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The quest for consistent color rendition across all input and output devices (from your monitor to your printer, for example) has been going on since the introduction of color to the desktop. In the late 1990s, the introduction of ColorSync, the Mac’s color-management framework, and the availability of professional-level calibration hardware and software such as the Colortron, got more people thinking about the multiple issues surrounding consistent color across the design workflow.

Color management has always had a bit of a voodoo associated with it. Unfortunately, managing color is not as simple as specifying a color for a given pixel and having your intent carried out across all input and output devices. Indeed, the physical functioning of the two primary components—the monitor and the printer—are markedly different.

Monitor color is created using an additive process in which three color primaries (red, green, and blue) are mixed together to yield a specific color that is emitted (like a flashlight) from the screen. Printer color, on the other hand, is subtractive in that the pigments in the inks and dyes remove wavelengths of light before it is reflected to the eye. This process uses an entirely different set of primaries than your monitor, that is, the colors of the inks present. Even if your printer has green ink, it is not likely to ever create the same shade of green that is emitted from your monitor for a variety of reasons, including the whiteness or color of the paper it is printed on and the nature of the light source illuminating the printed page. Combine this with the idiosyncrasies of human color perception and you’ve got quite job trying to keep things consistent.

Then, when you think about all the possible input elements—graphics software, digital cameras, and various scanners and all the possible output possibilities—printers of countless varieties, presses, film, and digital video (not to mention the displays—projectors, LCD, LED, and CRT), there is a nearly endless number of combinations and unending complexities involved in getting color ‘right.’

To help get this mayhem under control, you need both hardware and software. These help determine what colors your various input and output devices are capable of creating, a process called calibration or profiling. Then, once you know where you stand in color-space, you need tools for gauging matching accuracy, palette creation, and exploration. And that’s where X-Rite’s ColorMunki 1.1 suite of tools enters the picture.

ColorMunki suite

Tools for measuring and managing color have existed for a long time, primarily for use in the printing industry. X-Rite has introduced the ColorMunki suite targeted at the entry-level professional market—the photographer who needs consistent prints for her customers, the designer who wants to explore color options while ensuring the proper translation from computer to product, and even the enthusiast who just wants better color reproduction.

The ColorMunki line is split into three products—Create, Design, and Photo, each aimed at a particular need. They consist of a color measurement device and associated software. The software is similar across the three products, while the hardware varies between the Create product (a colorimeter) and the Design and Photo products (a spectrophotometer). I had a look at each package, using a recent vintage MacBook Pro and Mac Pro with dual 24-inch Apple Cinema displays () driven by an ATI Radeon X1900 card. Xerox Phaser 6180 () and Canon i900D () color printers provided output.

Create

ColorMunki Create is the suite’s entry-level product. It comes with a USB bus-powered colorimeter that is used to calibrate your monitor along with the ColorMunki Create software.

Create allows you to compose sets of colors (palettes) that you can then export to other desktop software, like Illustrator and Photoshop, to help maintain consistency across applications. You can create these palettes in an assortment of ways: you can enter your own color values; select from various Pantone color libraries; create harmonious sets automatically; or auto-extract a color set from an image. The last option is particularly fun and useful, giving the designer a set of colors based on those most predominant in a source image. Matching other colors in a design to an image or using one of the image’s colors to find other harmonious colors gives designers a nice set of tools for exploring the color potential in their work.

In Create, monitor profiling is straightforward. The software instructs you to place the device on the screen, push one button, and you’re off to the races. The process is automatic and requires no user intervention. After about two minutes, you’ve got a profile that is specifically tailored to your monitor. Since monitors change or drift over time (CRTs are notoriously worse than LCDs and LEDs) the software can remind you to re-calibrate at a given interval. Once a month is probably OK for most users.

