The Two-Lake Swim for Epilepsy

September 30, 2007

The Continuing Reason for the Swim for Epilepsy

After a long summer trying to find the perfect venue to swim for Epilepsy Foundation of Connecticut and a work project in California that just did not want to stop, I set up a local swim so my family and I could be there while I swam on a weekend that I knew I would definitely be at home.

It struck me while I was setting up this swim that I did not have a summer because, generally, I spent 11 out of 14 days in California plus 1/2 day traveling to and from California.  But if I lost this summer, I knew that Kate had lost so many summers that I had little about which to complain.  I know I am the lucky one as I can go out to Hammonassett and swim for 2 hours in beautiful water.  I can swim in either Lakes Zoar or Lillinonah.  I have the freedom to travel anywhere in the world to swim, to socialize, to be out and about with family, friends and colleagues.  But Kate is at the mercy of family and friends who will take her to the mall, to dinner at a Friendly’s or anywhere else she wants or needs to go.

While this is my 15th swim for charity, this year as in the last six I dedicate this swim to finding a cure that will give Kate the freedom to go where she wants to go, when she wants to go and by any means of her choosing.

In March of this year, I took Kate up to see her doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital.  I asked if she should have the surgery that allows the doctor’s to scan her brain to map the damaged portions and, perhaps, remove them.  Her doctor, Dr. Robert Duckrow, said that the technology had not improved in the last 3 years.

However, Dr. Duckrow said he is working in a group on new “nano” technology that will use an infrared beam to power the small, wafer-thin  “nanochips” that can “map” the brain more precisely than the current technology.  The infrared beam will also be used to send the data back to the computer.  Further, they are going to team up with a company out of New Haven, CT County that has developed the technology that can read large amounts of data very quickly.  For example, it has taken up to 10 years to map the human genome but they will be able to read Francis Crick’s DNA, one of the discoverers of DNA, the double helix and how it works, in only 10 months.

They are currently looking for funding for the prototype.  Their hope is that by the end of 2007, they will be able to start testing of the prototype.  While it will take millions to get it to where it will pass test for the FDA, they need less than $100,000 to start the initial testing.

If there is any good news coming out of the war on terror is that the number of epilepsy cases from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan are quite large due to the bombings.  The US government is preparing to spend tens of millions of dollars on research for better control of epilepsy.  This is a very promising method of mapping the brain to the point where brain surgery is possible.  This technology may well be the final hope for Kate to have a more normal life.

Developing the Venue

This year’s swim, called the “Two-Lake Swim For Epilepsy” is the result of so many training swims in the two of the Lakes created by damming the Housatonic River in various places in Fairfield/New Haven Counties.  Lake Lillinonah, named for the Indian Princess who leaped off of a ledge in New Milford because her father would not allow her to marry a white person.  Lake Zoar’s name comes from a place in the Bible.  I have often trained during the Spring, Summer and Fall in the “open water” of these lakes instead of swimming down in Long Island Sound.

I put these two venues together, which are so near my house, so I could have a swim near my family and friends while still being worthy of this year’s event.

So, with the family set to switch off on the kayaking duties, we scouted starting and ending places in Lake Lillinonah.  I already knew Lake Zoar much more intimately as I did my English Channel 6-hour, less than 60 degree water temperature qualifying swim in November of 2001 and as a training swim in 2004.  I knew parts of Lillinonah around the bridge and boat ramp at Route 133 and from the boat ramp at

On September 29, Trina and I went up to New Milford to find the best starting point.  The initial plan was to start near the steel bridge at Route 67.  But, just below the bridge is a small water fall that, while not much of an obstacle, would be a problem to see in the early morning darkness.  We found a small marina at the end of

The ending point in Lake Lillinonah was a small spot, just above the Shepaug Dam, which has a parking lot from which fishermen, kayakers or other small boats could be launched easily.  It is, however, by no means a real boat launch. 

