Transcription,Episode 5:
Treading Water (Lauren Tininenko)
september 19, 2019
Listen to Laurens episode (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Himalaya and Google Play) then you can hear her full story from our ‘Waves’ 2019 live show.
Clara Davis: You're listening to Unravel, the podcast, where we go behind and beyond stories featured at our monthly live shows. From Shanghai, I'm your host, Clara Davis.
STORY CLIP 1:
Lauren Tininenko: I have been a swimmer for most of my life. I was always a sprint free-styler, the shortest event possible. Then I moved to China, and about a year later, I did my first open water swim. For me that was an entirely new ball game, actually getting to swim from place to place, encounter different obstacles, especially in a place like China. You never knew really what you were signing up for when you signed up for an open water swim. On swim I did was up in the mountains of Qinghai, it was a river of snowy mountain run-off, so the water is barely above freezing temperature. I couldn't feel my feet for about four hours afterwards. Another race, I did was in North China a 10K, just swimming through fields of jellyfish.
Clara Davis: Today's episode features Lauren Tininenko, an American transplant and lifelong swimmer who really upped the ante when she touched down in Shanghai two and a half years ago. She's broken more than a few records and when she got on stage for our February show WAVES, a very apt theme for her, she told us the story of her attempt to be the first foreigner to swim from mainland China to Hainan, the tropical Paradise Island and Chinese province, just south of Guangdong. She definitely has one of the most unique perspectives on China that I've encountered, just given the experiences she's had swimming through its open water.
You'll hear more of Lauren’s story throughout the episode, we hope you enjoy my conversation with her!
START OF INTERVIEW:
Clara Davis: Your story is all about swimming. It's very hard for me to wrap my brain around because it triggers a lot of my serious deep held fears around drowning, open water, sharks, marine life, etcetera. How did you get into swimming in the first place, when did that become your thing?
Lauren Tininenko: So I lived in Australia when I was young, and we had a pool in our backyard, so everyone swims in Australia. They kind of make you in school. But my dad was also a swimmer when he was young, so he was trying to get us to go on the swim team. I didn't really like it when I was young. You don't want to wake up early and go jump in a pool. It's not that much fun for you as a kid.
But then, over time, I kept at it, and then eventually started to like it, and then finally started getting good at it, and then it was a lot more fun for me.
CD: And when did you guys go back to America?
LT: When I was in second grade, and then I went right into a swim team there. They had a really good swim team in Arkansas, where I'm from...and then I think around age 14, I was like: I want to swim in college. This is the sport I want to do. Because before that, I was doing a few different sports but I knew I had to focus on one.
CD: Talk us through having that routine in college. What was that like to be your college existence?
LT: It's funny 'cause it's like, it's so different from everyone else’s college experience. You see these people just like going out during the week, drinking and stuff like that. We had to wake up at 5:30 every morning, probably at the latest, I think it was even earlier than that, to be at the pool, in the water at 6:00am. And then we would swim till like 8:30, we practice for four hours a day, so we'd come back in the afternoon as well and either do weights or more swimming.
CD: I can imagine that could really burn you out. What were you feeling like when you graduated? Especially when it came to swimming?
LT: So I didn't want to just give it up completely, but I was just ready to be off that tight schedule. My dad is a swimmer and so when I would go back and stay with my parents, we would go swimming together; so I wasn't just completely just out of it, but it was just so nice to not have the morning practice and the afternoon practice every single day.
CD: How long have you been in Shanghai, and what brought you here in the first place?
LT: So I've been here for about two and a half years now, I came at the end of university. I was just like, I wanna go travel, because I saw all these people studying abroad in university, and I couldn't because I was on the swim team so I was like, how can I travel right after university and then somehow found teaching overseas. When you do some Google searches you find teach in China. And I thought: okay, yeah sure, I'm gonna try that for one year. And my plan was one year, then go back.
STORY CLIP 2:
Lauren Tininenko: My friend, who knew that I liked these events was like, "Did you know that there's a swim you can do from South Mainland China to Hainan Island?”
And it's not like a race, it's a swimming attempt that’s just you and a boat. It’s like China's version of swimming the English Channel. And I was like: I'm sold, I'm gonna do it. How do I do that? How far is it? I don't know…
So I message this guy I have on WeChat, he has a swimming organization in Shenzhen I say: "Hey, I want to do this.”
And he says, “Okay, I can organize it.”