Design

ColorMunki Design is the step up from Create, and aimed, as its name implies, at designers. It includes software with the same functionality as Create, as well as plug-ins for various desktop publishing applications, called AppSet, to keep palettes and color settings in sync across them. On the hardware side, it includes a USB bus-powered spectrophotometer instead of a monitor calibrator. A spectrophotometer can read colors from emissive sources, like your monitor, as well as from reflective material, allowing you to ‘digitize’ colors from objects, fabric, or printed material. So, along with profiling your monitor’s color reproduction, you can also profile your printers.

Like monitor profiling, the printer profiling process is very simple. You print out a sheet of colored stripes and scan them with the ColorMunki device. The software then processes them and prints a second ‘tune-up’ sheet that is measured using the spectrophotometer to refine the profile’s calibration, and you’re done—at least for that printer and paper combination. You’ll want to re-calibrate if you switch printers or papers. We calibrated the Xerox printer to standard copy paper and the Canon to glossy and matte photo paper. Purists will want to calibrate whenever an ink tank is changed, but that’s not absolutely necessary for the casual user.

This profiling process creates a set of ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles that are used by both Mac OS X, via ColorSync, and by graphics and design applications, like those in Adobe Creative Suite, to communicate the color reproducing abilities of the hardware in your system. Now, you have a calibrated system, ostensibly providing consistency between what you see on the monitor and what the printer outputs.

All three products in the ColorMunki suite provide similar color picking and palette making tools. The differences between the products are largely in the hardware—Design and Photo include a spectrophotometer while Create comes with a colorimeter, and the included color libraries. All products come with the Munsell Glossy library as well as a Color Group library that classifies colors by names such as Very Light Blue. Design and Create include Pantone Goe, PMS and Fabric and Home sets.
The AppSet plug-ins keep application color settings in sync across applications like InDesign (), Quark (), and Photoshop (), though there are some issues with Photoshop CS4 that require a small amount manual intervention. The color palettes you create are automatically synchronized between the above applications as well as through a ColorMunki color picker plug-in, making them available to any application that uses the standard Apple color picker.

Lastly, there are advanced calibration settings for those who want to take ambient room lighting into account, or specify an alternate target illumination and monitor luminance.

Photo

Finally, ColorMunki Photo caps the suite of tools. It contains the same hardware as Design, allowing for printer and monitor profiling as well as grabbing colors from the real world. It also allows for projector profiling, which some folks may find handy.

The software is essentially the same as Design, but without the Pantone libraries, which most photographers won’t care about anyway. The color picking and manipulation software is separate from the calibration software, unlike Design and Create, but has the same essential palette creation and exploration features. There is also a DigitalPouch application that allows for ‘packaging’ images and their calibration information for sharing with others. The useful thing here is that the person on the receiving end of the transaction doesn’t need ColorMunki software to get the benefit. The package contains an application that allows for calibrated viewing on their end as well. As anyone who has had to try to verbally describe color issues to their printer knows, this color communication feature is a welcome addition to the photographer’s toolkit.

Buying Advice

Since printing and monitor display are fundamentally different beasts, it is very difficult if not impossible to always match colors between devices. There are colors your monitor can display that your printer can’t print and vice versa. Even worse, your eye-brain-environment team has its own agenda when it comes time to deciding whether or not colors match. That said, the calibration and profiling provided by the various products in the ColorMunki 1.1 suite resulted in consistent and realistic monitor colors across machines, while the Photo and Design products delivered print colors that matched well across a variety of image types (photos, graphs, and illustrations) with photos getting the best results.

The ColorMunki product line brings very good color management down to the entry-level professional, advanced amateur, or enthusiast at a reasonable price. Both the hardware and software are easy to use and the digitizing features of the Design and Photo software make it an indispensable tool for those who need to match colors to paints, fabrics, and other physical objects.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA – United States H.R.3261) is a United States bill proposed by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (Republican) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court-orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers (ISP) to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include streaming of copyright material, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Proponents of the bill (including Hollywood, media firms, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and their lobbyists, who have spent over $91 million to push this new law through) say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. Claiming flaws in present laws that do not cover foreign owned and operated sites, and citing examples of “active promotion of rogue websites” by U.S. search engines, proponents say stronger enforcement tools are needed.

