So here is a great article by Simon Griffiths, the editor of H2Open magazine that I thought was relevant for our group and this time of year especially!

As open water swimming has grown, in large part due to the popularity of triathlon, the debate over wetsuits has grown too.  You are likely not aware, but the wetsuit debate is the most contreversial debate in ows’ing. 

Martin Strel... swimming the length of the Amazon River!

The ows’ing purists like it about as much as the baseball purists like the Designated Hitter rule in baseball.  They view it as cheating, plain and simple… which it is… like wearing roller blades in a marathon and then saying you did a marathon! 

Triathletes don’t understand the contreversy… which makes the purists even more crazy.  I’m somewhere in between… as I’m a triathlete and a pure open water swimmer… which is part of the issue… most people can’t see both sides of the arguement because they haven’t done both.  I think wetsuits have their place, in triathlons, some adventure swimming (Martin Strel, Jamie Patrick) and in short open water swims or for newbies… as long as it is specified that the swimmer has “cheated” and used a wetsuit.  This is why I have separate divisions in the LOST Race for ”wetsuit” and “naked”. 

Let me tell you, to swim the English Channel in a wetsuit is most definitely cheating!  The main reasons are because of additional warmth, buoyancy and speed… which is pretty much everything… it even gives you protection from jellyfish… which is all part of the game for a purist. 

Hugs and support from Melanie's crew!!! Literally and figuratively!!!

Having said that… wetsuits are great.  Let me tell you, LOST wouldn’t be what it is today without wetsuits… nor would ows’ing in general.  And as Simon points out in the article below, wetsuits actually help to get people in the water… which may have them gradually convert to swimming “naked”… or not… which is fine too.  The best example: Melanie Price… started with LOST as a triathlete… and swam Lake O last summer as a purist… naked.  And she wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t started with a wetsuit a few years earlier!

Darren Osborne, ready to go! Gulliver's, May 8, 2010 (58F)

And in case you were wondering… where I draw the line… at the 10k… which is why our race is non-wetsuit… as are all 10k swims.  3.8k, the Ironman distance, is the longest distance that one ever really needs to swim in a wetsuit… hey, last summer I was training for Ironman Canada and trained in a wetsuit… this year I’m training for Lake O and all the training will be naked.  (although sometimes a wetsuit is good to get some distance in if the water is really cold).  But beyond 3.8k, it’s time to suck it up and get tough and become a real open water swimmer!

PS. as a side note… in the 17 months that Xterra wetsuits has sponsored LOST Swimming, LOSTies have bought 54 wetsuits from them!  That’s 54 more swimmers in the water that wouldn’t be otherwise… yes, wetsuits are a good thing for our sport!

Cheers,

Rob

21 swimmers!!! Alexei, Victor, Darren, Stacy, Ted, Al, John, Jenn, Mike, Chris, Madhu, Maisey, Dylan, Bill, Mel, Christina, Jason, Andrew... also: Rob, Peter & Eileen (click to enlarge)

At our H2Open Day recently the water temperature was a little over 12 degrees Centigrade. Some people swam in full wetsuits with neoprene hats, gloves and socks, and still found it cold. Others swam in skimpy Lycra costumes, and having broken the ice to swim over the winter, found the Reading Lake ‘positively balmy’. They would have been offended if we asked them to wear a wetsuit.

For many people, jumping into 12 degree water, with or without a wetsuit, is a challenge. It’s cold enough to stimulate cold water shock, which causes a sharp, involuntary intake of breath, and can result in water inhalation or even loss of consciousness through hyperventilation. Once you’re over the initial shock it you may feel pain on any exposed parts of skin, particularly your face, and some people suffer from ‘ice-cream headaches’.

Other people, through a combination of genetics, build, acclimatisation and mental preparation, find 12 degrees quite tolerable.

At H2Open we’re not interested in taking sides in the wetsuit/anti-wetsuit debate. However, we do agree there is something uniquely stimulating about the feeling of cool, fresh water on your skin, and a certain delight to be had in the freedom of movement in water unhindered by rubber. We therefore recommend open water swimmers to experiment with non-wetsuit swimming, so long as they can do so safely.

Here’s a trick we think works quite well if you’re normally a wetsuit swimmer. Start by swimming as normal in your wetsuit. Swim for long enough that your hands, feet and face get used to the cold, but not so long that you become chilled. Exit the water, remove your wetsuit and immediately re-enter the water. Keep your hat and goggles on.

Because your hands, feet and face are already used to the water you should find that cold water shock is reduced, and that you don’t feel the pain that you did on first entering the water. Swim a short distance only (perhaps just for a minute the first time), exit and dry off and warm up quickly. If you do this each time you swim you should find you quickly build your tolerance to cold water and can stay in longer.

We’re sure some purists will think this is silly – just bin the wetsuit, toughen up and get on with it, they might say, but we think this is a useful technique to adapt to cold water. Also, at the beginning of the season it may mean you can complete longer training sessions by first doing a distance swim in your wetsuit and following that with an acclimatisation swim without.

Besides, when wetsuits can make you about 5s per 100m faster, they’re useful things to hang on to for racing.
 

Happy Swimming
Simon Griffiths
Editor, H2Open Magazine

Hi all,

In the evolution of LOST Swimming… “this is one long race for LOST swimmers, one giant leap for LOST Swimming”… we’ve just landed the “Masters Swimming Canada 10k National Championship”!!!

I have now loaded the registration forms and race package (all in one pdf file) for:

• - LOST Swimming
• - The LOST Race
• - The Masters Swimming Canada 10k National Championship

The answer to all your questions are under the “LOST Races” tab above. 

The registration forms are under the “LOST Races” tab… and the “How to become a LOST Swimmer” tab.

You can save money by registering early for LOST Swimming and either of the two races… but they are deliberately as low as we can make them… my goal for LOST is all about participation! You can mail the cheque, registration and waiver in to Melanie… or you can bring it with you to the first LOST Swim you attend (cash is fine if you aren’t mailing it).

Here is the part I don’t like to have to enforce, but… YOU MUST BE REGISTERED TO SWIM WITH LOST SWIMMING! SO DON’T MAKE ME BE THE BAD GUY AND NOT ALLOW YOU TO SWIM BECAUSE YOU SHOW UP AND HAVEN’T REGISTERED!!! And please don’t make me hunt you down on the beach and ask every person if they have registered. (insurance reasons, of course).

(Melanie and I will try and have a few reg. forms on hand at the beach in case you forget, but it is better if you have everything filled out and cash in hand).

PS. still not sure when we are starting… but it may be this weekend… for a short, cool swim! I’ll let you know!

Cheers,

Rob

… that’s the answer to the question that everyone is asking… “when will we be starting outdoors?”

Truth is, I’m getting a bit anxious myself!  But despite the fact that we had a very nice winter… the spring is way behind in warming up.  I looked back to my log book from 2010, when I was training for MIMS and here is what I saw:

• May 1 – first pre-season swim at Gulliver’s Lake, water temp 56F, swam 2.5k
• May 8 – swam with Darren at Gulliver’s, 58F, air 8C, swam 2.5k
• May 15 – swam with Darren & Bill at Gullivers, 55F, swam 3k
• May 22 – Gulliver’s was 62F, 7 swimmers, swam 6k
• May 29 – first swim in Lake O, 14 swimmers, 62F, swam 2.5k
• June 5 – 14 swimmers again, 64F.

… so according to that progression, Gulliver’s Lake should be mid-50′s… but it’s not.  I phoned them yesterday and they said it was 51F… too cold for most people.  Oddly, Lake O is about the same temp, it’s usually behind Gulliver’s. 

Having said all that… things are warming up this week noticably.  So maybe we’ll be in this weekend after all… somewhere… Gulliver’s, Kelso or Lake O.  Don’t worry, I’m monitoring it… and you’ll be the first to know!

Cheers,

Rob

Hi all,

Kind of like John Gayford’s invitation to swim in the 1.2 km Lorne Pier to Pub race near Melbourne, Australia… here is another invitiation… you may not be able to make it… but it’s always nice to know you’re welcome!

And if Australia is too far to go… then you’ll like this one, it’s in up-state New York… mind you, it is a bit longer than the 1.2 km Pier to Pub… it’s 192 km.  But hey, it’s held over 7 stages… and you don’t have to do each stage… so it’s not that hard. 

It’s put on by a buddy of mine David Barra and Rondi Davies.  David and I did the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim the same year I did (he also did a ton of other huge races that year!… English Channel, Catalina Island, Tampa Bay and a few I can’t remember)… Rhondi also did MIMS that year, but had to drop out… but we’ll cut her a little slack… she’s also won the race!  Both are great people and a lot of fun!

LOSTie, Lisa Neidrauer, did some of the race last year, in its inaugural year, and said it was great.  And it’s not really a “race” per se… just a nice long swim.  You’ll love it.

http://www.8bridges.org/

Cheers,

Rob

About8Bridges

7 Days | 7 Stages | 120 miles

The 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, the longest marathon swim in the world, is an epic swimming odyssey that celebrates the mighty Hudson and New York Harbor.

From the peaceful Catskills to the dramatic Narrows, at the throat of the New York Harbor, intrepid swimmers cover 120 miles of the Hudson River’s great stream.

For one week, each day’s marathon swim begins with the ebb tide at one bridge and ends at the next, covering distances ranging from 13.2 miles to 19.8 miles. Swimmers can participate in one to all of the seven stages.

The swim strings together the Rip Van Winkle | Kingston-Rhinecliff | Mid-Hudson | Newburgh-Beacon | Bear Mountain | Tappan Zee | George Washington | Verrazano Narrows Bridges.

The second seven-day, seven-stage, 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim will take place from June 25 to July 2, 2012.