He said the best time was like June or July and this was last November that I was messaging him. I said how about December, next month? He checks the tide charts, he says: “There's a low tide on December 4, can you do that?”
He also said that no foreigner has ever done this before. So, if I completed it, I would be the first foreigner to do so. I was like, "Yeah let's go, let's do that...also, how far is that swim?”
And he said it’s 25 kilometers. I'm American, so I get on Google, ok 25 kilometers how many miles...15 and a half miles. I was like: okay, that's a lot.
Sure, yeah, let's do it. I was not in shape for this kind of event at this time at all. But mentally, I was all there.
Clara Davis: That level of determination and drive and her ‘let's do it!’ attitude put Lauren on a crash course with a record breaking swim...Now, she just had to figure out how to get ready to swim 15 miles in a month's time. I wanted to know more about how she got into the swimming scene here in Shanghai and what sets it apart from her experiences back in America, and I asked her about other memorable swims she's taken on along the way.
INTERVIEW:
Clara Davis: When you came to China, did you have any attention of getting in a pool or a body of water?
Lauren Tininenko: No, because I tried going to a public pool...so China has a lot of things really figured out but public pools aren't one of them. So it's like, in America, it's common courtesy to stay on the right side, like driving, if everyone stays on the right, we can all swim together happily and be fine. But everyone just stays in the middle of the lane. You just have to fight people. It's throwing fists. I think the first time I went, I swam for about 20 minutes and I was like: okay, done.
So I started finding running races and then realized there's a pretty big triathlon community, so I was racing some of those and then yeah, through that found some swimming only races and then just started doing more of the swimming races because, I realized I like triathlons, I'm okay at triathlons, but I'm better at swimming.
CD: You talk about these triathlons pretty casually...Can you talk us through what that means to train for, or compete in a triathlon?
LT: It takes a lot of time to train for triathlons because you're not just training for one thing. It's basically three different sports.
CD: Had you ever swam open water before competitively?
LT: Not so much just open water races, just in the triathlons. I had swam in open water, but none that were like a 10K open water swim, that was something I hadn't really, I just didn't really know that they existed, especially in China--I didn't think that they would have those kind of races.
CD: What was the first open water race you did here?
LT: The first one was that one that I talked about in my story, the one in Qinghai. And I had never even swam in cold water before, but that water was I think five degrees celsius, so just barely above freezing. And it just, it shocked me completely, I jumped in, I just remember thinking, What am I doing? This would not be legal in the United States. Like this is dangerous.
CD: What was your health insurance like at this time?
LT: I probably didn’t have any at this point…
CD: Sure. Okay, any other wild swim anecdotes you can share with us?
LT: I tell this story whenever people ask what it’s like when they ask for foreigners to come to the races because...so someone put out on a WeChat group that they needed foreigners for a race across the river, and so it reminded me of the Qinghai one, which I really enjoyed, so I signed up for it. They didn't properly register the foreigner’s team, so we weren't in the race we were in the fun swim. And the fun swim was just..you get in the river and you essentially float down the river with the current...so you actually don't have to swim at all, you just have to float down and then get out at the end. And I just remember I was actually swimming, so I was passing these groups of just old Chinese men just out there for their Sunday float down the river. I think one even pulled out a cigarette, was smoking a cigarette. He was like, “Come over, take a picture with us!”
And I was like, “No, we're supposed to be swimming in this.”
And yeah, it was just…everything about that race. They also told us to swim with our passports. They said on the way there, they said, "Do you have your passport? I said, "Where are we putting our passports? They said in your buoy...so you swim with a little orange buoy. But I was like, "I don't think that's safe for a passport to be.”
Like water could get in there, but okay, sure! So we did. We had to put our passports in our buoy.
STORY CLIP 3:
Lauren Tininenko: So Marrissa and I fly to Shenzhen and we meet this man that I'm friends with on WeChat, Mr. Chen, and then we meet the rest of the crew. There was a doctor / translator, he was the only one who spoke English in the group, there was lady who’s only job it was, was to live stream the whole thing on video on WeChat--because China.
There was a fisherman, who was going to be the boat driver, and then last but not least, my favorite and his name was Panda, he was gonna be the kayaker. So I couldn't really have the boat in front of me, because it would blow too many fumes in my face, so I had a kayaker who was gonna just give me food and water and sort of guide me on the swim.
