About 600 swimmers from across the country and around the world braved the choppy Chesapeake waters Sunday in the 2009 Great Chesapeake Bay Swim.
Brian Benda, 38, of Parkton, Md., won in his seventh time swimming the race, finishing in 1:34:34. Erin Luley, 20, won the female race with a time of 1:42:11. Race volunteers shouted “Congratulations!” and “Way to go, Brian!” as Benda made his way up the chute, exchanging high-fives with other well-wishers.
“Look, there’s no 12-year-olds coming out first!” shouted race director Charles Nabit as more swimmers crossed the finish line. “These guys actually grow beards!”
Earlier, in the mile race, 11 of the top 15 finishers were 17 or younger.
Benda said afterward the win felt great, and that a group of four or five swimmers broke away toward the end when they moved out of the spires. Benda said he swam three days a week at Meadowbrook’s 50-meter-long pool, adding that cross training from running marathons and triathlons helps for a swim like the Bay Race.
The 4.4-mile race, one of the premier open-water swim events in the country, started at the shores of Sandy Point State Park and finished at a small sandy beach on Kent Island immediately south of the bridge’s eastern-shore causeway.
“It’s going so incredibly smoothly and so well,” Nabit said as the leaders neared the finish. “I’m amazed and humbled about how things have worked.”
The first mash of arms, legs and yellow swim caps launched from the Kent Island beach just before 10 a.m. for the one-mile race. The 4.4-mile race started at about 11:30 a.m.
Cars passing across the Bay Bridge blared their horns in a show of solidarity for the swimmers. Some onlookers cheered loudly while others chatted idly or flipped through books and magazines. Helicopters roared overhead, and boats guarded the bridge area for the swimmers in a race where there were more than 2,500 applications for the 600 slots.
“It’s the majesty of the bridges and the majesty of the Bay,” Nabit said.
