Local Teen Craddock Swims for a Cause

In the decade-plus before she succumbed to a brain tumor in 2008, Mill Valley resident Susan Lang Shulman was seemingly magnetized by the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay, spending many a weekend morning competing in open water swimming events.

That included both the Alcatraz Invitational Swim and the Tiburon Mile, which take place this Saturday and Sunday, respectively. And since she passed away, Shulman’s magnetic attraction to the Bay has carried on in both family and friends.

That inspiration will be on full display in both events this weekend, with Shulman’s brother Joseph Lang coming down from Seattle for Saturday’s Alcatraz Swim, where he regularly finishes in the top 10. Lang finished sixth among men in the two-mile swim across Lake Washington in Seattle last weekend.

Shulman’s inspiration is also the driver for 16-year-old Maddie Craddock, a Mill Valley resident and junior at St. Ignatius Prep in San Francisco who is competing in her fourth straight Tiburon Mile swim.

In each of the past three years, Craddock has raised approximately $1,100 for the Susan L Shulman Memorial Fund, which was started in her honor as a way to help promising nursing students in need. After a career as a personal trainer, Shulman entered the masters nursing program at UCSF in January 2007 to become a clinical nurse practitioner.

After nine years with the Scott Valley Sea Serpents, Craddock isn’t really a competitive swimmer anymore, as her athletic focus at St. Ignatius is rowing. She says she’s simply participating in the 12-year-old Tiburon Mile as a way to honor Shulman and raise money for the fund.

“It’s fun – and it goes by pretty fast,” Craddock says, noting that she competes in the wetsuit category and that the elite swimmers who cover the mile-long swim in 20 minutes without a wetsuit are “just crazy.”

Craddock usually finishes in about 40 minutes. “It doesn’t matter – it’s just a fun event to do,” she says.

The 411: The RCP Tiburon Mile starts at 9 a.m. in Ayala Cove on Angel Island and finishes on the shores of downtown Tiburon. The race helps raise funds for Larkspur-based Hospice By The Bay’s community programs. To donate to the Shulman Fund via Maddie Craddock, send a check to Susan Shulman Memorial Fund, 22 Marsh Dr., Mill Valley 94941.