I have competed in a handful of short ocean races - and love them. This summer I attempted to swim around Key West (12.5miles) but was pulled out only a 1/3 of the way around because I had been throwing up for over an hour. I felt like I was motion sick - nothing seemed to help settle my stomach. My kayaker tried giving me water, soda, solid food, jelly food, and we even tried Zofran. We had encountered this problem in the training but I was hoping I could just make it most of the way around before I got sick. The waves had another plan for me, and I started feeling sick within 20 minutes of the swim (projected to take me 6 hours).
Was I sea sick? Was it anxiety that turned my stomach? Is there a certain food I should be trying? How do I fix this so I can make it around next year?
I appreciate any advice. Thank you!
Nicole G
I have used ginger before and while it seems to help the actual vomiting, it did nothing for the nausea for me. I just couldn't put anything else in my stomach and had to stop.
There is a scopolamine pill available that I may consider as backup in a long swim. It works more quickly than the patches.
It happens to me in the pool, I swim with my eyes closed it helps ,I use a tethered swimming leash to keep it at bay :)imho
Cheers
I have never bought into the swimming with my eyes closed thing because frankly knowing my luck I'd run into something and lose training time. But I never thought about using a tether.
Near the finish in the pensacola 3-mile bridge swim, I swam a fair distance in some shallow area which had light penetrate to the bottom.
The bottom had shadows from sunlight and very light chop or wave action. It played havoc with me in a very short distance. ...felt like seasickness at the finish.
I never felt this reaction in an outdoor pool with its shadows and do think the depth, e.g. two feet, and visibilty, e.g. crystal clear, had an impact.