So no sooner do I write a story about all kinds of interesting swimmers that I’ve met or have come to swim with LOST than Carl emails me with this amazing story about Dan Martin! 

Dan is a Brit who was in the neighborhood travelling and looked me up out of the blue, just to come and swim with LOST!  Some of you might recall because he came and swam with us on a beautiful Saturday morning and then joined us for coffee, where he regailed us with his goal to do a “triathlon around the world!”  I have to say that he is a great guy, about as laid back and funny of a guy as you could meet… kind of a John Candy type of guy… how could you not like a guy like that.  Not a cookie-cutter guy, by any stretch… but who aspires to be “normal” anyway!  Nice guy.

I’m sure he’s met many a nay-sayer over the years, especially when it got delayed because he couldn’t find the funding… but in true testiment to determination… even before he started… he found a way to make it happen!  Who knows if he’ll make it, but I know first hand about putting a crazy adventure like this together… and getting to the starting line is probably as hard to do as the adventure itself! 

Anyway, here’s his story… or at least the beginning of it!  Go get’em Dan!  All the LOSTies will be rooting for you.

PS.  1 st= 1 stone = 14 pounds… you’ll want to know that.

Rugby Player Dan Martin Puts on Four Stone to Swim the Atlantic
2012-05-13 07:20:26.678 GMT

Edward Malnick
May 13 (Telegraph) — He is an overweight British rugby
player who says he was “never much of a swimmer”.
But this month Dan Martin will set off to become the first
person to swim the entire distance of the Atlantic, coast to
coast.
The 30-year-old farmer’s son from Peterborough has trained
for more than three years for the 3,500-mile trek from New York
to Brest in France, bulking up to 20st in the process.
In less than a fortnight he will start his journey from the
north-east US coast across the ocean, which he estimates will
take between four and six months. It will be the first stage of
his eighteen-month “global triathlon”.
Having landed in Brest, he plans to cycle across Europe and
through Siberia in the middle of winter. The final leg of the
journey will be to run across North America and Canada, back to
New York.
The “extreme adventurer” has previously cycled more than
34,000 miles in two trips to Cape Town, once from London and once
from South Korea. He put on 4st 7lb in less than four years to
provide some protection from the Atlantic’s cold temperatures, by
eating four regular meals a day topped up with 3,500 calories in
energy drinks.
Mr Martin, who is raising money for poor children, will swim
for eight hours each day and will have to consume 9,000 daily
calories, more than three times a man’s normal recommended daily
intake. Despite this, he expects to lose a stone for each month
of the swim. He will sleep on a 50ft research yacht, the Ice
Maiden, with a five-person support team. In the water, a speed
boat will remain about 4 yards from him, providing him with
fluids and snacks.
The only successful transatlantic swim was in 1998, when
Benoit Lecomte, a Frenchman, took 73 days to swim from Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, to Quiberon, north-west France.
But Mr Lecomte, then 31, was aided by his boat drifting each
night on strong currents towards his destination. Mr Martin will
use GPS equipment to return each morning to the spot where he
finished the previous night.
He had originally planned to leave in 2010 but was unable to
raise the funds he needed.
Now, with a combination of private funding and grants he is
preparing to set off.
Last night he was in Philadelphia, south-west of New York,
making final adjustments to the Ice Maiden.
“I am fluctuating between excitement and nervousness,” he
said, adding: “The thing I’m looking forward to most is feeling
sand under my feet as I land in France.”
Mr Martin has a device that emits an electro-magnetic pulse
to repel sharks, but he is reluctant to use it because of its
weight.
“It weighs about a pound so I don’t really want to have that
dragging behind me and slowing me down too much, but we’ve got it
on board. The big dangers are the cold, long term fatigue and
jellyfish.
“I just want to be an example of how if you really set your
mind to doing something there’s really nothing you can’t achieve.
I’m not a runner, I wasn’t much of a swimmer and I’m taking this
on”.
Follow Dan Martin’s progress on his website:
www.danmartinextreme.com

So you know how I was saying in my race report from Tampa Bay how I find part of the adventure, meeting so many interesting people… well here are 3 more stories about cool people I’ve been lucky enough to meet recently.  2 of them are follow up stories (and pics) from Tampa Bay and one is about a classic Australian swim race… and swimmer!

John Gayford at the Oakville YMCA, May 2012

You know how you go swimming at the Y and you see some old codger plugging along and you think to yourself… wow, that old guy’s pretty good for an old guy!  But it usually ends there and you continue on your merry way.  It’s pretty rare that you get to hear the story about that old codger and what his background is and why he’s swimming and all that.

Well one of those old guys emailed me and told me a bit… just a bit… about his story… and it’s pretty cool.  So John Gayford swims for Oakville Masters and emailed me recently saying he’d like to join LOST and pick up one of the Xterra wetsuits that we get a deal on.  Pretty cool.  I hope I’m still looking to do adventurous stuff like open water swimming when I’m his age.

But that’s not the half of it… he’s Aussie.  Wait there’s more.  (it’s just kinda cool to be an Aussie, with those great accents, nicknames and beer… and they always seem to have a good sense of humor… must be the beer!).  He’s invited all of us (okay maybe not ALL of us but he did get us 10 spots!) to come to Australia and do one of the classic open water swims… the Lorne Pier to Pub race! (check it out on youtube!)  The 1.2 km swim is just south of Melbourne on a gorgeous strip of beach… and did I mention it finishes at the Pub… oh, those Aussies!  John took the initiative and contacted the race director to see if he would hold some spots for us… and he got us up to 10 spots!  You see they cap the race at 4,000 swimmers!  Which makes it one of the largest open water swims in the world!!!  You normally can only get in by lottery!  Ya, tell me there is no room to grow the LOST Race! Ha!

The before shot!... John Gayford at Lorne beach in 1947!

And to add even more to the story, John told me he has a lifetime of history at this race… in fact he sent me the before and after pictures… the first one was of him at a photo booth on Lorne beach… in 1947!  And the second one was at the Oakville YMCA this year!  Don’t worry, he’s beaten you all to the jokes… gotta love those Aussies… great sense of humor!

It’s a long way for a race… but if you are going to be down there or are interested in going… drop me a note and I’ll put you in touch with John.  It would be a helluva swim and adventure… and a lifetime worth of memories!

Mauro's tat of Manhattan island... and Rob's tat from the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim too!

And story number 2… is proof about the story in my Tampa Bay Marathon Swim race report (scroll down to see the original story).  I mentioned that there was a guy named Mauro Giaconia from Palermo, Italy… and he and I had recognized each other by our calves!  No, we didn’t have baby cows on the beach… we both had swim related tattoo’s ON our calves… and had both seen them in a story about swim tattoo’s!  Mauro’s girlfriend took a picture of us and our tat’s… and he recently sent them too me… so here they are!  Small world.

Mauro Giaconia's 24 hour / 101 km swim in Chile!

I also found a picture of Mauro on Facebook from when he swam 101 km in the largest pool in the world in 24 hours… a one km long pool in Chile!  That’s impressive.

This is a cool sport if you like to get to race the best in the world… and actually get to meet them.  Think about it… you’ll never play hockey against Sidney Crosby… or golf against Tiger Woods… you do have a chance to be in the same race as Lance Armstrong, thanks to the beauty of the sport of triathlon… but you still will never get to have a beer with him.  But in marathon swimming, you can actually race against them and have a cuppa coffee, or a beer with them, if they’re Aussie .  I realize it’s just the nature of all those sports… but it still makes this a pretty cool sport.

Mauro and Rob in Tampa Bay

And story number 3… goes to Darren Miller again.  I know I’ve already told you about his goal to be among the first to accomplish the 7 Oceans swims… and how he made it across the Strait of Gibraltar last week… but I just had to show you the proud pics of him coming back to Spain, having just swum to Morrocco… sporting the LOST swim cap!  There’s also a pic of him with the rest of the gang that swam across… with his new LOST Marathon Swimming t-shirt!

Darren Miller after just swimming the Strait of Gibraltar... an honorary LOSTie!

Both of those pics make it to the “Pics” tab above… as does anyone who has a pic of themselves with a LOST swim cap or t-shirt somewhere else in the world!  The more off the beaten path, the better!  Just send them to me from your next vacation… or marathon swim! 

Cheers,

Rob

Darren and Jen Schumacher in Spain... nice shirt Darren!

Strait of Gibraltar swimmers: Michelle Roth Nelson, Jen Schumacher, Brian Hayes Patterson (photographer), Oliver Wilkinson, Jamie Patrick & Darren Miller (with is LOST Marathon shirt!)

PS.  I had to include this pic too… it’s of Mauro swimming the race in Tampa Bay… it is one of the few pics I’ve seen that does justice in showing how rough it was!  Even worse than swimming in the wall lane at the Y. 

Tampa Bay Marathon Swim, 2012... it was rough even before the storm!

 Cheers,

Rob

So Darren Miller, who I recently met in Tampa Bay and then who stopped in for a dip in Lake O with me (see post below) just completed his swim with a few other big time open water swimmers too!  Including Jamie Patrick, who I also met in Tampa Bay!

The Strait of Gibraltar is one of the few major swims in the world where they allow you to swim 2 or 3 at a time with one boat, which would make it more fun… which is what they did.  The Strait of Gibraltar is one of the shortest of the major marathon swims (14 k), but like any big swim it has it’s own challenges… it can be very cold, rough, stormy, foggy and the weather can change quickly.  Also there is a very strong current, which can make navigating quite tricky.  And, of course, there is a lot of “aquatic life” of all types in the neighborhood… which can make it an interesting swim!

We  might have to put that one on the LOST Travel Team list!

Cheers,

Rob

PS.  Thanks to Steve Munatones for the story… http://openwaterswimming.com/

Darren Miller completed the Strait of Gibraltar in 3:42 together with Jen Schumacher, Oliver Wilkinson and Jamie Patrick yesterday to shoot up the Oceans Seven charts.