Opponents (such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Yahoo!, AOL, LinkedIn, eBay, Tumblr, Etsy, Reddit, Techdirt, Wikimedia Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Democracy and Technology) say the proposed legislation threatens free speech, innovation, and enables law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing material posted on a single blog or webpage. They have raised concerns that SOPA would bypass the “safe harbor” protections from liability presently afforded to Internet sites by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Library associations have expressed concerns that the bill’s emphasis on stronger copyright enforcement would expose libraries to prosecution. Other opponents state that requiring search engines to delete a domain name could begin a worldwide arms race of unprecedented censorship of the Web and violates the First Amendment.

New Wave Media strongly opposes SOPA for being a misjudged lobbyist-driven piece of legislation that is technically impossible to enforce, cripplingly troublesome to support, and would destroy the internet as we’ve come to know it.

The law

If you take into account that you’ve worked hard on an album, book, video, photo, font or other product and discovered it being illegally distributed free of charge on a shady website, then fighting online piracy sounds like a good thing. Pirated copies of products are always available for download, and there are people who download these readily available products for free knowing it is wrong. Wishing there was some way to stop the illegal distribution of content would be reasonable.

Wishes are one thing, laws are another. If there is a way to stop piracy (and I think we’d have more luck legislating an end to adultery or overeating), SOPA is not it.

Tremendous Power Coupled with Vague Language

SOPA’s explanation is deliberately vague to allow corporate lawyers maximum latitude in fighting for their clients’ interests at $450 an hour. SOPA addresses the piracy plight with a wide brush, lights that brush on fire, and soaks the entire internet in gasoline. SOPA would allow corporations to block the domains of websites that are “capable of” copyright infringement. Once blocked, nobody can access it.

A news story on NPR’s website covering the copyright controversy between Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press could be seen as supporting copyright infringement, because the article includes a JPG of Fairey’s infringing “HOPE” poster as part of its news coverage, or because the article refers passingly to Fairey’s “fair use” defense. Under SOPA, the AP could legally block the entire NPR website in response.

But it doesn’t stop there, because the internet is about connections.

Say your friend Andy blog’s about that story and includes a screen picture. Under SOPA, your website could be blocked. If your blog is a subdomain of WordPress, all of WordPress could also be blocked.

Say you post a link to the story on your Facebook wall. Under SOPA, all of Facebook would be blocked. Now, to avoid this outcome, Facebook would be responsible for regulating the copyright status of every piece of content posted.

Don’t Forget the Search Engines

Google would have indexed the NPR story and included the pictures. This is what search engines do. Now Google could be shut down and blocked. To avoid that outcome, Google would be responsible for regulating the copyright ownership of every piece of content they index.

Internet Service Providers and hosting companies would face the same consequences. Any copyrighted image found or indexed on an ISP’s server (or even cloud), that server service must be shut down, along with all the innocent content stored on that same server. ISPs will be responsible for regulating the copyright status of every byte of content they store.

Most hosting companies have a hard enough time making a profit and maintaining uptime. How will hosting companies afford to employ content police, and who will train them?

Don’t forget the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. That’s full of copyright violations. Let’s just shut it down too, and Wikipedia with it (because there’s probably one file in the Wikipedia commons that is arguably copyright protected).

Freakin’ Lobbyists

Spend five minutes on the internet and you get a good sense of how it works. You’ll quickly realize how technically impossible, not to mention economically challenging, it will be to police all of this content. No company can regulate that much content all of the time. There’s no bots for that, no spiders. SOPA is a job killer. You might as well bend over and take it.

Legislators know the side on which their bread gets buttered and they are enslaved to powerful lobbyists. These lobbyists have casually spent $91 million so far, monstrously outspending internet companies.

Even when admitting they have no clue in regards to the issue, Big Money gets what it wants.