The Lake Zoar starting and stopping places were already known to me.  I was going to start at Joel Zeizler’s dock at the northern end of Shady Rest in Newtown.  Joel is a very giving person.  He teaches legally blind and persons with amputations how to water ski.  He has a water ski jump in front of his house; he sets up the slalom course in the river, and has his boat set up with a siren and strobe that warms a legally-blind person when to turn through the slalom course.  His group, called “Leaps of Faith” is a wonderful organization.  It is a privilege and honor to know him.  His dock is about 1 mile south of the dam, so the plan was to swim north for 1/2 mile, then come south again and end at the Monroe boat launch just west of the Stevenson Dam, about 10.5 miles south of the Shepaug dam.

With the swim venue established, all I had to do was rest the night before, drive up to New Milford, and start the swim. 

Preparation

My training for the swim this year was mostly in California.  From the middle of February I swam with the Shore Aquatic Masters at California State University - Long Beach.  I swam with them 3 to 4 times per week, depending upon my schedule in California.  On the weekends I was in Long Beach, basically every other weekend, I drove down to La Jolla Cove to swim with Anne Cleveland.  I met Anne in 2002 in Dover England when we each were doing our first English Channel swim.  She has since completed a double-crossing of the English Channel as well as a single crossing in horrible weather this year.  While at home, I continued to swim  in pools with Liz Fry and Marcy MacDonald either at the New Canaan Y, the Manchester Y, or Yale University.  During the open-water season, we swam at Hammonassett with other open water swimmers such as Dennis Dressel and Tobey Saracino.

During the earl open water season I tweaked my right shoulder and arm somewhat.  Certain motions bothered me at lot, including some swimming arm movements.  For example, doing a lot of butterfly, sculling with my arms out front or even some deep backstroke arm pulls as well as certain arm angles of the freestyle stroke bothered my right arm.  However, I put in a number of long swims either in the pool or in open water just to understand the dull ache of the arm.  My last long, open water swim happened to be at Big Bear Lake in California with Mike Krein, my open water coach until he moved to Flagstaff, AZ, and his wife, Jan, in the summer of 2005.  There I was in the water for over 6 hours, of which 5 was actual swimming, and the remainder was talking and catching up while they paddled and I dawdled and treaded water.

During my swim at Big Bear Lake, we came up with the potential venue of swimming the two lakes.  Sometime after the Big Bear Lake adventure, I finally decided the Two-Lake Swim near my home was the appropriate venue for this year’s swim.

With the venue and swimming preparation set, all we had to do was arrange the rotation of the kayakers.  Brooke, the twin sister to Kate, wanted to go first so she would have the rest of the day to be with her daughter, Kayla Madison Bayles.  Trina wanted to do the last leg, which was Lake Zoar, so Jen drew the middle spot.

Next, we had to decide where to make the switch in Lake Lillinonah.  We decided the boat launch on the eastern shore of the lake at Route 133 was about as close to the middle of the first lake swim as we could find.

We also had to decide which kayak to use.  I favored the larger, two-person kayak as I felt there was more room for supplies and clothes.  No one wanted the larger kayak because they felt it would be “too hard to handle.”  There was another, secret reason: if I wanted to stop; I could always get in the two-person kayak from any shore.  With a single-person kayak, it would be difficult for me to stop and be brought to a boat ramp or marina to be “rescued.”

The Swim

Lake Lillinonah

At 6:25 AM, I jumped off the dock at the little marina next to the factory in New Milford.  The water was a quite comfortable 65.4 degrees.  The water was placid with steam rising from the waters as the air temperature at the beginning of the swim was in the mid-forties.

I was in uncharted waters as I had never swum in this part of the lake before.  We stroked at a steady pace.  During this part of the swim I would stop for sustenance every 45 minutes.  At one point, going by an old factory, it suddenly got warmer.  In Long Island Sound such warm spots were referred to as “Whale Pee.”  In the lake, there is a less comforting name for it.  I asked Brooke if she smelled anything funny. She did not, but she did see “gas bubbles” rising up just to the right of the Kayak.