He is now tied for third in the overall rankings, only behind the legendary Irishman Stephen Redmond and International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honour Swimmer Penny Palfrey of Australia.

With his Strait of Gibraltar swim added to his English Channel, Catalina Channel and Molokai Channel crossings, Miller is now on track to attempt the Tsugaru Channel in Japan sometime between July 10-12, the Cook Strait in March 2013 and then head over to attempt the final mountain to climb, the North Channel in August 2013.

Although it is unlikely, Miller does have a small outside chance to become the first person in the world to complete the Oceans Seven, but only if Redmond does not complete the Tsugaru Channel in June and Palfrey does not complete the North Channel in August this year. However, given the proven strength, stamina and determination of both Redmond and Palfrey, it is more likely that Miller will join his Irish and Australian colleagues at the top of the Ocean Seven summit by summer of next year.

His strategy of saving the most difficult channel for last – the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland – is similar to Palfrey. With each channel swim, Miller gets stronger both mentally and physically. His physical strengths and mental attitude will certainly be called to the test in the Cook Strait and the North Channel, two unpredictable waterways that will challenge the best that Miller has and has developed.

the Oceans Seven consists of the following waterways around the world:

1. North Channel between Ireland and Scotland
2. Cook Strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand
3. Moloka’i Channel between Oahu and Molokai Islands in Hawaii
4. English Channel between England and France
5. Catalina Channel in Southern California
6. Tsugaru Channel between the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido in Japan
7. Strait of Gibraltar between Europe and Africa

These athletes are closest to the elusive goal of the Oceans Seven:

1. Stephen Redmond (Ireland): English Channel, North Channel, Catalina Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Cook Strait: 6 with 1 more to go (scheduled to cross the Tsugaru Channel in June 2012).
1. Penny Palfrey (Australia): English Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait, Molokai Channel, Tsugaru Channel: 6 with 1 more to go (scheduled to cross the North Channel in August 2012).
3. Darren Miller (USA): English Channel, Catalina Channel, Molokai Channel, Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go (Tsugaru Channel scheduled between 10-12 July 2012, Cook Strait for March 2013, and the North Channel for August 2013).
3. James Pittar (Australia): English Channel, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait and Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go (remaining schedule unannounced).
3. Kevin Murphy (England): English Channel, Catalina Channel, North Channel and Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go (remaining schedule unannounced)
3. Forrest Nelson (USA): English Channel, Catalina Channel (both ways and two-way), Molokai Channel (both ways) and Cook Strait: 4 with 3 more more to go (Tsugaru Channel scheduled for May 2012)
3. Bula Chowdhury Chakraborty (India): English Channel (twice), Catalina Channel, Cook Strait and Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go (remaining schedule unannounced).
3. Tom Hecker (USA): English Channel, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait and Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go (remaining schedule unannounced).
3. Pieter Christian Jongeneel Anderica (Spain): English Channel, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait and Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go (Molokai Channel scheduled for 2012).
3. T. Scott Coleman (USA): English Channel, Catalina Channel, Cook Strait and Strait of Gibraltar: 4 with 3 more to go.

Wilkerson explained his involvement and the crossing. “I had wanted to do the Strait of Gibraltar, but was too late to book a solo spot. When I heard Darren was booked in, I emailed him to ask if I could accompany him. Being the nice sociable guy, Darren agreed to let me come along. Jen and Jamie were also invited and Michelle Nelson and Kimberly Roth were keen to come and crew for him as well as squeeze in their own crossing.

We swam together as there was only one main support boat and a Zodiac for feed support. We had two practice swims in the days before to work out a basic sequence of swimmers based on which side we breathed on. Darren was on the far left as he breaths exclusively on the right, then Jen who breaths bilaterally. Then either me as I breath mostly left, but occasional bilaterally or Jamie who breaths exclusively on the left. The Zodiac was mostly on our right and the main boat was our sighting point so always ahead of us. No marine life was seen other than a lot of jellyfish and one turtle spotted on the return trip. Kim and Michelle both finished their solo swims in great efforts of 4 hours and 35 minutes.”

… I know a guy… who knows a guy… who can get you and a friend into either of the NYC Triathlon or the NYC Ironman!  I believe you still have to pay, but both of these races sold out in minutes when they opened up last year.  If you recall, IM Tremblant and IM NYC are the 2 new races added to the IM circuit.  So if you are interested let me know and I’ll put you in touch with my friend (from a Race Director’s forum that I’m in… so it’s legit!)… I believe he has a couple of entries available… at the time of this printing!

Check the websites for dates and details…

http://www.nyctri.com/

http://ironmanuschampionship.com/

Bring me back a T-shirt…

Cheers,

Rob

… so here is a bit of LOST trivia that I thought I’d share with you…

• LOSTswimming.com is 2 years old today!
• visits to LOSTswimming.com in the first year = 95,241 or 261 visits per day!
• visits to LOSTswimming.com in the second year = 235,046 or 644 visits per day!
• 314 people get the LOST email!
• we had 150 paid members of the club last year… sounds like it will be even bigger this year!
• the LOST Race has grown from 8 to 85 swimmers in 4 years!
• this year there will be the 5th annual 3.8k LOST Race… AND…
• the first annual LOST 10k!!!  (I’m currently speaking with MSO and MSC to make it the “Masters 10k National Championship”!)… but either way… we are now sanctioned to host a 10k this year!  (don’t worry, more info to follow… LOST registration will be up as soon as I have this sorted out too).
• we have a total of 22 LOST Swimmers participating in travel swims, including: Tampa Bay Marathon Swim, FKCC Swim Around Key West, Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and a few other smaller races!
• we have 5 LOST Swimmers attempting to join Melanie Price as successful LOST swimmers to swim across Lake Ontario this summer!
• 5 of the 8 Lake O Crossing attempts are LOSTies!

I know it sounds like I’m bragging, but frankly, I’m amazed… LOST has already far exceeded my wildest expectations and would be nothing if each of you hadn’t decided to join me for a dip in the Lake… so thanks!

Cheers,

Rob

To paraphrase Steve Martin in “The Jerk” … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqqjVyOYmow  Things are going to start happening to me now!

The 2012 LOST Marathon T-shirt!

Check out this handsome devil in his new LOST Marathon t-shirt!  For those 60 or so lucky enough to order one of these collectors items… they are in!  So they did come out to $20… if you can drop me an email and let me know when you can drop by the house, or mail a cheque payable to “Rob Kent”, that would be great, as I’d like to get this cleared up asap.

1472 Oakhill Drive, Oakville, ON, L6J 1Y6… the5kents@msn.com

Cheers,

Rob

Darren Miller and Rob... April 28... 46F / 7C!

Of course, the first LOST Swim of 2012 was the Polar Bear Dip on Jan 1… when the water was crazy cold… I believe it was 40F / 4C!!!  The second LOST Swim of 2012 was on April 28… and much warmer… a toasty 46F / 7C!!!

You see what happens when you bump into other crazy people!  I got a Facebook message from Darren Miller, who I had met on FB, but got to meet in person at the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim last weekend (FB has its downsides, but it is great for meeting other people with the same interests… crazy swimmers, for example!).

Darren Miller

Even though we had just met and hit it off well, Darren was bold enough to give me a call and say, “hey I’m going to be in Toronto on an 8 hour lay-over… wanna go for a swim?”.   Naturally I said “sure… in the Lake? haha”… he said “sure!”.  Naturally I assumed he was either joking or stupid, ”ill-informed”… I get lots of emails from people who want to know if they can do a lake crossing on their birthday or something… and their birthday is something like November 17… they aren’t as inclined when I tell them that the water is only just above freezing then.  But with Darren I wasn’t sure.  He said he really wanted to swim in “the famous Lake Ontario!”

When the water is that clear... you know it's cold!

See he DOES swim in water that cold.  For about an hour.  He’s attempting to become the first person to do the “Ocean’s Seven”… the 7 toughest Channels in the 7 oceans… roughly equivalent to the Seven Summits (climbing the 7 tallest mountains on each of the 7 continents).  In fact, he was on his way over to Spain later in the day… as he and 5 others are going to swim the Strait of Gibraltar sometime this week!  How cool is that!

To make a long story short… we compromised.  We decided we would just do a light swim at the “Y”… AND go for a swim in the Lake!  Yikes.  It wasn’t hard to get my daughter Maisey to come along and take some pics… she’s always up for an adventure… and a good laugh!

okay... that'll do... time to head back in!

We went down to the LOST beach… stripped down to the speedo’s… while strangers in their winter jackets walked by, air temp was the same as the water!… and we went for a plunge!  We probably only swam about 100m out and 100m back… maybe 2 or 3 minutes.  A lot longer than the polar bear plunge, but not as long as some of the hardcores around the world can do… but pretty cool anyway.

Let me tell you, when we got in at the Y it felt like bath water!  We even saw Lynn there, who is one of the LOSTies training for the FKCC Swim Around Key West… she said she was  acutely aware of how close the SAKW was… 49 days to be exact… and seeing the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim report had scared motivated her to get out there and pack on even more training miles!  (ps. she’s going to do great!)

Bring on Key West!!!  (June 16… it’s not too late to enter!)

Cheers,

Rob

FKCC Swim Around Key West

So here is the story of The 15th Annual 38k Tampa Bay Marathon Swim!!!

Tampa Bay Marathon Swim

I was a bit nervous going in.  As I said in my previous blog (below), I was not feeling all that confident… I’d had achilles issues, lower back issues, a bad chest cold… and as a result was not feeling over trained by any stretch.  On the other hand the 8 months of hard training with Coach Dave and all my swimming buddies at BMSC (Burlington Masters Swim Club) and coming off of Ironman Canada last summer did have a pretty solid base.  Oh well, it didn’t matter now.  Excuses be damned.

no need for emergency contact number... mine contacts were crewing for me! Maisey, Joanne and Jillian!