What Big Money wants, Big Money tends to get, even when its experts testifying at the U.S. House of Representatives admit they don’t know what they’re talking about, as covered by Fortune, of all publications:

Internet companies worry that they could be held liable for the actions of people outside their control. Under the bill, Yahoo, for example, could be held liable if someone posted a copyrighted picture to that company’s Flickr site. And Google and other search engines would in effect be responsible for the actions of basically everyone on the Internet. But logic either doesn’t seem to matter much to SOPA sponsor Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and his 21 cosponsors, or else they simply can’t get their minds around the problem. Opponents of the bill have noted that it could disrupt the domain-name system—the Internet’s basic technical underpinning. But when witnesses who support the bill were asked about that issue, they said they were not qualified to speak to the technical aspects of it, even as they insisted that SOPA would present no such problem. And in a bit of delicious symbolism, the committee’s streaming video of the hearing basically didn’t work—Why the House is stacking the deck on Internet piracy

Fortune

Take Action

American Censorship Day has come and gone, but you can still take action:

• Tumblr has created a system that will call you with talking points, and then connect you to your representative.
• You can contact your representatives and your senators.

We urge everyone reading this to take action today. Only an overwhelming show of solidarity gives us a chance of defeating this poorly written, dangerous bill.
For more information, visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Lifehacker, and read the bill for yourself (PDF).

Prelude

Swimming was such a sore subject for me after the 2000 Olympics, and the disappointment of that flu episode around my main event spiraled a cascading set of events from the Spanish Federation and Olympic committee that culminated in me suddenly quitting. I felt so much was left unfinished, but once I quit, I quit for good. I didn’t go to a pool for years. In fact for an entire decade. Except for spending time at our community pool on the Summers with the kids, nothing. Just leisure swimming.

It was October 2009 when I looked at myself in the mirror and thought to myself “who is this guy”. I was overweight and unmotivated. I joined the gym, got in some decent shape running and lifting, but it was around late December of 2009 that I hit the pool, just for some short swims no more than twice a week. 30 minutes or so.

Come February 2010 I decided to do the swimming a little more seriously. The running and weights had helped me loose weight, but now it had been stagnant. So I hit the pool more consistently for the sole purpose of losing some more weight. I started shedding the pounds and got more and more into it and soon enough I was doing 5-6k a workout (M, T, Th, Fri). Just 4 workouts a week, an hour and 15 minutes each. No more than 5 hours of swimming a week. I used to do more than that a day!

In any case, I had lost more weight, and was swimming decently, but my frame of mind had changed and I was actually enjoying it. No pressure, no parents involved, no sponsors to worry about, no worries what so ever. I think enough time had passed from the Sydney Games to heal some of the psychological wounds. I was feeling real good and I felt I needed a little something.

At this point I had made good friends with Bill Saar, who swam in the lane next to me. 20 years my senior, we were very much alike in regards to many things in life. His brother Doug has been doing the Bay Swim for 20 years and Bill suggested I do it. I thought why not. Let’s have some fun. I’ve always wanted to do open water swimming. Got in touch with Doug who guided me through the registration process. So by the Fall of ’10 I signed up for the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim. I had tons of questions and concerns (I’m such a perfectionist for details), but Linda Toretsky was super in answering my questions and helping me get a good sense of what to expect from the race. Linda runs Lin-Mark Computer Sports, Inc., a highly recognized computer sports-timing company that does the timing for the Bay Swim.

I was all set for the 2011 edition of the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, which took place June 12.

Leading Up to the Race

The race would take place on Sunday, June 12, 2011. The Friday prior I started my race diet. I had worked my way down to 195 lbs, but over the course of Friday and Saturday I gained two pounds from all the carbs and pasta I was devouring. I had been doing plenty of stretching, fluids and now I had a “reserve” of energy for the race. I was feeling pretty good, but quite nervous about the race. I had been told horror stories about the start of the race (or any open water/tri race for that matter). Doug had essentially told me to sprint to clear the crowd of elbows and feet that had left him bloodied in the past.

