As of yesterday, I am entitled to wear this shirt. Many thanks to all of you, including anonymice and pseudonymice, who pledged money to the Women’s Cancer Resource Center of Oakland. I’m sure they’ll get after you pretty soon. And thanks especially to my friend who swam too and realized about halfway through she could, in fact, swim a lot faster than me. This left me with an official time of 26 minutes, which I think was rounded down; on my own watch it was about 26:29 but still a lot faster than all my earlier times, clocked without a competitor.
The Edge of the American West 
24 comments
October 6, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Jason B
Very nice. Congratulations.
October 6, 2008 at 6:33 pm
LizardBreath
What, no swimsuit pictures?
October 6, 2008 at 6:45 pm
dana
More Aquaman pix!
October 6, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Lori
I was hoping for a Phelps-like victory photo.
October 6, 2008 at 7:24 pm
kid bitzer
“More Aquaman pix!”
i bet you’re saying that because he’s tall.
height-ist.
October 6, 2008 at 8:55 pm
bitchphd
No, we’re saying that in order to hassle him.
October 6, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Josh
Count yourself lucky we didn’t know if you were swimming Saturday or Sunday. The thought of showing up to
hecklesupport you crossed our minds.Regardless, congratulations!
October 6, 2008 at 9:11 pm
ben
It doesn’t count if you brag about it, Eric. Remember your tzedakah.
October 6, 2008 at 9:24 pm
ari
It doesn’t count if you
brag about itaren’t wearing a swim costume, Eric. Remember yourtzedakahbreathless public.October 6, 2008 at 9:59 pm
ben
I see you haven’t quite worked yourself up to feeling at home enough with HTML to have the selfsame piece of text both italicized and struck through.
October 6, 2008 at 10:18 pm
eric
I was thinking that the charity in question was that of everyone who gave, ben. Also, it seemed to me that it would have been rude not to follow up, having solicited pledges. No?
October 6, 2008 at 10:20 pm
ben
You have shamed me.
October 6, 2008 at 10:21 pm
eric
Not intentionally. I had the same thought as you, but thought also that these other considerations outweighed them.
October 6, 2008 at 10:40 pm
eric
Also, Josh: Next year!
October 6, 2008 at 11:03 pm
ben
You truly are a great man.
October 6, 2008 at 11:34 pm
ari
I was proud of that html, ben. Until you ruined it for me.
October 7, 2008 at 3:05 am
blueollie
Congratulations! I’ve never swam a mile that fast.
I swam an open water race too; the race generated some political controversy. Yes that is me, and yes, the shirt and the medal had Barack Obama wearing swim goggles. :)
My time for the 5K swim was 1:36:34.
Note: a few years ago, I ran a running race and the t-shirt had Ronald Reagan on it and I didn’t whine about that.
October 7, 2008 at 9:04 am
eric
ben, my thoughts were not as profound as yours, nor nearly so organized. As usual for historians, there’s an important empirical side to this tale: I posted the “Aquaman” photo on the pledge page, so as to amuse my friends. One of my friends is Kieran, who thought it was sufficiently hilarious to publicize more broadly—and I was glad and grateful, if also slightly embarrassed, for him to do that, for drawing more attention and hilarity also meant drawing more pledge dollars, which was the point. Once Kieran did that, it was no longer a private gesture, and people who donated pledges knowing me not well or at all were nevertheless entitled I thought to a note of recognition and thanks for their generosity. Fair?
October 7, 2008 at 9:05 am
eric
And ollie: mile times in the pool must ordinarily be faster than in open water, right? No waves plus you get to push off from the wall and coast for a few seconds every 25 yards.
October 7, 2008 at 11:00 am
blueollie
Yes, pool mile times are faster for the reasons you stated. In open water swims, I sure miss those walls! :)
October 7, 2008 at 1:51 pm
eric
Oh, and I am minded to mention that B posted it too, though a little after Kieran, but with extra added embarrassment for me.
October 7, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Josh
LizardBreath gets no love? For shame.
October 7, 2008 at 2:50 pm
eric
Ah, and LB too. Apparently I provide more fodder for ridicule than even I realized.
October 7, 2008 at 3:03 pm
andrew
I’m not sure what this thread is about now, but congratulations.