So then we go to sleep, wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning to be ready for a 5:30 AM start for the swim including Marrisa who thought she was on a beach vacation. So it's 5:30 AM, I'm at the short I jump in the water and start swimming. It is pitch black at 5:30 AM, so I'm in this water, I don't know what creatures are underneath me, I don't know what people dump in the water, but it was also amazing because I'm swimming under more stars than I'm ever seen in Shanghai before. And then an hour and a half in, I'm watching the sunrise over the ocean really enjoying myself having a great time and I'm like: Okay, I should be staying hydrated, right?
So I call out, “Panda shuǐ!”
Panda looks in his kayak and is like, “Méiyŏu shuǐ.”
Now I'm thinking zěnme shuō [translate: how do you say]: Panda, you had one job.
Clara Davis: Thirsty in the middle of a 15-mile swim through the ocean sounds like my actual living nightmare and I still can't believe the level of fortitude and physical and mental strength with which Lauren managed to apply to this, and all the physical tests she has put herself up against in and out of the water. I talk to Lauren about that memorable character Panda, what this swim meant to her in hindsight, and the difference between swimming against opponents, and swimming against yourself.
INTERVIEW:
Clara Davis: A real character favorite in the story was good, old Panda. Can you tell us about your relationship with him following the swim and where does it stand now?
Lauren Tininenko: I wish everyone could meet Panda, because he's just one of those people that you can't really describe, you just have to meet him. He’s one of a kind. I haven't spoken to him in a bit. I should check up on how he's doing.
He did message me, and I think it was right before Chinese New Year. They were doing an awards for all the groups that did the strait crossing, and it was like you could vote for the best helper, like best everything. He said, “Can you vote for me?” I was like, “Of course, Panda. You are number one. For sure.”
CD: Wait, first of all, there’s an award for strait crossers?
LT: Yeah, it’s like for the committee. It wasn't even like to do with the swimmers at all.
CD: So he…so there’s no awards for the actual swimmers who swam, just for their support team. I do like that. How big is that community? Was Panda one of few or one of many?
LT: I think there were five you could choose from. Maybe they were already selected as the best ones?
CD: They’re kind of like your strait Sherpa.
LT: Yeah, yeah.
CD: Wow.
LT: I just remember one of the first things he translated to me…I was gonna say “said to me,” but he didn't really…he couldn't really say much to me, so he was saying that he was gonna be kayaking. And I was like kayaking also takes…for a long distance…that takes a lot of effort, too. But he looked like he's in good shape, but he translated to me like it said, "You and I are athletes. Everyone else is soy sauce.”
I don't know what that was supposed to, like maybe that translates from something that it makes sense. I still don't know what he meant. I think he was saying everyone else on the boat like…
CD: Is just a condiment?
LT: Maybe I don't know. I really don't know.
CD: Oh, Panda. Now that there's some time between you and that Hainan swim that we all got to hear about. What does it mean to you? What did that swim do for you?
LT: Overall, it was just such a cool experience being able to tell that story, and it's just something that not many people have gone through. I actually had someone message me on Facebook, who is huge in the swimming community. She has some Guinness World Records for swimming, and she said that she read about my swim and wants to do it, 'cause she hadn't heard that of any foreigners doing it, so she thought that maybe it wasn’t possible. And so she saw my article and said, "Can you tell me how I get signed up for that? How do I do that?”
So I thought that was so cool. And also just being able to tell these Chinese swimmers that I meet because they all know about that swim. So if you tell them you've done it, it gets you sort of some street cred in the swimming world, 'cause so many people just know that that's a challenging swim to do.
CD: What is the difference for you between swimming these open water races where you're competing against others versus an open water challenge race where you're just competing against yourself, like you were swimming to Hainan?
LT: I mean, yeah, they are both very different. But I guess like here there’s not…you know at home, you had people that you knew that you were like, “Oh, this person's faster than me, I wanna beat them.” But here, it's like I don't know these people's backgrounds. I was kind of upset that some people beat me at one race, and then I realized that they were Russian professionals. So they don't have jobs, they're just professional swimmers. And I said, "Okay, that makes me feel a little better. This is like their whole life.” But yeah, for the Hainan swim, I would have preferred if there were other people with me. It just kinda helps to have…
CD: Energy and motivation.
