quite a few humans. What is the water temperature in the bay this time of year?
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8787598/
RP
“finishing 72nd out of the more than 500 swimmers”
That more than a few swimmers! Can you imagine training all winter for this event and getting to the finish line and finding out you were beat by a fricken dog!?!? LOL
He was DQ because he didn’t wore is timing chip neither googles… 
Hard to believe most people couldn’t swim 1.2 miles in less than 42 minutes - the dog beat over 3/4 of the field. I mean, the dog can’t be going much faster than somebody swimming breast stroke, and he beats all those people? What kind of “race” is this? Sounds like it is more of a social event than a race.
Took my dog out to a local lake, she was doing 100m repeats between two GPS marked buoys in 1:30 or less. Most triathletes can’t even do that…of course, the rest interval was spent chasing ducks.
That’s AWESOME. Colour me jealous.
M~
Dave Horning’s dog? Does it pretty much every year if I recall…excellent dog paddler.
Dave Horning’s dog? Does it pretty much every year if I recall…excellent dog paddler.
No, this is a golden named Jake, not Dave’s yellow lab Summer the Wonder Dog- she was doing the swim as much as 10 years ago so she may not be alive any longer, I hope she’s just comfortably retired but even if so she’s got to be up in years.
Even though I’m partial to goldens it’s a little annoying that all the news stories are saying this is the first time a canine has made the crossing - that’s definitely not true.
Dogs just like us need to be train, but they are natural swimmers. Now I own an apartment which I live in and with all the kids to look after, I’ve only got one Golden. Before I was married I had 3 German Shepherds, one Golden and a Cocker all of which I showed and did obedience with. - Hugo, Conan, Inger, Hercules and Sebastian. One of the ways I trained them besides running after the bicycle and towing the bicycle, was to swim all the dogs trailing me while I canoed 4 times a week. They wouldn’t touch land usually for way more than an hour at a time. And it showed in their physiques. Even patting their bodies you could feel how solid they were compared to another dog of the same breed.
I also had a Pit Bull and a Bull Terrier, Bubu and Matilda before and they simply sink because they are all muscle and cannot float. Still they never learned their lesson and would always dive in after my others and invariably start sinking and drowning vainly trying to keep their heads above the water, so I had to always leash them on the jetty.
Generally though once trained and fit, dogs like mine of all breeds, if they swim long distances consistently can be awesome swimmers, powering along at the same speed for long periods of time. Another way I trained my dogs was to walk along this long jetty (700m) near my place and the dogs would just swim following me while I walk the jetty usually six laps out and back as one lap. People observing were amazed.
I’m reporting you to the authorities… for naming your dogs such ridiculous names. I’m sure Bubu the Pit Bull suffered from a crushing inferiority complex.
Uh, the race is Escape from Alcatraz, and the swim is tough. That’s why no one ever escaped from Alcatraz. It is 1.5 miles, not 1.2. 55 degree or below water temps, heavy current. Fastest pro did it in 28:30, Walton, and I bet that is 5-7 minutes slower that he would do that distance in “normal” conditons. Second overall age grouper did it in over 35 mins.
Hard to believe most people couldn’t swim 1.2 miles in less than 42 minutes - the dog beat over 3/4 of the field. I mean, the dog can’t be going much faster than somebody swimming breast stroke, and he beats all those people? What kind of “race” is this? Sounds like it is more of a social event than a race.
So, how many times have you swam from Alcatraz? I can tell you that with cold water, choppy waves and an unfavorable current that 42 minutes is a decent time. And LOTS of those people weren’t wearing those waterwings that triathletes call wetsuits.
Here in Denver we go to Chatsfield Res to swim. There is an old quarry only used for swimming and diving. It is 1000 yds in lenght and Britt my ESS regularly swims the 4000 with and yes she is faster than most swimmers out there. Of course we have to stop for a pee break (her not me) at the end of each lenght. Love seeing the swimmers faces as we pass them in the middle of the lake.
Yeah I noticed in the picture that the guy didn’t have a wetsuit on. Damn, reminds me of when I tried to swim in lake superior - I don’t think I would have lasted 40+ minutes without a wetsuit.
Those SERCers are crazy like that. The Friday before the Escape one of them took me for my 1st swim in SF Bay (to date I have 2 swims under my belt). I only saw 1 other person there with a wetsuit on. My friend was in the water casually backstroking waiting for me to get in, I didn’t even want to put my face in it was so cold, but there he was in his speedo saying how nice the water was. After we got he said he hoped I wouldn’t get hazed in the locker room for wearing a wetsuit…kj
PS: They pulled a guy out of the water as we got back to the beach who was hypothermic.
Yeah, they are nuts. I’ve swam from Alcatraz five times before, usually as part of a tri and always with a wetsuit. This time I decided to man up and try it with just a Speedo and a swim cap. It was, uh, exhilirating for the first few minutes but after settling into a good rhythm swimming it really wasn’t too bad. It was a little tougher handling the chop without the bouyancy of a wetsuit but it was a good learning experience.
It did piss me off that the mutt beat my time, but just barely and he did get a two minute head start. Next year Jake better watch out, I’ll be gunning for him.
The race Jake swam actually is a 1.2 mile swim. It finishes at a different place than the Escape Triathlon. The shorter swim can actually be tougher though (conditions depending), because you can’t ride the current nearly as much. Jake would have kicked my ass, that’s for sure. 42 is a good swim.
Actually Bubu lived up to his name. He was given to us by a friend of a friend whose wife was worried about her new born. I had never owned a Pitbull before and was a little apprehensive. When I played around with him he was always gentle but even so you could really feel the power of those jaws when he simply gripped your hand, as compared to the other dogs. He was a beautiful looking dog but turned out to be the clown of the family. He was always happy and used to amuse my first born then just over a year old by running around in circles chasing his own tail and chasing rubber balls around.
Then there’s the swimming thingy. You’d think he’d learn his lesson but Bubu would always dive in and start his drowning unless we leashed him.
Also I used to take the dogs for 15 mile runs into the bush on my Mountain bike late at around midnight regularly when no one was around. Bubu having such stumpy legs always tended to lag behind the pack. Even little Sebastian the Cocker could easily maintain a long easy fast pace lope with those quick light footed steps. The German Shepeherds would be harnessed pulling my wife’s and my bike along. In show GSD’s have to be built up by and trained through long periods of pulling so this training was ideal.
One night Bubu simply fell off the back of the pack to take a rest no doubt. We didn’t realize it until we reached home. I immediately went out on my own retracing the route up and down for a few hours to no avail. Thinking he was such a good looking pure breed and so friendly once daylight someone was bound to take him. Next night we went on our usual run and 3/4 way through, more than 24hrs later, lo and behold there was Bubu running happily beside us as if he’d been there all the time. It was like he had a time lapse from the night before and was simply continuing the natural course of his run. I can’t imagine what he actually did in all that time.
We kept him from age 10 months to 2 years old and the original owner just turned up asking for him back saying how much he missed him. Since I already had so many dogs with me already I impulsively agreed. In hindsight we kept and looked after Bubu and with all the good food and excercise he was one well built good looking Pit Bill. I wonder how much a Kennel would have charged that Dude for 14 month’s good care.
Aren’t those waters shark infested?