After more than two decades of swimming across the Chesapeake Bay every June, Brian Earley has never donned a wetsuit ? even though water temperatures can dip below 70 degrees during his annual trek.
He says if his father, who died of diabetes complications in 1981, could stick a needle in his thigh every day, he can certainly endure cold water for two hours a year.
Earley started what is now the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, an annual 4.4-mile swim that more than 600 swimmers participated in Sunday, as a 21-year-old junior at Towson University looking for a way to honor his late father.
“It was just a simple thank-you,” said Earley, 45, who now lives in San Diego.
Since 1982, swimmers and their sponsors have raised more than $1.2 million for Maryland charities, including the March of Dimes and the Chesapeake Bay Trust, said Chuck Nabit, race director.
Under a cloudy sky Sunday afternoon, swimmers prepared for the race, which starts at Sandy Point State Park, ends on Kent Island and usually takes about 2 hours to complete. The water temperature this year was about 74 degrees, slightly warmer than usual, Nabit said.
Swimmers, clad in black and white suits, guzzled water and scarfed down PowerBars before the race. People of varying ages and degrees of fitness competed. The youngest swimmers were 15 and there were two 75-year-olds.
Bruce Brockschmidt, of Mount Laurel, N.J., finished the race first in 1 hour, 29 minutes and 25 seconds.
About 40 of the 645 participants were pulled out of the water before finishing.
“The most dangerous thing in the water is the other swimmers ? it?s hand-to hand combat,” said Pat O?Connell, 54, of Washington, D.C., who has participated in the race 11 times.
Because the race is considered dangerous, Nabit hired more than 700 volunteers from the U.S. Coast Guard, the Maryland Natural Resources Police and local fire departments to box out boating traffic and keep swimmers within the set boundaries.
Swimmers said the most challenging aspect of the race is adjusting to the water?s changing current.
“The currents are the problem, because you can?t relax into a pace,” said Adele Levine, 36, of Silver Spring.
“My parents won?t even come and watch me. They think it?s lunacy.”
Examiner photographer Chris Ammann contributed to this story.