STORY CLIP 4
Lauren Tininenko: So we're halfway there, I'm really excited. I'm like, "Okay we're on the downhill from here.” Alright, I'm trying to eat about once every hour, which is easier said than done in a swim, because in open water swimming, you're not allowed to just stop and hold onto the boat. You have to keep swimming, you can't touch anything. So I'm trying to eat and kick on my back and then keep swimming, so it's hard, but I have to keep my energy up and then…so we could get to about six hours. And I am tired. This is when I realized I probably should have trained for a swim like this. So my shoulders are hurting so bad, I can feel the sun just beating down on me, draining my energy. I swear the waves are getting so much, so much bigger, and I'm just fighting through them. And then so I asked Panda, “Panda, how much more?”
And he says, “Hái yǒuyī gōnglǐ.”
And I'm like, “One kilometer! Okay, I don't see land, but alright yeah, one kilometer, I can do that no matter how much it hurts. I can do this, okay.”
And then an hour passes. And I'm like, “Panda, how much more?”
“Hái yǒuyī gōnglǐ.”
And then 30 more minutes. “Hái yǒuyī gōnglǐ.”
Okay, zěnme shuō [translate: how do you say]: Panda, why are you a liar?
And I'm really struggling, like I didn't know how much more I had left, obviously. I think my goggles were leaking. Okay, no, I was definitely crying a little bit. And I’m just like, “Okay, Lauren, you don't have to do this. No one's making you do this, except yourself. No one's gonna be mad at you if you don't finish this. It's okay if you just quit.” And then I was like, “Okay no, no one will be mad at me, no one will care, but I will.” I have put myself through some intense athletic challenges before, and I have never quit one. It will kill me if I have to get on that boat and if I have to give up now. I am going to finish this, so I put my head down and I am fighting through the waves, I am trying to get there. And then finally, I see some land.
INTERVIEW
Clara Davis: Lauren fought through the fatigue and the pain and made it to land, making her the first foreigner to successfully swim from mainland China to Hainan Island and making for a pretty incredible story. I talked to her about the big goal she's chasing next, and I wanted to know more about what building the swimming career and community here has meant to her and her relationship with China.
What was this…what about this…what’s this six-hour qualifying swim for, Lauren? Whatcha got planned?
Lauren Tininenko: Yeah, so to swim the English Channel, which I'm doing in June, you have to submit that you did a six-hour qualification and it has to be in 16 degrees or colder water.
CD: And how does the English Channel swim work exactly?
LT: Okay, so the process is like, first you have to find...they call them pilots, but like a guy that's gonna be in a boat with you. Sort of like on my Hainan swim. And then you can bring two people to help and give you food, give you whatever. So my dad is coming, and to my sister will probably also be on the boat 'cause I can only have two people. So Mom might not get to come. So the boat is next to me and I'm swimming from England to France, 35k. But also depending on the current and everything, it might be a little bit longer. I heard that there was one lady that took 40 something hours, because she just went off track. So I'm hoping that's not me.
CD: Did she also have a boat?
LT: Yeah, yeah so I don't know how she went so far off track, but I think if the wind just blows you one way and you aren’t strong enough to fight the current and go the right way, and then the currents change all the time and…
CD: What’s the expected time for you to do something like that? I don’t know…
LT: I would guess, it's gonna take me about 13 hours, but I also don't wanna really put a goal on it, because if the weather is crazy and…
CD: Don't set your goal on this podcast. We're not holding you to anything.
LT: Haha but yeah my swim’s in June and that's why I wanted to do the really cold, exaggeratedly cold swim because June…the water is gonna be colder. And that's a lot of the people who have problems finishing the channel is because they get hypothermia.
CD: Do you know how many people swim in a year?
LT: A lot of people attempt in a year. I'm not sure total numbers on how many finish. I know fewer people have completed it than have climbed Mount Everest, so…
CD: That is so crazy.
LT: Yeah, it was one of those things that you hear about that you're like that would be really cool. And so I knew that I wanted to try it someday, so then one day I was like, "Why am I waiting?” Even though I knew it would be so much harder to train in China for it.
CD: What is that keeps you here, if you could be elsewhere doing that more freely, more safely?
LT: I think if I was somewhere that it was easy to get to, it wouldn't be as fun.
CD: So it is the story, it is the adventure that draws you to it here.
LT: Yeah.
CD: What has swimming and training in China taught you about China that you wouldn't have learned otherwise?
LT: So much. Mostly that Chinese swimmers are the friendliest people I've ever met. Only three people from China have ever spent the Channel.
CD: Wow.
