The current was stronger and the water more salty than she expected, but she had a better view of an American icon than she ever imagined. And, to top it off she placed fourth in her age group, representing Elizabethtown College as the first Blue Jay to ever swim around the Statue of Liberty.
Amanda Robbins a sophomore and a member of the College swim team accompanied Louise Hyder-Darlington, access services librarian at High Library, in a .9-mile Statue of Liberty swim Thursday, Sept. 18. Hyder-Darlington had completed the swim last year and convinced Robbins to join her for round two.
This is the last year the swim is being held, so Robbins didn’t want to miss out on what is likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“Louise was my FYS advisor for the library,” Robbins said. “She said she was into swimming and running. I talked to her about (the swim) and then she mentioned it again later and we emailed over the summer. When I found out it was the last one they were going to do I signed up.”
When I found out it was the last one they were going to do I signed up.”
Robbins runs two to three miles a few times a week, swam for her high school and is on the Blue Jay team, but she never swam in open water before. “There’s not a floor or lanes,” she said, her eyes wide. She tried a mile swim in the ocean this summer to prepare herself. “It was scary. All I could think of was sting rays. …
I’m being dramatic, but its dark water; I couldn’t see what was around me.”
Being a swimmer, Robbins said she wasn’t worried about the distance. Instead, she said, she was looking forward to the openness. “It’s better than back and forth, back and forth.”
Robbins and Hyder-Darlington left Lancaster County at 1:30 for the sunrise 7 a.m. swim from Liberty Island. They signed in at 4:30 in The Battery in Lower Manhattan and met Robbins’ parents there; they were deck out head-to-toe in E-town wear, Hyder-Darlington said.
“They were so thrilled about what Amanda – their only child – is doing. They took the day off from work and drove from Philly to be there.” Robbins’ friend and fellow Blue Jay junior Elizabeth Finnegan was there to cheer them on, too.
Though Robbins really liked the swim, she had never ridden on a ferry. As a bonus she got to jump from the side of the watercraft to start her swim.
Her wave of swimmers when out later than Hyder-Darlington’s – they are lined up by their speed – but during the swim she, surprisingly found Hyder-Darlington on the north end of the island among all of the splashing bodies. They floated with the current and chatted for a little bit.
The swimmers were, said Hyder-Darlington “against a much stiffer than expected current from the ebbing (outflowing to the ocean) East River.” Even so, they finished in about 35 minutes among 98 other open water swimmers from around the world.
“You never know who you will meet,” said Hyder-Darlington. “People from Ecuador Yugoslavia, China.”
“I read Louise’s blog all summer,” Robbins said. “It got me excited to swim and meet people.”
At the end, with their accomplishment, worn proudly in their smiles, they celebrated with a shared breakfast at a little deli located at the base of Freedom Tower by the World Trade Center memorial.
Robbins summed it up: “Overall wonderful time.”