Morning of the Race

The race was to begin at 11:30am if I recall correctly, but I wanted to be there early to get registered and settled, get the lay of the “land”. I was up at 6:45am, headed to Dunkin’ Donuts and got me a couple of bagels (plain, nothing on them) and left Frederick driving down I-270. Traffic was non-existent, but I didn’t want to speed and start off the day badly. It was sunny, I was blasting through my playlists in the car and soon enough was on the Washington beltway making my way to Rt. 50 East. The drive was very calm and passed without incident. As the scenery started to change I was getting both excited and nervous realizing the challenge to come. I had no expectations of placing well, simply doing my best and hopefully having fun.

The race itself starts on the Western shore at Sandy Point State Park, and finishes 4.4 miles later at Hemingway’s Marina at the Bay Bridge Marina, on the Eastern shores of the Twin Bridges. However, you need to drive over the bridge and park your car at the finish side of the bridge to take a shuttle bus back over the bridge to the start. It makes sense. That way you have easy access to your vehicle when you’re done, but it also helped to drive over the bridge (or not) to gauge the distance of the swim and see the finish. Winding down the bridge I could see the buoys that were set up and the little finish line.

Got the car park and saw a ton of people in the area all gearing up for the swim. Instinctively I was eyeing everyone and trying to figure out how I would match up against them. Some of the guys (and girls) looked to be in really good shape. Those were the ones I was paying attention to, sizing them up. Headed to the bright yellow school buses that would shuttle us to the starting side. Everything was well set up and was moving like clock-work. We left the parking lot and headed over the bridge, everyone in the bus clearly focused on the bridge and the distance from one end to the other. Weather was still good, water didn’t look too choppy, and we could see numerous boats out there.

Bus dropped us off and we all headed down to where the crowds had gathered. There was music blaring (thankfully classic rock) and organizers were guiding folks to the designated areas for registration and set up. Picked up my packet (swim cap and mandatory tag and timing device from Lin-Mark) and got body marked (forearms and shoulder/bicep area, both sides). It was probably a little after 9am now, found a spot in the shade by some trees. I had plenty of time, but is was good to secure a spot in the shade. It was getting really hot and humid. Tons of fluid pre-race was my goal, and two PowerBars. Got some stretching done, went down the beach and got a short warm up swim without the wet suit. The water felt warm.

Got back to my spot and decided to go looking for Doug and a bunch of his pals that had signed up for the meet too. Found them and we just had a great time hanging out waiting for the pre-race meeting to take place.

Pre-Race Meeting

Chuck Nabit, race director, conducted the pre-race meeting. We were told that the water was quite warm and he recommended that we not use wet suits because of the risk of dehydration from the heat. I had spent a decent amount of money on the suit and felt like I needed every advantage possible, so my decision was made regardless (as most others too). The current was predicted as being mild. Start of with ebb, slack and then flood at the end.

Strongly emphasized was the fact that if you were under the bridges, you were out (you’re supposed to swim between the two spans). Another strong suggestion was that if someone on a boat said you were done, you cooperate immediately so they wouldn’t have to send over the boat that had the guys with the assault rifles and guns! Hmm, noted!

Other things to note, no removing your cap or you are out of the race. Unlike FINA sanctioned races, you ARE allowed to grab onto the side of the snack boats, which are equipped with water and energy bars. If you feel like quitting or you need to be pulled out, let a support boat know, and you’ll get a ride to the DNF pier (yes, there really is a DNF pier) – the “Pier of Shame”. Some nervous laughs.

11:20am and we headed down to the beach. I was super hot now that I had the wet suit on. I had applied sun screen and a layer of BodyGlide around the arm pits and lats to protect from rashes. So I waited in the water, while staying somewhat cool and getting loose in the water.

Wave 1

Because of the number of swimmers taking part in the swim (650 total for the 4.4 mile swim), they send you out in two waves, 15 minutes apart. The first wave are for those swimmers who would complete the swim in over two hours, and the second wave is for those who would complete the swim in under two hours. That way, both waves (groups) of swimmers have a better chance of finishing in a pack. Wave 1 was set to start at 11:30am.

However, they gave Craig Dietz a head start. Craig was born without limbs and swam this race on his back, outfitted with a flipper on his lower torso. What an inspiration. Sadly, he managed to swim past the 4 mile marker but was cut short of the finish by the storm that moved in. More on that later.