We continued to swim south, stroking at a steady pace.  During this part of the swim Brooke clocked me at between 63 and 65 strokes per minute.  At about 1.5 miles into the swim, we entered the gorges that make up Lover’s Leap Park.  In the middle of the park, there are two bridges that span the river.  In a tradition that spans back to my first major open water swim, I swam backstroke under the bridge to look at the superstructure.  I asked Brooke if she saw any large rock formation high enough to kill someone if they jumped off of it.  Some time later during the swim if finally occurred to me that the river was significantly higher due to the dam so we could not possible fathom how high the leap must have been that lead to Princess Lillinonah’s death.

Just south of the gorges of Lover’s Leap Park we entered a very flat area that I will now forever call Lake Lillinonah’s “Sargasso Sea.”  It was a very shallow part of the lake where I could not easily swim freestyle because of the weeds and depth of the river.  During this part of the lake I swam backstroke for about 10 minutes so my arms did not touch the lake bottom.  When we came out of the Sargasso Sea, we were in a part of the lake I knew well.  I was now swimming in the northern most part of the Lake I had ever ventured in past training swims.  There is a house with a rock in the river that is quite beautiful.  I knew I was 2 hours or so from the Route 133 boat ramp.  I was no longer in unchartered waters. 

We continued south towards Route 133 and the switch point for the kayakers.  Brooke said that at least one swan took a dive at me until it realized I was not a yellow-headed fish.  We also startled a number of blue herons that live at the edge of the lake.  We also passed at least two rowers who were also enjoying the very calm lake.

As I was swimming and watching how still the water was and how it reflected the land and trees around it, I was reminded of a poem written by A. A. Milne about the swam swimming breast to breast with its reflection on a warm summer afternoon.  The only difference was that this was a warm late September morning.

The currents in the lake are a bit interesting.  It seems that the current in the Lake just north and south of the boat ramp should flow south towards the dam.  Instead it feels as if the waters flow north.  It may be that the prevailing winds are always blowing south to north or I am just that much more tired at this point in my training swims.  However Brooke felt that the waters seemed against us as well.

At around 10:20 AM, 4 hours after the start, we reached the boat ramp.  I took some more sustenance while Brooke and Jen switched places in the kayak.  I angled towards the western bank of the river from the boat ramp while Jen sprinted in the kayak to catch up.  So far, we had encountered only a few boats on the lake, and most of them were fishermen who had already set up for a morning of rest, relaxation and contemplation waiting for the fish to bite on this lovely Autumn day.

At the boat ramp I took a quick look at the water temperature and it was close to 70 degrees, quite warm for a late September weekend.  Jen and I continued south on the western bank, past some beautiful houses, past a private beach and boating club, past the area where the Hanover Road boat launch would enter the lake, and then past what from the water’s edge seemed to be a trackless stretch of land where the lake flowed past large stands of trees with the beginnings of Autumn colors.

We entered the part of the lake that might be called the Shepaug as this is a body of water that feels like the top of a script capital “T.”  The water temperature continued to climb, but Jen and I were all alone

At around 1:00 PM, 6 hours, 20 minutes, 30 seconds (6:20.30) I climbed out of Lake Lillinonah where we met Trina and a very good friend, Paul Vossbrinck.  They were there to help us port of the kayak, Jen and me in Paul’s truck to Lake Zoar.

Lake Zoar

When we arrived at Joel Zeisler’s house, he told us that the power company had just started generating power so that there was a current flowing south from the Shepaug dam.  This meant that we were not going to swim north first but instead head immediately south.  At around 1:25 PM, we were in Lake Zoar, heading towards the Stevenson dam.

Lake Zoar is much narrower than Lake Lillinonah and therefore when boats go flying by, I could really feel the short, choppy waves.  For most of this swim, we were somewhat battered by the wake coming from these boats.  The first two hours were quite uneventful.  I was stopping close to every 30 –to 35 minutes instead of 45 minutes, which I attributed to being a little more tired. 

