Saturday Morning Live - Live From New York City!

If you find yourself in New York City next Saturday and want to see 25 solo swimmers and 14 relay teams compete in Manhattan Island Marathon Swim starting at 7:00 am, there are several recommended areas that offers good views of the swimmers.

Early in the race - before 9:00 am - swimmers can be seen on the pedestrian walkway along the streets numbered between the 60's and 80's. A bit further north at Gracie Mansion Park at the end of the East River and just south of Mill Rock (96th Street) are excellent locations. With a vantage point up high, you can watch swimmers advance northward. Depending on the tide cycle, there may also be large waves bringing additional challenges to the swimmers and kayakers.

Later in the day, swimmers can be seen on the Hudson River at Riverbank State Park between 137-144th streets which is located here. Alternatively, there is a pier just to the south at 125th Street which offers another good viewing spot.

You can also cheer on the swimmers at Battery Park City towards the north end on the water. If you bring binoculars, then you will see the swimmers, kayakers and escort boats gradually traveling down the river.

This vantage point gives you a great perspective on just how significant the current strength impacts a swimmer's performance. Swimmers will be moving faster southbound along the sea wall than the spectators can run.

With a 7:00 am start, the winning solo swimmers and relays should be at the finish at the south cover of Battery Park City within 7 hours and 30 minutes. So be ready and watching at 2:30 pm.

Based on the previous year's races and the expected tides, the fastest swimmers are expected at the following points during the race:

7:18 am at the Brooklyn Bridge
7:34 am at the Williamburg Bridge
8:15 am at Roosevelt Island
8:47 am at Mill Rock
9:33 am at the Triborough Bridge
10:14 am at Yankee Stadium
11:19 am at Spuyten Duyvil
12:07 pm at the George Washington Bridge
1:15 pm at the 79th Boat Basin
1:36 pm the USS Intrepid (see photo above)
2:14 pm at the Battery Park City sea wall
2:27 pm at finish

The fastest swimmers are expected to spend about an hour and 47 minutes swimming in the East River, 2 hours and 32 minutes swimming in the Harlem River and 3 hours and 8 minutes swimming in the Hudson River. The last swimmers are expected to finish around 5 pm.

We will also be providing live updates on Twitter via http://twitter.com/swimopenwater.

Put A Cherry On Top

Open water swimmers eat and drink a variety of products during their marathon swims and workouts. They consume everything from water, tea, coffee, Maxim, Gatorade, bananas to chocolate, cookies and specialty home-made formulations. We found an interesting study that was presented at the 2009 American College of Sports Medicine annual convention in Seattle, Washington.

Glyn Howatson, Malachy McHugh, Jessica Hill, James Brouner, Andy Jewell, Ken van Someren and Rob Shave studied the use of cherry juice to aid in recovery and reduce muscle damage, inflammation and oxidative stress on marathon runners. Although this blog focused entirely on open water swimmers, we thought their findings may be appropriate and interesting to any endurance athlete.

Tart cherries (Prunus Cerasus) are known to contain a variety of phenolic compounds and are particularly rich in anthocyanins that may help to reduce muscle damage, oxidative stress and inflammation following strenuous physical activity, and help to accelerate recovery.

Twenty recreational marathon runners participated in the research and were randomly separated into two groups. One group drank 16 fluid ounces of a commercially available cherry juice (CherryPharm) while the second group drank a placebo every day for five days prior to, and for 2 days after, a marathon run. Measures of muscle damage, delayed onset muscle soreness and maximum voluntary contraction, inflammation, C-reactive protein, uric acid, total antioxidant status, oxidative stress and protein carbonyls were taken pre-supplement, pre-race, immediately post-race, and 24 hours and 48 hours post-race.

The study showed that the maximum voluntary contraction recovered faster in the cherry juice group (101% vs. 91% at 48 hours) and markers of inflammation were reduced in the cherry juice group. Total antioxidant status at 48 hours post-race was 29% lower among the cherry juice drinkers, but the delayed muscle soreness and muscle damage showed no difference between the two groups.

The research team concluded that cherry juice increased total antioxidant capacity following five days of supplementation and reduced inflammation and aided in the recovery of muscle function that may prove valuable for endurance athletes as a viable means to aid recovery.

Photo shows Olympian Mark Warkentin at the 2007 World Swimming Championships drinking a hydration formula that does not cherry juice.