By FloridaKeysNewsBureau for SouthFloridaReporter.com, Sept. 20, 2015 – ISLAMORADA, Florida Keys — A Colorado man garnered top overall honors Saturday at an open water swim in the Florida Keys designed to raise awareness of the need to preserve six aging lighthouses off the subtropical island chain.
Boulder’s Yoelvis Pedraza completed the 9-mile Swim for Alligator Lighthouse Saturday in 3 hours, 18 minutes and 3 seconds, besting his 2014 victory time by almost 17 minutes.
“I like to come to this swim, it’s such a long swim and it’s only once a year,” said Pedraza, who recently moved to Boulder from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ” What ‘makes’ the swim is to get to the lighthouse.
“Right underneath it, is just a gigantic diversity of life,” he said. “You see reef, you see fish, you see everything.”
Alison Hayden of Kinnelon, N.J., won the women’s title at 4:31:07.
“I would meditate in the water, exhaling and counting the buoys one by one,” Hayden said, explaining her strategy. “There wasn’t one time where I picked my head up and looked at the lighthouse. I kind just kept going.”
Belleair, Fla., residents Cyle Sage and Mandy Zipf won the two-person relay division with a time of 4:34:53.
Swimmers Emilienne Allen, Janice Haramis, Kimberly Nordheim and Michala Nowak, all of Hypoluxo, Fla., won the four-person class in 3:52:54.
The event attracted 200 entrants.
Because of Global Positioning System (GPS), the 142-year-old Alligator Lighthouse and five other lighthouses off the Keys are no longer primary tools for maritime navigation.
Disclaimer
The information contained in South Florida Reporter is for general information purposes only.
The South Florida Reporter assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions in the contents of the Service.
In no event shall the South Florida Reporter be liable for any special, direct, indirect, consequential, or incidental damages or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tort, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Service or the contents of the Service. The Company reserves the right to make additions, deletions, or modifications to the contents of the Service at any time without prior notice.
The Company does not warrant that the Service is free of viruses or other harmful components