My crew (my wife, Joanne, and daughters, Maisey and Jillian) and I arrived in Tampa at about 10 am on Friday… the day before the race.  We got to the hotel and headed down to the beach.  I swam about 200 meters to loosen up… felt great… nice and loose… smooth and easy… short and sweet… and called it a day.  Nothing to prove today and it was just nice to feel good.  Just leave well enough alone.

As I always say, for these events and races, half the experience is about the race itself and the other half is about the people.  Whether it’s the competitors, your racing buddies, the officials, the fans, whatever… the people at these races really make it memorable.

I’m not sure if you are aware of it, depending on the depth and breadth of your racing experience… but different types of races have different cultures.  Marathons tend to be dominated by the pretty focussed crowd and very competitive, more so for the mega-marathons… “what was your time?!”… triathlons are a bit more grass-roots and laid back, although with the multi-thousand dollar bikes and equipment and expensive entry fees they are becoming a bit more elitest… ultra-marathons tend to be the kooky, crunchy granola, tree-huggers… very, very laid back.  Nothing against any of them… I’ve done and been all of them… they are all just different cultures… generally speaking.  As for marathon

Fresh off the plane... and rarin' to go!

swimmers… hmmm… it’s such a small group it’s hard to say… you have the newbies… those in their 20′s, fresh out of university swimming and still fast as hell… then you have guys like me, that used to be decent pool swimmers, took a decade or two off and got back into swimming by finding something new called “open water swimming”.  There are the Masters swimmers and a few that were never big time swimmers, but this is what they like to do.  And just a few odds and ends too, that kind of defy categorization.  The net result is you end up with a small, eclectic bunch of people.  Generally pretty down to earth people, because you aren’t in this sport for the glamour or the big bucks… most people don’t even know this sport exists.  So they tend to be interesting people who genuinely like to do long hard swims like this.  And I like interesting people.  And you may not know this about me… but I’m not too shy, so I try to meet as many of them as I can.

Hanging out on Friday, I saw a few other people on the beach who looked out of place… as in, they were at the beach in a pool swim suit, cap and goggles… they were easy to pick out from the tourists slathering on the sun screen and sippin’ pina colada’s… not that there is anything wrong with that!

Darren Miller, Sarah's mom, Sarah Thomas, Sarah's sister

I met Sarah Thomas from Colorada and went to UConn.  Interesting because just the day before Maisey had got a recruiting letter from the swim coach at UConn!  She thought she was old, because she was going to be 30 soon and said she wished she’d gotten into this sport sooner, because she loves it… and as it turns out… is pretty good at it too.  She’s also done MIMS and is scheduled for the English Channel this summer too!  The following day someone mentioned she was favored to win…

Darren Miller

but you wouldn’t have known it, speaking with her… oh yeah… and she did win.  Nice girl.  Darren wasn’t swimming, but is no slouch himself… he’s done the English Channel, Catalina Channel and the Molokai Channel… and has plans on doing the Ocean’s Seven!

MIMS, MDS, Boston, IM (click to enlarge)

Then this very tanned guy and his pretty girlfriend walked by on the beach… Joanne thought they might be swimmers… I wasn’t sure… then the guy smiles and lets out a cheer and points to me… and at his calf?!  What?  I had no idea what he was talking about… then as he came closer I recognized his calf (ows is a small sport!)… you see Steve Munatones posted a story a couple of years ago on Open Water Source about people with swimming tattoos… he featured my Manhattan Island Marathon Swim tattoo… and this other guy’s!  He had recognized my tattoo from the story too!  How funny is that.   Turns out the guy was Mauro Giaconia, from Palermo, Italy… to give you a sample of his amazing swimming accomplishments, he once swam 101 km in the largest pool in the world in 24 hours… a one km long pool in Chile!  He passed the interesting people test too!

I met Tibor Molnar, from Hungary… the youngest person in the race at 19 years old.  I’m not sure what happened, but unfortunately he and Bart Cobb, 57, from Tampa, had to drop out of the race a few hours in.  Pretty adventurous challenge for a 19 year old though, speaking of getting into the sport early!

I saw Allan Barry, 48 and Katie Brooks, 23, both swim coaches from Ashville, North Carolina, head out for a warm up swim.  I never saw them swim back, but when I was talking with Allan the next day, he told me they swam by a boater that told them they had just seen a large type of fish that you don’t want to see when you are swimming… he gave them a ride back to shore in their boat.  Allan wasn’t too fussed about it… but Katie has an entirely understandable trepidation about such aquatic life!

I ran into Dan Boyle at the awards ceremony.  I first met Dan in 2006 in Dover at the Hubert House when we were waiting for decent weather to attempt the swim across the English Channel.  He’s also heavily involved with the NYC Swim group that puts on the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim.  I never got a chance to thank him after my swim in England, but I remember he and Erica Moffett coming down to see me off early in the morning, even though we’d just met.  Both very nice people.  As I said marathon swimming is a small world.

The 5 Mermaids and a Shark Relay! Ted Gregory... he's the one in the middle!

Then there was the only other LOSTie in the race, Ted Gregory, 74, from Pennsylvannia.  When Ted was training for EC and later for an EC relay he would drive all the way up to Oakville just to get some nice cold water training in with us LOSTies.  He’s a great guy… and a helluva example of livin’ life large… at any age!  Lots of characters in this sport.  He was swimming a relay with a woman and her daughter and her daughter’s friends from Texas.  The race director, Ron Collin’s, pretty much nailed it when he introduced Ted at the pre-race meeting (these races are so small and friendly that everyone gets an intro at the meeting!) when he said “… and here’s 74 year old Ted Gregory swimming with 5 pretty ladies as a relay… he’s my hero!”  Five Mermaids and a Shark!

I also met Greg Larson, 43, who was on the US National Team and a college roommate at USC of a team-mate of mine and Olympian, Gary Anderson, when I used to swim with Etobicoke back in the ’80s!  I also met a buddy of his that was crewing for him, Jamie Patrick.

Jamie Patrick

We’d crossed paths on Facebook, but he’s an amazing guy too.  He got tired of Ironman and ventured into Ultraman and a triple Ironman and other such races… and now has become an Ultra-swimmer!  He has also joined up with some others to start the Lake Tahoe Swimming Society, similar to LOST Swimming!  His most notable recent achievement was last year when he swam the length of the Sacramento River… 111 miles / 178 km … in 31 hours!  Yup, they both passed the interesting people test too!

Anyway, on to the race… finally.  Hey, that’s what it was like for me too.  It seemed like it was never going to get here… and then here we are!

I and the 18 other starters were getting ready on the beach… when a lady came up to me and said “are you Rob Kent?”… I said that I was, thinking there was some last minute registration thing I must have forgotten… but she said she was just down from Ottawa on vacation… and was a reader of LOSTswimming.com and thought she would come by and wish me luck!?!  So she got up at 6:30 to drive over and find this out of the way little spot and walk up to me and wish me luck!  How nice is that!  Don’t worry she wasn’t a stalker… her husband was with her too… he must have thought we were both nuts.  Huh… Canadians.

The finally the horn went off.  And I started swimming.  The water was 74F / 23C… which was pretty comfortable, but never really warm, especially since we didn’t see the sun the whole day.  If it had been later in the season and I had gotten some cold water training in, this would have been positively balmy, but as it was, it was reasonably comfortable.  The water was very murky, you couldn’t see beyond your fingertips.  Moments before the horn went I asked a guy who had done the race before if it got clearer out deeper… he said no… but then said that was probably just as well, you didn’t necessarily want to see everything out there!  Great parting words.

Rob being escorted by Maisey... don't worry... it was rougher than that!

Maisey was just ahead in the kayak.  We had to get around the point to meet up with Captain Doug, Joanne and Jillian in Doug’s 24′ power boat.  There were boats that were little bigger than bathtubs, which probably would have been okay in normal years… but this wasn’t a normal year.  They were being tossed around like toys.  Not long after we had caught up to our boat, Maisey had had enough.  She’s a good kayaker, but it was really tough going in the 3-4 foot swells and chop… the swimming was no screamin’ hell either.

Maisey got in the boat and I kept swimming.  Soon after the officials boat came by and asked if they could borrow our paddle as another team’s paddle had broken in the waves.  Ya… it was rough.  Ten footer’s from where I was sittin’… but they told me they weren’t quite that big. 

We went around the corner and things got better… much better.  The waves started coming from behind!  For you cyclists out there, that’s the same glorious sensation as when you come around the corner and the wind is at your back.  Nice.  That stayed with me for a couple of hours.  Real nice.

Maisey and Rob

It was still tough going and lots of chop… but it was going well.  On top of that, I was having a good day.  I remember thinking about the races I’ve done… and in how many of them I was having a really ”good” day.  Ususally, you get what you deserve.  If you are out of shape you have a slow painful race… and if you are in good shape, you have a fast painful race.  Sometimes you get a bit more or a bit less than you deserve, you never know how your body is going to react on race day.  But sometimes… you are in good shape… everything aligns nicely.  It’s still hard… obviously… but it’s so nice when you have to dig deep to push on, especially in an ultra type race, that there is something there.  I recall having races like that at the Peterborough 1/2 Ironman one year… 30k Around the Bay in 2:19 one year… the 47k Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS) in 2010… and I was having a day like that today!  Nice.

Of course, if you’ve ever done a loooong race, you know you go through ups and downs during the race (little pun there).  So naturally, the next hour or so was slated to be tough.  A bit of self doubt… a bit of cursing at the waves… a bit of thinking about aquatic life that I didn’t want to think about.  But I got through it.

