Around Coronado Swim

On July 9, I completed my second official marathon swim of the 2024 season – a tandem circumnavigation of Coronado Island in San Diego, California. 

I was thrilled to be invited to join my good friend, Erika Beauchamp, on this adventure. She lives on the East Coast and had planned this swim to get some experience in the ocean at night. Once I was through 20 Bridges and certified injury free, I committed to completing the 11.5-mile swim with her. The Around Coronado Swim is organized by Dan Simonelli. The swim begins at Glorietta Bay in the San Diego Bay and ends across the street at Gator Beach. I found it amusing that I could theoretically walk 3 minutes from the start to finish locations, but I would instead choose to swim around the entire island. 

I arrived to San Diego the day before our swim. Erika and I did a shakeout in Glorietta Bay and I was surprised to find that the water was 75F. It felt like we were swimming in a bathtub! We splashed around for about 20 minutes and I rescued an inflatable inner tube that had blown away from the beach. In the evening, my mom arrived and we shared a quick dinner before I went back to the hotel to prep my feeds and try to sleep. 

My alarm went off at an entirely unreasonable 0100 and Erika picked me up shortly thereafter. We met our kayakers, Dan and Summer, at the Glorietta Bay boat ramp. I thought that we would be the only people around, but there was a group of people pulling a boat from the water as we went over the swim details, safety plan, and feed schedule. Dan let us know that the first 2/3 of the swim is tidal assisted, and we had a moderately strong tide for our swim. We wouldn’t be flying, but we would get a good amount of assistance en route to the Pacific Ocean. The final 3 miles of the swim would be honest and unassisted. Erika and I hung out on the beach as Dan and Summer prepared their kayaks, and we saw a small ray swimming on the shoreline. I took that as a good luck charm that we would have a successful swim attempt. 

Dan instructed us to be careful of the rocks at the entry, and to not dive in as it is quite shallow at the start. We got into the warm water around 0245 and began swimming towards the Coronado Bridge. Dan was to my left, Erika to my right, and Summer to Erika’s right. Very immediately, I began feeling stings on my abdomen and heavily regretted not wearing a two piece. I considered taking my suit off to spare my skin, but ultimately decided I would just deal with whatever rash emerged later. It felt like only 2 seconds had passed before we were having our first feed. The water was quite calm and Erika and I found our flow quickly. 

Soon after our first feed, I felt something hit my left shoulder. I thought it must be Dan’s kayak paddle, but when I looked at him, it didn’t appear that he had anything he needed to tell me. I kept swimming and I enjoyed sighting on the illuminated bridge. We did the obligatory backstroke under the bridge (it’s the law!) and a few minutes later, I was again hit by something, this time on my right bicep as I moved through my recovery. I stopped and asked what was going on and Summer said “It’s a jumping fish!” I was literally being pummeled by fish! How silly. 

Erika and I were pacing well and moving along smoothly through the swim. For about an hour after the fish incidents, nothing very notable happened. I really had no idea where I was during the night portion of this swim and was struggling mentally with being present in the water. I tried to focus on my stroke, but my mind kept returning to wishing I was back in bed. As we continued moving counterclockwise around the island, we swam further from the lights of San Diego and towards a darker and colder area. The water was still a comfortable temperature for me, but there were patches that were noticeably colder. At first light, I was able to make out some of the cliffs near Point Loma and exclaimed, “The White Cliffs of San Diego!” 

This swim posed a unique challenge for me. The conditions were amazing, I was swimming alongside an incredible athlete and friend, and I had two of the best kayakers in the marathon swimming world guiding me. All things pointed towards this being an incredible experience, but internally, I was struggling. I have completed marathon swims during depressive episodes, but I have yet to experience anything like the profound emptiness I felt swimming around Coronado. I wasn’t able to prevent the tough feelings from a recent life event from tormenting me throughout the night, no matter how hard I tried to redirect my thoughts. I desperately ached to be out of the water and to have time alone to process and grieve. There were definitely moments of joy, but my lasting memory of the swim is that of my despairing internal milieu. 

Despite my low mood, I am thankful to Erika for inviting me to join this swim, to Dan and Summer for keeping us safe, and to Jeremy for being our land crew. This is a great route, accessible distance, and comfortable temperature for those beginning their marathon swimming journey… I highly recommend!

The day after our swim, I was cheered up by finally getting to swim with the friendly sea lions at La Jolla cove. Erika and I met up with my good friend, Kelley Schall, and her friend, Ivanka. The four of us swam to an area called the Marine Room in search of Leopard Sharks. We unfortunately did not find any, but we still had a beautiful swim, and I got to honk the famous chicken!