LT: But there's another guy who signed up to swim in August, so I sort of got connected with him. He doesn't really speak English, but we're good friends now. So yesterday, I texted him and I said, “I wanna go to some lake in Pudong to train.”
And he said, "Oh I know a better one.”
And I said, “Okay, I also wanna get used to swimming in the dark.”
So he said, “Okay, meet me at 3:00 AM.” So I met him at 3:00 AM this morning. We drove to Kunshan. I swam in a lake in Kunshan for four hours.
CD: At 3:00AM this morning? Oh my god.
LT: But we started at…or I started at 4:00AM.
CD: Wow, it’s really a remarkable relationship that you've gotten to build with a community and a sport, like I've never met anyone who’s done something like this, here or anywhere, but especially here. There’s so many compounding factors. There’s so many reasons why this would be so hard or unthinkable to do here.
LT: Yeah, well, I mean the community here is really good also. So I started the swim team because a lot of people were saying, "Oh there's a team for biking, there’s group rides, there’s so many running groups. There's no swimming group.”
And I said, "Well okay, there's a reason for that. Pools are pretty difficult to get some lanes to get a group together, but finally just realized if no one else is gonna do it, I should do it myself. Added all those people who had been asking about it to one group message and then said, "Okay, we have a team. Let's figure this out. Finally found a pool and now we have 120 something people in our group.”
CD: And what's the demographic of the team? Who comes out for this?
LT: It’s mostly foreigners, some Chinese. I mean it’s a lot of triathletes or people who just used to swim and wanna get back in shape and get back in it.
CD: I wanna know how big a thing is competitive swimming for the Chinese. It seems like it's something...is it something that's emerging? Is it something that's kind of been sustained for a little while?
LT: I think it's definitely on the rise. When you go to these events, there are a lot of older people doing it, but I think it's like a new hobby for them also. So I mean there's young people and older people, but yeah I think a lot of the older people are just realizing that it's good for them. It's a good sport, good on your joints, easy for people to do.
CD: What is your relationship with winning? What do you get out of winning a race or beating a record for yourself?
LT: Winning race isn’t as big for me, 'cause like I said, you don't know if these are professionals that you're racing, especially in China, you just don't know who these people are that you're racing. But it always feels good to beat yourself and beat something that you've done before. It just shows that you've been working harder.
CD: Do you have any people in your life who help you set these goals or help motivate you to achieve them, or is this something…is this like a really internal process?
LT: It’s mostly internal. My dad also is also big into triathlons and stuff. He got me started in triathlons in the first place, and he's also the reason that I joined the swim team, but he's very competitive, always trying to sign up for these races and stuff. So I think just growing up with that also just sort of made me wanna do that kind of thing.
CD: You’ve got it in your bones. Wow, I mean I'm so amazed. I really admire you in many ways. I'm really glad that you took the time to come in and talk to us and tell us more about it.
LT: No problem. You can have me any time.
CD: After the English Channel, maybe? Come back and give us an update.
LT: And that's what a lot of people after my story at Unravel were saying like, "Oh, you'll have to speak again after the English Channel.”
And then I was saying, "Well if it's not in China, it's probably gonna be organized and then it's not as fun of a story.
CD: I do love that. However, I highly doubt that you swimming the English Channel is not gonna be a story worth us all hearing. I think you have just an open spot waiting for you.
Clara Davis: Thanks again to Lauren for coming into the studio to talk to us about that faithful swim and just as an update for our listeners since telling this story and being in the studio with me, Lauren did proceed to successfully swim the English Channel, a ridiculous achievement that only a couple thousand people in the world can claim. Today, you heard clips of her story, but if you'd like to hear the full version, you can check out our website at www.unravelstorytelling.com. This podcast is produced and edited by Sarah Boorboor with original music and post-production by Ricardo Valdez.
We're recording in the Nowness studio in the city with the "can do" attitude,Shanghai. I'm your host and the founder of Unravel, Clara Davis. Thanks for being a part of our story.
Next week on Unravel, hear Clemon Courtney III talk to us about his experience tuning out white noise.
Clemon Courtney III: For four years. I had amazing instructors, but I feel my true education was in engaging, charming, and disarming whiteness. So by the time I made it to Shanghai, having mostly white friends, I was like an expert level white whisperer.
Show Notes: Shuǐ is Chinese for water, méiyŏu shuǐ means I don’t have water, zěnme shuō is how do you say? Hainan is an island province of China and the nation’s southernmost point, it is known at the ‘Hawaii of China.’