I’m in the water watching Craig get his start and see everyone around clapping and cheering him on. Promptly at 11:30 wave 1 takes off. I get a couple of last minutes strokes in and head up to the beach to join the ranks of wave 2.

Wave 2 – My Race Begins!

The start is fast approaching (11:45am) and I am nervous, but standing next to Doug and his pals we’re joking around and passing time. I have no idea how I’ll do – but a calm starts to settle in. My game face is on. My mental focus kicks in and I am one with the race and the surroundings. I take note of the people around me and how that will affect the start of the race and the initial sprint into the water. This is a shit load of bodies about to go all out into the water for a 4.4 mile race!

I don’t even hear the horn go off, but I see people taking off so I do the same. In a split second I’m running into the water and diving into my stroke. Within 4 strokes I have pulled ahead of those around me and I am trying to get my bearings. Most of the crowd is to my left. I started the race pretty far down the right side of the beach, closest to the bridge. Doug had told me the fast racers are down the right side. I breathe to the left normally, but I switch to right breathing so I can gauge what’s going on. The crowd on the right is definitely faster with a bunch of bodies pulling ahead. I decide to take pursuit of these guys and see what happens.

Probably within 45-60 seconds I am caught up with these fast swimmers and notice that those behind pose no immediate threat, so in my mind I’m thinking pace yourself, the initial sprint is over with and the most dangerous part is done with.

I am so used to lane swimming and staying within the lane lines and having clear water. This is different. Can barely see my fingers as I’m pulling my way through the water and I have no bearings. I am constantly raising my head looking ahead for the buoys that mark the entry into the spans. I’m thinking to myself I am going to strain my neck if I continue the race this way.

Because we start on the northern side of the bridge, we have to swim under the northern span (westbound lanes of traffic) to make our way onto the middle of the two bridges. Once here, you are officially swimming between the world’s largest lane lines. This is an amazing view and hard to describe. Once you make it under the northern span, you take a hard left to swim in the direction headed east. The spans rise on either side of you to what appears to be an endless distance. Thankfully, with the two spans on either side of me, I can use them as reference and can put a momentary end to the constant head raising.

At the beginning, the spans are curved and it seems to take forever to get to the point where the two spans straighten out. Once you get to this point, you better have a grip on things because looking down the long way ahead will either completely discourage you or get you revved up. I was the latter, fortunately.

I had started the race very conservatively, with a very long stroke cycle, but now was getting into a comfort zone and was picking up my pace. My breathing is good, technique is solid and confidence is high. I start passing swimmers from wave one. They were wearing the yellow swim caps, we from wave two had the orate swim caps. I just go into cruise control and rely more on my psychological strength than on my physical strength (at 5 hours of swimming a week I was not/am not that great in shape).

The Tide is NOT so Mild Anymore

While the current had started off mildly at first, it is starting to get choppy. Good thing I don’t get sea sick, ’cause I’m sure my wife would be laying her guts out on the water, along with a bunch of other souls. The further into the channel I made it, the choppier it got. I had been in cruise control for a while when suddenly I realized I was almost crashing into swimmers I was passing.

A quick glance to either side and up and I realized these swimmers from wave 1 were swimming diagonally. I am but yards away from being under the southern span of the bridge (eastbound lanes). The current has become so strong it is forcing us all southbound. I switch gears and start swimming diagonally myself. I realize it is taking a lot of energy to simply make any progress forward. I have a massive concrete column to my left that I am using for reference and I am moving ever so slowly forward.

I struggle for quite some time not sure how long I can mentally and physically continue this. I just barely cleared the 2 mile buoy marker. I have half a race left and going nowhere.

I realize we’re all in the same scenario. I compose myself and embrace the pain. I embrace the struggle to breathe, the constant water in my face, the low visibility, the feet and elbows from those I am passing from wave 1 and just keep at it. I think back at the hours of training, setting aside any notion of the conditions, the waves, the 5,000 extreme temperature changes (ice cold to warm water in split seconds) and just stay focused.