At the steel Bridge and relic of the rail road bridge spanning Lake Zoar between Newtown and Southbury, I pointed out to Trina that the rail road went through Berkshire Estates and part of Paul Vossbrinck’s property.  At the two-and-one-half-hour mark, we went under the I-84 bridges.  This time, I did not swim backstroke as I had seen this boring superstructure numerous times.  Around the bend is Lake Zoar’s “Sargasso Sea” which abuts a sandbar that local boaters stop to rest, play and meet friends.  One group of friends who has a boat on Lake Zoar stopped by to see us and wish us luck as this was probably their last weekend on the Lake for 2007.

Swimming through Lake Zoar’s Sargasso Sea was even more difficult than Lake Lillinonah’s Sargasso Sea.  Here I definitely had to swim breaststroke.  Even at that, my legs brushed the sandy/muddy bottom of the lake most of the way.  After 10 minutes, we were out of the “Sea” and swimming freely again.  From this part of the Lake, there are number of “S’s” or switchbacks heading down towards the Stevenson Dam.  Also, we were continually passed by boaters and jet skiers heading fast to their destination point.

While I never felt too tired or too injured, there were times in one of the switchbacks that had a particularly long leg between the “S’s,” I knew if I kept swimming I would be fine.  In fact, I was glad that we did not have the double kayak.  However this part of the Lake felt to me what “Heartbreak Hill” must feel to marathon runners competing in the Boston Marathon.  The wind was against us and the river looked as if it would go on forever, I was tired and sore of back, and if the opportunity had presented itself, I might have considered getting out.  However, Trina was frustrated with my less than perfectly straight swimming, so she was 15 yards ahead of me.  I never had an opportunity to really complain.

In the last switch back “S” I felt a bit discouraged as there was still no “end” in sight.  Then, wonder of wonders, the river opened up as I had seen it twice before during my two training swims, to the wide body of water that stands before the Stevenson dam.  We had just over one-and-one-third miles to go, and I was going to make it, quite easier than I expected.

After 40 minutes more of swimming, at 6:40 PM, in the gathering dusk, I climbed out of Lake Zoar and Trina, butt-soar and arm weary, out of the kayak that had been her cocoon.  Jen and her boyfriend, Jerry, were there to greet us. 

I felt wonderful to accomplish this swim so near my house as the two lakes combined are similar in distance to the English Channel.  This swim was certainly easier as the salt water, tides and waves were not a factor, but the water is fresh and therefore heavier and somewhat harder in which to swim.  Also, I did have a half hour rest while we switched lakes.  Still, 22 plus miles is still a long way and a worthy effort.

Conclusion

One of the interesting things about the swim was that I was concerned about my right shoulder and arm.  I expected it to hurt a lot more during the swim.  Certainly ibuprofen is a wonderful drug and it does help mask the pain.  However, the interesting thing is that the shoulder felt better after the swim than before. 

I also learned a lot about my determination.  At the pool in Long Beach a couple of people realized, after they heard about the swim I was preparing to attempt, that I was not just a “nut” about my distance swimming, but a “committed nut” who wanted to do more than just swim.  I am not saying my motives are completely altruistic as I also swim for my self and the accomplishments I can achieve.  However, I also swim and train for this once-a-year event as it is important for me to give something back.  I was fortunate to have been given the health and chance by my parents to find an activity I liked and excelled at when I was in grade school, high school and college.  I am fortunate that I have a family that supports my efforts.  But they also understand how important it is for all of us to give something back so those less fortunate, in this case their sibling/daughter, so she might have a chance for a better, more normal life if we can find the right “cure” through drugs and/or mechanical devices.

I also hope that I can remember I have freedoms that Kate cannot currently have.  While I might be hard on her and ask that she accomplish what she has the ability to accomplish, I also must realize that she is a bright and beautiful young woman with all the desires of an adult trapped in a body that, to date, fails her in her attempt to be an independent and strong.