Taking on 15.5 miles of open water
Wading River man to swim L.I. Sound for charity
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Wading River resident John Gosman has been training regularly at his beach club on Creek Road for his swim across the Long Island Sound. When asked if the fact that you can barely see Connecticut from the spot where he works out bothers him, Mr. Gosman said, 'You just don't look.
He has plenty of them at work, serving as the lead mechanical engineer on the construction of Brookhaven National Laboratory's new National Synchrotron Light Source.
He also has his share of challenges around his Wading River home. He's been renovating the 1799 house on North Country Road, where he lives with his wife and daughter, for about 11 years.
Wading River resident John Gosman has been training regularly at his beach club on Creek Road for his swim across the Long Island Sound. When asked if the fact that you can barely see Connecticut from the spot where he works out bothers him, Mr. Gosman said, 'You just don't look.'
"I definitely get a little nervous thinking about the challenge at hand," Mr. Gosman said. "If I think about the distance too much, I start to get butterflies."
But Liz Fry, who coordinates the annual St. Vincent's SWIM Across the Sound marathon, said she believes Mr. Gosman is ready to make the journey. She should know. Ms. Frey has completed the distance swimmers' trifecta, having swum the English Channel, the Catalina Islands and around Manhattan.
"I'm very proud of John," she said. "Just with where he's at and with how ready he is."
The preparation has been no easy task, Mr. Gosman said.
He first had to swim 12 miles to qualify as a swimmer in the event. And he swims nearly every day, even dragging his family along for weekends in Connecticut each week for what he calls "swimmers' boot camp." The Gosmans and the families of many other participants have been camping at a state park, where the swimmers rise each morning for a long-distance workout in the cold water.
And while swimming is nothing new to Mr. Gosman, who grew up surrounded by water in Wading River and even competed on the swim team at Clarkson University, he's had to learn a new approach for the August event.
"I've even had to learn a new stroke," he said, "one that's all about conserving energy in the open water."
As the training has continued, however, Mr. Gosman said his focus has become less about the swimming and more about the charitable effort.
The SWIM Marathon started in 1987, when a lone swimmer named Jeffrey Keith, who had lost part of his legs to cancer, swam across the Sound with friend Matthew Vossler and raised $5,000 for the cancer charity, according to the event Web site.
Since then, the marathon has grown into a yearlong series of events that have raised millions of dollars. Sponsored by St. Vincent's Medical Center Foundation, the SWIM provides financial support and care for the needs that health insurance companies do not cover, the site reads. The SWIM provides cancer screenings at low cost or no cost to the elderly, underserved and uninsured, and helps cancer patients and their families by providing free support groups, wigs and prostheses, and financial assistance with medications, transportation, day care, utilities and mortgages.
Mr. Gosman, who, like so many Americans, has lost family members to cancer, said the importance of his efforts shifted into focus after he recently received a phone call from an old college buddy. The friend had heard about what he was doing and wanted to offer his support.
"He told me he was having his own struggles with cancer," Mr. Gosman said.
And it's with that sort of story in mind that Mr. Gosman and his fellow swimmers will dive off the pier at Danfords Marina in Port Jefferson Harbor next month, swimming not just to challenge themselves but also to help others.
"It's great to be able to contribute to such a tremendous cause," Mr. Gosman said.
gparpan@northshoresun.com
Want to learn more?
If you would like to make a donation or to find out more information about the event, visit http://give.stvincents.org/Page.aspx?pid=308.
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