Also, if you’ve ever done a looooong race, you know that the thing most likely to knock you out of the race is… nutrition.  Well, weather conditions are probably above that in open water swimming, but nutrition is right up there.  And my nutrition was going great.  I’ve screwed up my nutrition way more times than I’ve got it right in races over the years, but I decided to go with what had worked in MIMS.

Guess who was seasick? To quote Rod Stewart "Every picture tells a story, don't it!"

I had Joanne and Maisey taking good care of me… and Captain Doug was a great pilot.  Tampa Bay is a very tricky bay, due to the shallows, amongst other things.  Jillian was on the boat too, but she was ignoring me, which kind of ticked me off… hour after hour she sat in the same chair on the other side of the boat listening to her ipod.  Oh well, she’s only 14 years old and it was her first experience crewing… I guess it wasn’t her bag.  Or that’s what I thought until at about my 5th or 6th feed when she came over to cheer me on… and I saw her face… she literally looked green.  Joanne shoo’d her back to the other side of the boat… neither of them wanted to worry me about how bad she was feeling, so she just tried to stay out of the way and be discreet.  I still feel bad about thinking she wasn’t interested… she was sick as a dog for 6 or 7 hours and never complained at all.  Turns out she’s pretty tough afterall.

Feeding time!

Jo and Maisey would mix my food and drink for me every half hour.  Plan A was: 1 Carboom gel, 250 ml of water with one scoop of gatorade (carbs, electrolytes and flavor) and one scoop of Carbo Pro (pure carbs)… and that was it.  Twice, when I was feeling a bit peckish, I got Maisey to dig into the Plan B reserve and toss me a few M&M’s and a mini Mars bar once too.  Plan B was: what ever works… a backup of: Mars bars, M&M’s, crackers, bananas, etc you never know what might get you through when Plan A is out the window!  The problem is that you don’t have the latitude in what to eat that you do in a land based race, it’s hard and tiring to feed in the water.  I was getting a bit bloated near the end, but again, if you’ve been in a looooong race, that’s well within the scope of acceptable.

At about hour 4 I started zoning out.  The 1/2 hours were flying by like fence posts to a speeding car.  The best case scenario in an ultra event is when time goes by and you don’t notice.  It means nothing is wrong… and your head is in a good place.  Nice.

Because of the strong winds the water was littered with all kinds of jetsom and flotsom (google it), but I was swimming through it, that stuff doesn’t bug me at all.  However, something nibbled my toes!!!  I sat up like a shot and turned around!!!  Jo, Doug and Maisey were looking at me concerned.  Of course, there was nothing there.  I kept swimming.  I spent the next several minutes convincing myself it was just seaweed or something.

It happened again!!!  And I jumped again!!!  Again, because I couldn’t see any further than 3 feet away even if it was something, I convinced myself it was just seaweed… even though I was more convinced it wasn’t.

Just plugging along...

When it happened for the 4th or 5th time… and I kicked “it”… I knew it was a fish… of some descript… that was literally nibbling at my toes and calves.  Finally the crew asked me what was going on… I laughed and said small fish were nibbling at my toes!  They laughed and Doug said “at least it’s just the small ones!”.  That’s what I told myself anyway.

I fell back into my trance again.  It was great.  Just watching my arms roll by me in front of my eyes… like they didn’t even belong to me.  Joanne even asked me at a feed what I was dreaming about… of course, I had no idea.

The very next feed I was swimming along and WHACK!!!  My right hand smacked into something very solid that brought me to a complete stand still… I looked up and my nose was about 6 inches away from a channel marker!!!  A channel marker, as I found out, is a barnacle encrusted telephone pole sticking out of the water meant to guide ships away from the shallows… and punish day-dreaming swimmers!

I had hit the back of my hand on the recovery of my stroke very hard.  My first thought was if something was broken.  The crew was yelling to see if I was okay (apparently they had been yelling and blowing the whistle, but between the earplugs and the waves I hadn’t heard them).  Immediately, I lied and said I was fine.  I took 2 strokes and found my hand really hurt and I couldn’t hold water.  Then the second thought went through my mind… is it bleeding?  It was scraped up pretty good… but no gushers.  Again, gushers aren’t good with lots of aquatic life around… if you know what I mean.

waves can make you swim weird... or at least look that way in photos!

Whatever, I kept swimming.  It hurt, but it kind of broke me out of my trance.  I started assessing not only my hand but how I felt.  My lower back was a bit sore, stomach a little upset… which I took as feeling really good.  Then Joanne started getting messages on her blackberry from all kinds of well-wishers.  First was Cousin Al (he’s somebody’s cousin, nobody is quite sure who’s though?)… he was asking if I was up for a swim today… Jo said yes… he’s swimming Tampa Bayk… he wanted to join me at the Y for my regular long swim!  Then there was an email that Joanne told me about at a feed, that all my running/ironman buddies were congregated after their Saturday morning run at Brett’s coffee shop, Bean There, in Oakville… tracking my swim and the race!  It sounds kind of corny… but it really perked me up!  After my mental rest during the trance and the wake-up call, this got me back in the game!  I started picking it up… I was feeling great!  I knew I was well past 1/2 way and started to feel like I could push it to the finish!

I think it was 1 or 2 feeds later… I swam over to the boat… Doug said “They’ve called the race!”… WHAT?!?!?… “it’s over… a very big electrical storm is coming in… and we’ve got to get you out now!”… Joanne was listening to the radio… first it was if you were north of the Gandy bridge you could continue… so I wanted to sneak up there asap… we were almost there!  Moments later, the whole thing was cancelled.  I had swum about 25 of the 38 km… and I think around 7th place.  But it was over.  That was it.

This was just the start of it...

I was mad.  Not that it was anyone’s fault… but I didn’t give a sh*t… I was mad and I really didn’t want to get out.  But after a few choice words… I did.  The weather really didn’t look any worse than it had looked all day.  But Doug turned the boat around and high-tailed it back to the start.  Within a few minutes it opened up.  The waves were 5 feet.  The rain was crazy… I could have endured that for an hour or so… but then the lightning came.  There is a reason that is the hockey team is named the “Tampa Bay Lightning”.  It can get pretty intense.  It was the right call.  But it still sucked.

I got over it… eventually.  I felt bad.  Frustrated. Dissappointed.  A bit of self pity. Mad.  Did I mention frustrated.

A nice beach recovery day!

But you know what… first of all… it’s the nature of the sport.  That’s what makes this sport tougher than ultra running or cycling or triathlon… the weather plays a much bigger role… it plays a role in the others, but for the most part it shouldn’t end the event… in marathon swimming it can and often does.  Second of all… it’s just a race.  We’re all ‘big boys’ (so to speak)… we all have real lives, families, jobs… and it’s good to keep it all in perspective.  Sometimes things like this are good at proving that fact.

Like I said before, for me it’s about the people and the race… and together it makes for an adventure.  The adventure doesn’t necessarily mean you win, just that you did something out of the ordinary that makes you feel alive and that makes you  appreciate and experience things that you might not otherwise experience.  This was one of those times.  So I’m going to call it a great adventure anyway.

family fun the next day...

PS.  Bring on “Swim Around Key West!”, June 16… and Lake Ontario, Aug 13!!!

Cheers,

Rob

oh yeah... by the time we were ready to go home... the weather was perfect! Such is the sport of marathon swimming!

hey... I still got the plaque! Thanks for the adventure, Ron!

… it’s finally here… for better or for worse!

Tampa Bay Marathon Swim

So after a winter of just swimming… I’m ready… I guess.  Truth is, I don’t really feel that well prepared.  I was swimming well about a month ago… but then came the injuries… my achilles, my back, a chest cold that I haven’t been able to shake… and not being able to do any long swims this time of year… all have me second guessing my training and conditioning.  Training in a 25m pool for a 38k race is like training for an ultra-marathon on a treadmill… kinda hard to get the distance in.  There.  I’ve got all my excuses out.

On the other hand… I have been swimming well this year.  Big thanks to all my team-mates at Burlington Masters Swim Club… and to Coach Dave!  All the quality workouts we’ve done really do maximize the amount of time we have in the pool.  And even though I found it hard to believe and it kills me to say it… Dave was right… he picked my stroke apart and put it back together… and I’m pretty sure it’s better because of it.

And most importantly… it doesn’t matter.  Time’s up.  You get what you get and you do what you can with the hand you get dealt.  The weather conditions play a much bigger role in any ultra event… and even more so in open water swimming… as the guys at the Boston Marathon got a small taste of this weekend.

So with that in mind… I’m ready.

