A Girl Named Sinn

After her feeding Marty had fallen 75 yards behind her pack, and she was unable to make it up. For the rest of the race she swam alone. Entering the back bay she was 11th but, finding the still water more to her liking, she began slowly closing in on the leaders. Since she was swimming almost up against the east, or right, bank and she breathes on her right side, Dr. Abbott got out of the boat from time to time to walk along the shore and shout instructions and exhortations.

Ten hours, 18 minutes and 15 seconds after he started, Herman Willemse won his fifth consecutive Atlantic City race. Abou-Heif touched out Johnny LaCoursiere for second at 10:31:23, followed by Lumsden, Mezzadra, Bojadzi and then Marty at 10:37:15. She won $200 for seventh place overall and $800 more for first woman. If the race had been several miles longer, she would have undoubtedly improved her position, for the men were laboring and she was still closing ground—or water, rather.

The following morning, Marty was initiated as a squaw in the Thunderbird Society by the Little Indian Day Camp, which had chartered a 95-foot party boat that had followed her in the race. "I was embarrassed," Marty said. "They made me feel I was some kind of a freak, all of them cheering me out there in the middle of the ocean." After attending a luncheon given by the local Lions Club, she returned to her hotel room. A bouquet of roses that the campers had presented to her was in the bathroom sink.

"I'm glad it's over," she said. "I did the best I could and didn't consciously loaf at any point. I was getting a little seasick in the ocean—I swallowed quite a bit of it. Towards the end I felt real strong. I just felt so good. I was elated. It was just like entertainment, picking off the boys. I was singing a Beatles song to myself as I swam along—Not a Second Time. Oh, I had a great time of it in the back bay!

"But I'm still not real enthusiastic about swimming. Other things I'm becoming interested in are going to be more important to me in years to come, and I don't want my swimming to become half-hearted. It would be very distasteful to me to pursue anything in that fashion.

"You do well in a race, and you're excited for the first few days. Then you go back to your former frame of mind. It's better to accept circumstances and not blow them up, treat them like everyday things, and not be an ass.

"Of course, I would like to go to Argentina for the race there next February. I have been told that they will pay all my expenses, and I've never been in South America. Swimming's been amazing. I've gotten oodles of things out of it."