By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Max Seidel and Delaney Burns had just completed a mile-long swim in the ocean – a feat that would be impossible for most people – and seemed totally unfazed.
“I loved it. The weather was great. The water was nice,” Seidel, 23, of Lexington, Mass., said with a smile.
Burns, 20, of Berwyn, Pa., went so far as to call the swim “easy.”
“The conditions were really good. The water wasn’t as cold as I expected,” she said.
Seidel won the race and Burns was the top female finisher Saturday in the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol One Mile Ocean Swim, an annual tradition that attracts competitors from throughout the country.
Delaney Burns and Max Seidel hold their trophies as the top finishers.
Altogether, 207 swimmers finished the race, which started at 61st Street and ended at 44th Street in front of the Beach Patrol headquarters. Overcast skies that kept the blazing sun in check, 64-degree water temperature and a relatively calm ocean helped the swimmers.
“These are super-nice conditions. There’s low wave action and just a slight south-southeast wind,” explained Doug Nowak, the race director and member of the Sea Isle Beach Patrol.
Still, even in those conditions, a mile-long swim in the ocean can be challenging for most swimmers – except, perhaps, for Max Seidel and Delaney Burns.
Seidel, who swims at Princeton University, finished in 20 minutes, 6 seconds – an impressive 41 seconds ahead of the second place swimmer, according to the official race results.
Burns, who swims at Penn State University, finished in 22 minutes, 3 seconds to top the women and place ninth overall. She said she led the women’s portion of the swim pretty much from start to finish.
John Wicker crosses the finish line on the 44th Street beach.
Not all of the swimmers had the experience or conditioning of Seidel, Burns or the other top competitors, but they were determined to finish, too.
John Wicker, 48, of Philadelphia, finished in 206th place with a time of 57 minutes, 56 seconds.
Moments after emerging from the ocean and crossing the finish line on the 44th Street beach, Wicker joked that he thought he did “horrible.”
Five years ago, Wicker had back surgery and he still can’t feel his feet, he said. Yet that didn’t stop him from joining his daughters, Anna, 14, and Emily, 13, in the race.
“I feel great,” he said. “The race was great. The lifeguards did an amazing job watching over the swimmers.”
Wicker noted that he struggled a little bit with foggy swimming goggles, but otherwise was happy that he finished in less than an hour.
“He survived,” his daughter, Emily, said while poking fun at her father.
Husband and wife Dane Paneitz and Shannon Radomski get ready for the race.
Dane Paneitz and Shannon Radomski, who are husband and wife and doctors in Baltimore, said they didn’t prepare at all for the race, but thought they would try it for the first time.
“There has been zero preparation,” Radomski said.
“I haven’t swum in two years,” Paneitz added while acknowledging that he was a little nervous about heading out into the ocean.
Radomski, whose parents own a vacation home on 61st Street in Sea Isle, said she is a better swimmer than her husband and would check on him while they were both in the race.
“My challenge is to pace myself,” she said. “I tend to go faster than my fitness level lets me.”
Radomski, 31, finished in 128th place overall with a time of 31 minutes, 58 seconds. Paneitz, also 31, finished 205th overall with a time of 54 minutes, 6 seconds, according to the results.
The race included swimmers from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, Illinois and Colorado. There was also representation from local swimmers, including some from Sea Isle, Ocean City and other communities in Cape May and Atlantic counties.
Click here for the full results:
Sea Isle City Beach Patrol 1 Mile Ocean Swim Results (runsignup.com)
Doug Nowak, race director, gives pre-race instructions before the swimmers hit the water.
https://youtu.be/dNKnvaGBfDw?list=TLPQMjEwNzIwMjRIlnW_0wTG5Q