So here are some details about the race:

• 38k, the length of Tampa Bay
• Saturday, April 21, 7:00 am start
• Joanne, Maisey and Jillian are crewing for me!
• Pilot: Doug, Boat length: 24 ft
• website: www.DistanceMatters.com
• follow it live at: http://americanregatta.com/regattas/2012/distancematters/
• weather looks good, water temp 79F / 26C… air temp 79F / 26C as well!  One less thing to worry about!
• possibility of “strong thunderstorms”… okay that could be something to worry about…
• I’m not the only LOSTie in the race… Ted Gregory, 74, who has driven up to swim with us when he was training for the English Channel has got a harem of mermaids to join him on a 6 person relay! (below)

SWIMMER, AGE, HOMETOWN
1. Brad Denton, 48M, Scottsdale, AZ
2. Chris Burke, 50M, St. Petersburg, FL
3. Greg Larson, 43M, San Rafael, CA
4. Sarah Thomas, 29F, Englewood, CO
5. Rob Kent, 47M, Oakville, Ontario
6. Dan Boyle, 46M, New York, NY
7. Katie Brooks, 23F, Asheville, NC
8. Mauro Giaconia, 40M, Palermo, Italy
9. Mark Smitherman, 54M, Clearwater, FL
10. Patti Bauernfeind, 44F, Dublin, CA
11. Tibor Molnar, 19M, Shelton, CT
12. Bart Cobb, 57M, Tampa, FL
13. Alan Barry, 48M, Asheville, NC
14. Pat Marzulli, 63M, Indian Rocks Beach, FL
15. Steve Gruenwald, 50M, Anchorage, AK
16. Arnie Bellini, 53M, Tampa, FL
17. Angry Fish Relay
Chris Kirwin, 46M, Overland Park, KS
Jordan Lewis, 54M, Minneapolis, MN
Dan Snyder, 44M, Los Gatos, CA
Rob Benson, 43M, Mt. Dester, ME
Jim Kirkland, 64M, Alexandria, VA
Jen Raymond, 46F, Stanford, CA
18. Team Hammerhead Aquatics Relay
Bill Korey, 48M, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Andrea Woodburn, 48F, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Jonathan Olsen, 49M, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
19. Five Mermaids and a Shark Relay
Patty Hermann, 52F, Houston, TX
Kimberly Hermann, 22F, Houston, TX
Marcy Olsen, 21F, Houston, TX
Caitlin Healey, 29F, Needham, MA
Lauren Tharaud, 30F, Hoboken, NJ
Ted Gregory, 74M, Camp Hill, PA

Tampa Bay Marathon Swim route... 24 miles / 38k... swimming south to north.

 Cheers,

Rob

 

 

First of all, the thing that makes this event so cool and the reason we keep going back… and in fact the reason any of us keep doing any of this stuff… we had a great group, about 15 runners and about 15 ‘athletic supporters’… a fun group!  We’ve all been going down to Boston for years, some of us for longer than others… Alex was doing his 17th consecutive Boston Marathon… I’m the newbie, having only done it 3 times… and most everyone else was somewhere in between.

This was a different year for me, going as a spectator.  I generally don’t do spectating very well.  I mean I’m enthusiastic and love to cheer people on… but it pretty much always kills me not to participate!  Whatever the event, I hate riding pine… I’d always rather be in the game… whatever the game… but especially the Boston Marathon.

This year I was fine with it though.  I’ve only run once this year… and that was the 5k beer run we did in February!  So even when Scott suggested that I grab Hugh’s bib, as he had to bail because his pnumonia had made it impossible for him to run more than about a block, I had no interest.  Turns out Hugh made a great decision… as they allowed people to defer their entry until next year if they decided they didn’t want to run… because of the HEAT!

In the 116 years of the Boston Marathon, this was the hottest ever!  It got to about 90F / 32C!!!  The BAA sent out several emails prior to the race telling people to either not run or run slow… that’s a weird bit of ‘pre-race’ advice when you think about it.

About 4,000 of the 27,000 people elected not to run and took the deferral for next year.  Then it started.  Mark, Jackie, Janice, Angela and myself took the train out to the spot that Mark scouts out every year… on top of a slight hill at mile 17.  It was Janice’s first year and she asked the rookie question “so is this Heart-break Hill”?  We laughed and said “no, this is barely a speed bump”!  It was about then that Mark noticed that he usually never sees anyone walking up this hill… and Janice had a good point… there were tons of people walking already!

People knew where Mark usually was, to look for us… I had my Bruins jersey on to help find us in the massive crowd too.  We saw Brett first… he was running hard… and feeling it… he was still trying to race it.  He still put in a great time (all the times this year have the asterisk of: *considering the conditions!) at 3:17… but positive split the race by 15 minutes.

Then we saw Ron, running pretty hard, but smart.  He decided to run with no watch today so he wouldn’t get caught up trying to run a specific pace… he just ran by feel… a smart way to run on a day like that!

We saw Alex and Rick… Alex was nursing an injury and so was Rick, so they ran together.  The speed was taking a bit more out of Rick than Alex, so with about 6 miles left, Alex dropped it into gear and came within a few seconds of even splitting the race.  They both felt the heat but finished well.

Lambrina had probably the best race of the day!  She ran pretty hard, but miraculously (or due to her hot-blooded Greek heritage) wasn’t crushed by the heat… and finished well under 4:00 hours!… and qualified for Boston again next year!  Eileen L. had a great run too and came by stopped for a hug from her husband and a quit chat… just enjoying the day… and she ran fast.  A special note to my buddy, Steve Sevsek, who ran a 3:06 last year… and a 3:09 this year… amazing!… and like Lambrina was one of the few to get their qualifying time for next year!

Brian went by… he looked okay… but wasn’t.  Brian always suffers in the heat and he knows that.  So he pulled himself off the course a few miles later and ended up in the medical tent!  And got an I.V.!  Then, and I question the sanity of this… after an hour in the medical tent… he rolled out on the course and finished the race!  Walking it in at 6:30 hours!  Frankly I can’t believe the officials let him do it… I was under the impression that if you took medical treatment you were disqualified… but what do I know.  It was even more crazy when we read about another case in the paper when they took someone to the hospital for treatment… and then let him come back and finish the race in 7:00 hours!

Shortly after that I got a call from Joanne!  She, like Brian, doesn’t do well in the heat.  She switched positions with Brian and how they finished at Ironman Canada last summer when the temperature was 39C… there Brian made the tough decision to pull himself from the race… and Joanne finished… but was a total mess, throwing up and feinting.  On this day, Joanne was the sane one and when she couldn’t keep anything down and had bonked by half way, she pulled the plug!  Never an easy decision, but the right one.

Unfortunately we missed a few people like David, Eileen M, Scott and Peter… they all had stories, but Peter wins the prize for the best story!  He raced it pretty hard, finishing in 3:21… over 35 minutes off his best time… and not in great shape.  Crossing the line he was staggering all over the place… they grabbed him and took his vitals… including his temperature… and found he had a temp of 103F!!!  They threw him in an ice bath and when he pleaded to get out after a few minutes, the ol’ rectal thermometer showed 105F!!!  To use their words “he was cooking inside!”.  Let’s just say he didn’t get out of the ice bath for quite some time.

Of course we all went out after the race to the usual pub for post-race libations… but I think it’s safe to say the crowd was a little more subdued than usual.  No dancing on the tables and tequila shots this year!

It was a crazy Boston Marathon, but always an adventure!… and for what it’s worth here are the results:

1. Steve S.     3:09  only 3 minutes over his time last year
2. Peter         3:18   slow for him, but was still pushing it
3. Ron            3:48   very slow for him, but finished smilin’!
4. Alex           3:46  caught Ron right at the finish
5. Brian         6:30  now that’s determination
6. Joanne       DNF
7. Hugh          DNS
8. David         4:25  a smart race too… especially after 2 achilles surgeries this year!
9. Scott          3:54  a slow but smart race too
10. Eileen L.    4:19  a slow but smart race too
11. Eileen M.   5:08  a slow but smart race too
12. Lambrina  3:56   a fast and smart race!
13. Brett          3:16   a pretty fast and pretty smart race! 
14. Rick            4:03  a solid run too

A special cheer to some other friends who were down there that I never ran into:

• Mary St. James  4:10  amazing return after a major battle with Breast Cancer!!!
• Julie Geng          4:03   her first Boston… she missed last year with a broken leg!
• Anna Parker      3:51   doing the Oakville Masters proud!
• Mike Bermingham  3:47  we saw you out there Mike, but I don’t think you heard us!

Cheers,

Rob

So on top of my swim at Harvard (see post below) there were a few other things that made this year special at the Boston Marathon…

Before the race, we and about 100,000 other people made the trek to the Official Boston Marathon expo.  For you triathletes out there who think that Ironman has cornered the market in over-priced “Official” gear, they haven’t… Boston knows how to do it just as well!  But what the hell… you spend so much time and money getting to either event that you might as well get the gear too! 

Since I wasn’t running this year I didn’t really have much to buy though… however I did find something cool to buy… a book… by Dean Karnazes!  Now you may not know who Dean is… but safe to say he is one of the greatest ultra-marathoner’s of all time… he’s run 50 marathon’s in 50 days in 50 states… he won the infamous Badwater Ultra in 2004… won the Vermont 100 Trail Race… ESPN’s ‘Best Outdoor Athlete’ Award in 2007… ran 350 miles (560 km) in 80 hours and 44 minutes without stopping (2005)… 148 miles (238 km) in 24 hours on a treadmill, 2004… Eleven-time 100-Mile/1 Day Silver Buckleholder at the Western States Endurance Run… amongst other amazing accomplishments.  So, ya, he’s a pretty good runner.

The cool thing is that we have a friend in common.  So when I finally worked my way to the front of the line, I casually brought up the speech I had been rehearsing in my head for the last 25 minutes about how he likely knew a friend of mine, Ray Zahab (another world class ultra runner!), and I knew Ray too.  He said “oh you know Ray!  Too bad! haha”… I said “haha, you do know Ray!”  (PS. Ray’s a great guy!)  That was it.  I didn’t really have anything else, but I figured it was something more interesting than “what’s the hardest race you’ve ever done”… or “what’s your marathon time?”.

Anyway, we actually got chatting and he asked Joanne and I if we were running Boston… and I said I wasn’t but Joanne was.  He asked why I wasn’t and I said because I was doing the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim next weekend.  Then I got one of the best compliments one could possibly get from Dean Karnazes.  He said “really… um, how far is a ‘marathon swim’?”… I said this particular one was 38 km.  He said “WHAT?… 38 km?… that’s insane!!!”… and I said… “wow… that’s pretty cool… when Dean Karnazes thinks something you are doing is crazy!!!”

He laughed… I laughed… Joanne thought I was weird.  He wrote a good line in my book… “Never stop Adventuring!”.  We parted the best of friends.  I expect I’m on his Christmas card list now.  It was pretty cool.