I keep at it for what seems like an eternity. I’m past the marker for mile 3, and keep going. The breathing is quite labored now, my asthma kicking in and taking a grip on my lungs and throat. Stay focus. Don’t let the panic kick in. I have a jet ski 20 yards away from me should anything happen. There’s still people ahead of me, no idea if they have yellow or orange caps, but I stay focused on trying to close the gap. I think of my kids and wife, sing along to some G N’ R and Metallica, continue to make headway.

The spans are now coming closer to the water surface, signaling the approach to the western shore. I’m thrilled to think that the race is close to an end, but still struggle a tad. I am so disoriented. Where are the lane lines! Why is the water so dark. I can’t see the bottom!

The Beach is NOT That Close

Finally, I am nearing the buoys that signal the columns of the southern span I have to swim under to make my final approach to the finish. Having turned a sharp right to swim under the span and between the two columns, I take a sharp left to make my way to the beach. I see the finish area, a distant speck in the distance and I find myself cursing Doug for these last several hundred yards seem longer than he had described.

Doug, bless him, had described a short sprint to the end once you cleared the bridge. That was not the case. It’s a good 400 yards or so I’d say (difficult to gauge when you’ve been swimming for an hour and a half and are a tad disoriented). But I dig in, take comfort in pretending to race the JetSki that is to my right side and the cars to my right, imagining that they are cheering wildly for me to finish.

It seems to take forever, but slowly and surely I am getting closer to the finish. I see the orange netting at the finish line. I head left, but see a volunteer signal for me to go right. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to switch gears on the fly like that, but finally feel the sand on the tips of my hands and stand on my feet. I should have kept swimming a couple of yards further, ’cause the water is still too deep to walk comfortably.

But at last I emerge from the water onto the beach and I am ecstatic at having finished the race. What an experience. I am tired but I am so hooked on this race I am already planning for the 2012 race (I am confirmed to take part in the 2012 race on June 10).

The staff are awesome, helping me out of the wetsuit (it is so damn hot!!) and I make my way up the HILL (!!) to the snack area. I down two bottles of water immediately and grab some food and more water.

I find the wife and kids who can’t believe I completely ignored them as I walked right past them when I made my way to the snack area. “Honey, I think I am a little out of it” I said. She could tell from the blank gaze in my eyes.

What a great race and what fun, despite the pain and effort. But now I know what to expect in the 2012 race, although conditions will be unknown. That’s the difference. In the pool you always swim in a controlled environment. Open water you never have the same conditions. Temperature, surge, current, other swimmers, always varies. It’s quite a different challenge.

Post Race

There were several sad events that took place though. I am sad to say that Grahame Rice, 43, died from an apparent heart attack. He was a father of two and had been cleared by his doctor to take part in the race. May you rest in peace.

Also, a disappointing storm made it’s way over the bay (hence the sudden change in current as we all swam), forcing some 73 swimmers to be pulled out, including Craig Dietz. The US Coast Guard do a phenomenal job of maintaining safety and a great many thanks go out to them and to the race organizers.

Thank you for the experience of a lifetime. See you all in 2012 for more fun!

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[superquote]95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.[/superquote]

Ready for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and More

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Filterable Plugin + Lightbox

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[superquote]95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.[/superquote]

Ready for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and More

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Filterable Plugin + Lightbox

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[aside title="Aside Title"]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/aside]

[seven_columns]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.[/seven_columns]

[feature href="#" buttontext="Download Now!"]Ready to get started with Super Skeleton?[/feature]

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[superquote]95% of the information on the web is written language. It is only logical to say that a web designer should get good training in the main discipline of shaping written information, in other words: Typography.[/superquote]

Ready for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and More

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Filterable Plugin + Lightbox

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

[aside title="Aside Title"]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.[/aside]

[seven_columns]Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.[/seven_columns]

[feature href="#" buttontext="Download Now!"]Ready to get started with Super Skeleton?[/feature]