Joanne still thinks I’m weird.

Cheers,

Rob

… not for none of that fancy book-learnin’ or nothin’… I went for a swim! 

Harvard Master's workout... pre-Boston Marathon!

Since I was going down to Boston with the usual suspects from our Oakville running group that were running the Boston Marathon on Monday, I wanted to get a swim or two in, to keep my training up for the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim this weekend.

So with my extrordinary Google capabilities, I searched for some public swim times at MIT, BU and Harvard… there weren’t any.  Then I stumbled across the link to the BU Masters Swim Team and they openly invited visiting swimmers to come in for a workout… they have a great pool, so it seemed like a good idea.  Then I thought maybe Harvard would have a Master’s team too… and they did!  Nothing against BU, but it sounded cooler to swim at Harvard!  So I emailed the coach, Abe, and he was more than happy to have me come out for a swim!

Joanne came and watched from the gallery and checked out the school.  I picked a great night too, I went Sunday night, the night before the Marathon… and they had changed it to 50m long course and because of the marathon it was a pretty light turn out… and it was distance free-style night!  Perfect. 

In case you were wondering, I swam with 3 nice girls in the second fastest lane and everyone was very welcoming.  Not your typical master’s team, they were fast… and young.  I was easily the oldest there… I’m sure I brought the average age up by about 15 years!  (even though I’m sure they thought I was just a Freshman!)  A good workout and something fun for a change!

Blodgett Pool, Harvard... great facility!

I decided I’d come back the next morning from 5:30 – 6:30 am too, when Joanne and the rest of the gang were making their way out to the starting line.  But being the good husband I am (and due to some wifely coercion) I decided it would probably be better to walk Joanne to the bus and see her off.  I wanted to go for a workout… but I think I made the right decision.

Or so I thought!  As it turns out, someone else was in Bean Town watching their significant other run the marathon too… and decided to get a swim in too… and who would that be?  I’ll give you a hint… the same guy I wrote about (scroll down a ways) dropping in on the Calgary Masters Swim Team’s workout a few months ago… yup… Lance-freakin-Armstrong!  Arghhhh.  

That’s the last time I do the ‘right’ thing!  Arghhh.

Cheers,

Rob

So as you might recall, we recently got Finis on board as a sponsor for LOST swimming… they gave us a very generous 50% off for 3 months of the year and 25% for the rest.  Problem was… you get killed on the duty!

I ordered a bunch of things, as did a few other LOSTies, and when the duty was included, it didn’t make it worth it.  However, Finis was good enough to point us in the direction of a supplier that carried their products… Team Aquatic Supplies! (TAS).

Our family has been going to TAS for years as our kids swim with OAK and all OAK families get a 25% discount… but that doesn’t do anything for the LOSTies!  So I spoke with Patty at TAS and she got LOST on the approved list of teams to recieve the 25% discount… not just on Finis products, but everything in the store!  Even better!

All you need to do is mention to the good people at Team Aquatics that you are a member of LOST and they will give you a “Shark Card” that gives you 25% off!  (It isn’t valid for on-line orders.)  By the way… I’ll have 2012 registration for LOST open shortly, I’m just waiting for MSO to sanction our races, so you can pay for your LOST membership and any races at the same time.

Team Aquatic Supplies is the largest aquatic supplier in Canada and has 7 locations across the country and carries pretty much anything and everything swimming related! 

Just click on their logo to the right and it will take you to their website.  I’ve included their Burlington address there too.

Cheers,

Rob

Hi all,

So given that we have so many LOST swimmers doing marathon swims this year and so many people supporting and crewing, I thought it might be cool to have some nice “LOST Marathon Swimming” t-shirts!

So I designed a great logo for LOST “marathon swimming” (as opposed to our usual LOST T-shirt), then I got Maisey to touch it up… which she did.  Then she said it sucked… which it did.  Then she said, I could make you a better one… so she did!  And this is it…

The plan is that the T-shirt will be this color of blue or so, (keeping in mind that T-shirts don’t come in quite as many colors as there are in photoshop!).

I am just in the process of getting everything lined up to order them, but the T-shirts themselves will be standard 100% cotton shirts and normal sizes… whatever size you would normally take for a regular Men’s t-shirt. (I just spoke with my buddy Brad, who is doing this for us and he said we can also get the equivalent Ladies t-shirt, it has more of a cap sleeve, slightly tapered and shorter… at the same price).  I won’t know the price until we know how many we are ordering, but I would imagine that they will come in around $20 or so. (usually a one time set up fee, the shirt, tax, the printing).

Anyway, if you are interested in getting a shirt for yourself, if you are doing a marathon swim… or you are crew for a marathon swim… or a friend, family or supporter of a marathon swimmer… or just think it would be a good way to support and promote LOST swimming… then drop me an email with your size and how many you want.  I can mail them too if you want.  I’ll come back when I know the exact price.

I’ll need all the orders in by 12:00 noon on Monday, as I want to get them done before I leave for the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim in 16 days… so I need your orders asap!!  (the5kents@msn.com)

Hope you like them!!!

Cheers,

Rob

Okay maybe I’m biased, because I was cheering for Tera, but I think I have a valid point.  Nothing against Martha McCabe or Annamay Pierce… love ‘em both… but Sportsnet didn’t exactly do a fair job covering this race!  Martha and Annamay both moved to Vancouver to train together and swim under breaststroke coaching guru Jozsef Nagy… so did Tera.  Before the race they did a big Sportsnet bio on Martha and Annamay… not a word was said about Tera, even though she qualified second going into finals, behind Martha and ahead of Annamay.

But like any great athlete, she let her actions speak for her.  In a race that according to Sportsnet was going to be a dual between Martha and Annamay… it did turn into a 2 swimmer race alright… but between Martha and Tera!  Tera was holding onto second with 25 meters to go… we were screaming… maybe she’ll get second and they both will go!… it was really close… and then… going as fast as she could… neck and neck with Martha, who was going as fast as she could… she found a whole other gear… with 10 meters left, she dropped Martha like a bad habit!  And finished with the second fastest 200 breast in the world this year!… a 2:24.03!  Woohoo!!!

And the conspiracy continues… I wanted to put the youtube of her 200 here… Swim Canada has all the races posted… but Tera’s isn’t available because EMI says it is a copyright violation… there must be music playing in the background… how lame is that! 

Oh well, we’ll make due… here’s her 100m qualifying race!  Congrats again Tera!!!

Cheers,

Rob

imagine that... climbing onto the blocks... to try and make the Olympic team... that's what it looks like... gives me chills...

… you had to be there…… for the last 10 years, that is… it’s hard to explain but… all 3 of my kids swim competitively… as did my wife and I growing up… yes, the Michael Phelps thing… yes, the ‘trying to make the Olympics’ thing… but to say ‘it’s very hard to do’ is a monumental understatement… swimming is one of the most popular sports in the world… I know that’s hard to believe in a country that thinks hockey is one of the most universal sports in the world (it’s not, btw)… gone are the old days when the US and the USSR dominated at swimming, the table is much more level now and virtually every country is good… every European country, Cda, US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Korea, Indonesia, China, Japan and several middle eastern countries all have some great swimmers… and to make the Cdn Olympic team you must be within 2% of the world record and top 1 or 2 in Cda… think of it this way, how hard would it be to make the NHL if they only took 30 players in the draft… every 4 years… but that’s at the macro level… there is no NHL in swimming… all the kids that make the Olympics toil in obscurity at little, dinky local clubs for the most part, some at university… our club, for example, the Oakville Aquatic Club, was ranked 67 in the country when we joined it 10 years ago (of about 400 clubs in Cda)… it is now ranked 4th… we had about 125 kids then… we now have about 700… the kids at the top of the club are training about 25 hours a week, while going to high school, hoping to get marks high enough to get a US scholarship at the same time… and when these kids (boys and girls) train together and suffer together and travel together… year after year… with the very same kids, every year… for 11 months a year… well it really becomes a tight group… much more than most sports… it makes a real family… well, Cdn Olympic trials are on right now… and one of the OAK family became the first OAK swimmer to ever make the Cdn Olympic Team… and there was pandemonium in the Kent household last night (and every OAK household)… congrats to Tera Van Beilen…

100m Breast-stroke in 1:07.37… she came second in one of the most competitive races we have… 4 women made the cut… but only 2 go!

Also… a very honorable mention goes to former OAK swimmer (now with UofT) Zach Chetrat… who missed making the team by 2/100′s of a second in 200 Butterfly!!!                         

It is a tough sport.  Like they used to say on the ABC Wide World of Sports… “The Thrill of Victory… and the Agony of Defeat!”

Cheers,

Rob

So the Canadian Olympic Swim Trials are on TV!  They started last night and we watched them… very exciting!  It was pretty cool to see kids that my kids knew or have swum against in there battling for a spot on the London Team!

Our team, the Oakville Aquatic Club, sent 28 swimmers!  Making it one of the largest teams in the country at OT’s!  (4th largest team… out of 165 teams at OT’s!) To put it in perspective, last OT’s we sent 6 swimmers and 4 before that!  Now you have to realize that just to make OT’s is very, very tough… most kids don’t make it… and yet the field there is still really deep, around 80 kids per event, so to get a second swim at the biggest swim meet in Canada every 4 years is REALLY impressive.  OAK swimmers, Mika Spencer made the B Final in 400 Free and Evan White swam in a swim-off (and won handily!).  Both did best times by a mile!

To make it this far is incredible… but to make the actual team is incredibly hard.  You have to make it to OT’s… then make the A Finals… then finish second and make the IOC’s ‘A cut’, or finish first overall!  And yet we have two or three kids from OAK who have a good chance to make it!  We also have a handful that if they had one of those magical swims and things fell into place are within striking distance.  The rest of these amazing kids are there just to be counted among the fastest in the sport… and to move up the ranks in 4 years from now!  Remember these kids are as young as 14 years old!

It’s funny, OAK’s big rival in Ontario is Etobicoke, we are always battling with them at the big meets… but that’s just as a team… truth be told a lot of our kids and their kids are good friends… so it was pretty cool last night to be sitting with my daughter, Maisey, who has raced against, and knows, Brittany MacLean and watch her set a new Canadian record and win a spot on the team!  We were screaming and jumping for her when she won!  And she swims for Etobicoke… still seems like a local girl done good!  (she’s a nice kid too!)… wait until we get some OAK swimmers in there!  I don’t know if our house can take it!  https://www.swimming.ca/NewsArticle.aspx?newsid=3057

Live results: http://www.omegatiming.com/index_home.htm#swimming/racearchives/2012/Montreal/index_d1.htm

Live webcam: http://www.swimcanweb.tv/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=2&lang=en

Anyway, have a watch on Sportsnet (channel 151, with Cogeco) tonight from 7:00 – 8:00… it’s on until Sunday, although I think a few nights are bumped, but it’s also streamed live on-line. 

GO OAK GO!!!   http://www.oakvilleaquatics.ca/

PS.  I have to say I have a bit of a soft spot for OT’s (in case you didn’t guess that!), especially in Montreal… especially Lane 1… that’s where I swam 100 Breast against the World Record Holder, Victor Davis, for a spot to go to the Seoul Olympics… 24 years ago… he made it… I didn’t… but it was the highlight of my competitive swimming career!

Cheers,

Rob

… to borrow a line from Pirates of the Caribbean… I suppose it serves me right for swimming in Lake Ontario this early in the season… when everyone one knows the fresh-water octopus are running this time of year!  Luckily I was able to shake them!

not the Loch Ness Monster... the Lake O Octopus!!!

… okay… would you believe I screwed up my back doing my 20k pool swim two weeks ago ? (over 2 days, mind you)… 800 flip turns will do that to you I guess.  So I tried the usual fixes: hot tub… massage… hot tub… chiro… prescription muscle relaxant… rest… nothing was working… so I thought I’d try something different… no, not get my wife to give me hickies… acupuncture!  Well, this is a derivative of it, called “cupping” (not to be confused with “spooning”!).  It is supposed to help improve the circulation and thereby allow oxygen and nutrients to get to the knotted muscles… funny thing is… it seems to have worked!  Thanks to Ming at Club Physio Plus!

Cheers,

Rob

 In case you missed the episode of the Nature of Things on CBC called “The Perfect Runner”… it was great!  No, they weren’t talking about me… well come to think of it, they kinda were talking about me (the part about bad running form that is!)… it’s about why humans are the Perfect Runners… and evolution, science, barefoot running, why Africans are so fast and the Canadian Death Race!  Very informative, entertaining and well done.

http://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episode/the-perfect-runner.html?subpage=information#

 You can watch the whole thing on-line at CBC on the link above.  Enjoy.

Cheers,

Rob

Here is a good article from the NYC Swims group (that puts on the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and other races) by my buddy Ned Denison (who actually helped guide me in the entry process for MIMS, which is very hard to get into!). 

Ned uses a fair calculation to help quantify how much all of these races and swims rely on volunteers.  Which reminds me to thank all the people helping me with my up-coming Lake O Crossing and training this summer… in advance!  And, although I’m not asking for help just yet… when the ol’ LOST Race rolls around, it’s a good way to give back to sports… whether you are a swimmer, triathlete, runner, whatever… paying it forward is not an exact science (although I do like Ned’s calculations), but it is true that none of these events work without volunteers and it is just good karma to “pay it forward”… and not a bad idea to be reminded of it once in a while! 

PS.  Ned is too modest… he is one of the biggest leaders and organizers and “hands on” guys in Irish Swimming.

Cheers,

Rob

 PSS.  I have to admit, part of the success of LOST Swimming is the fact that it is very down to earth and grass roots, and so many people are more than willing to chip in… because I sure couldn’t do all this myself!… so thanks.

LOST Race, 2011... 85 swimmers!!! (click to enlarge)

Guest Editorial – Ned Denison Wants YOU to Volunteer

In this, our special “Volunteering Spotlight” issue, we’re bringing you a call to arms from one of our very own volunteers, Ned Denison. Originally from Vermont, Ned has lived in Cork, Ireland, for the past 11 years and has become a leader in the worldwide open water swimming community through his efforts to build a strong training group in Ireland and beyond. With his vast knowledge of the sport and its practitioners, Ned also serves as a veteran member of our Manhattan Island Marathon Swim Application Committee, selecting the field while also advising would-be MIMS swimmers on the best ways to prepare for both the event and the application process.

Ned is a passionate guy who has a lot of great ideas for ways to improve open water swimming for everyone. In this excerpt from a recent article, Ned has taken the age-old issue of the imbalance between volunteers and swimmers and calculated exactly how much swimmers, including himself, “owe” the various people who help us achieve our goals. (Visit loneswimmer.com to see the full piece, including Ned’s calculations for what English Channel swimmers “owe”.) Please consider his heartfelt plea to “pay it forward” and assist other swimmers by volunteering in some events this summer. We’re all a part of an amazing community that will be even stronger if you help out.

Open water swimming is exploding with a massive increase in events together with swimmer interest and participation. This is fantastic, however, behind the scenes, the inadequate number of volunteers jeopardizes our sport’s future growth.

My biggest hope for the future of open water swimming involves a shift as we swimmers need to start volunteering in large numbers.

Invariably this statement is met with a bewildered, “What? But Ned, you don’t understand. I’m involved in the sport to swim and have fun with my mates. I didn’t get involved to kayak, take times, crew a safety boat, or spend hours before the event finding boats and kayakers or taking registrations. Surely the entry fee I pay for each swim must cover all the costs? I assumed that all the worker bees were getting paid big bucks to support my passion.”

While there are a few commercial events out there, 99% of all the open water events in the world are staffed by volunteers. We don’t get paid and many of us pay our own travel expenses, buy our own food, and foot the bill for the overnight lodging that often is required when a swimmer needs support on a travel swim. Many of the volunteers also typically raise money for a charity or fulfill a civic or familial duty.

To illustrate what I mean, I’ve calculated how much it costs in volunteer support for a swimmer to complete an event. Consider how many volunteer hours you took advantage of to reach your goal. The phrase “took advantage of” is a horrible expression, but bear with me for a moment.

Your 2k races where you have 1/20th of a two-person safety boat crew and the five event volunteers on the day plus the 80 hours it took before the event to get it all organized — that all works out to about 24 person hours for you to pay back.

This doesn’t count your swimming buddies who took turns to swim at your speed to help you practice. Also consider the sacrifices your partner made as he or she covered extra duties at home and with the kids. You need to work out how to pay that back yourself.

The numbers don’t lie. We swimmers know — deep down — that lots of people are involved so we can have our event. For the vast majority of swimmers, you are not paying back at the level you should be to make it balance.

For example, I am just back from the Rottnest Swim in Australia where I dug my own volunteer disparity-hole event deeper. My friend Jennifer Hurley and her family collected me at the airport and looked after me. They are friends, but still, it takes time, so let’s call it 40 person hours.

Then there is Clive, my kayaker, who paddled in two training swims and discussed my swim plan over coffee with me, so we’ll call that eight person hours.

Clive then drove two hours to get to the location, stayed overnight, launched at 4:45am and paddled 5.5 hours (we’ll forgive the time we took to have a pint after the race), then traveled back on the ferry to get home, for a total of 12 additional person hours.

Mike piloted the boat and Barb joined me in a training swim and then crewed, that’s another 30 person hours. Then finally the Rottnest team of 100 strong put in (at a guess, and probably a low one) 10,000 organization hours. Thankfully, I can divide this huge sum of time by the 2,500 swimmers who participated! That’s four person hours per swimmer.

So, my Rottnest swim has set me back another 94 person hours. This gets added to the debt from the previous 30 long swims and 200+ short swims I’ve done over the years. I’m 54 years old, so I’m not sure I have enough time left to pay it all back.

But we have to try. My call to action is to change the dynamic:

1. Accept that you owe. Think about how to pay it forward.
2. Start volunteering. Try missing one swim in 10 to volunteer instead of swim.
3. Learn to kayak (nice cross training!).
   Get certified for swimmer support at one of NYC Swim’s Paddler Clinics.
   Kayak for another swimmer.
4. Start now.

Hi all,

We’re getting close to start up time… or at least I’m getting antsy to get going… which means digging out your wetsuit (if you are so inclined… or a speedo if you are a tough guy!… yes, I’ll be in the latter camp this year, unlike last year when we were training for IM Cda).  And in keeping with thinking ahead I came across 2 things that seem relevant… a good wetsuit tip (thanks to TriRudy!)… and a sale from Xterra!  The funny thing is that the sale by Xterra is great… but the prices we get from them as ‘sponsored athletes’ are even better!  (see the prices on the right)  But I just thought I’d remind you in case you were in need of a new wetsuit!  Let me know if you want to order a new wetsuit and I’ll pass on the code.

PS.  with regards to our other sponsor, Finis, we’re having trouble with shipping to Canada, but we’re looking into coming up with a better way around it, stay tuned.

The Tip…

For Newbies (and others who just forgot…)

It is the start of the season. Just before your first race you pull out your wetsuit. You have not worn it in months. You put it on and it just plain feels tighter than you remember it feeling.

Did it shrink?
Is the rubber less flexible? 
Do you need a new wetsuit?

NO, NO, and NO …well, more like sort of, sort of, and probably not.  (Of course, there is no chance that you put on any weight over the winter! )

The Tip: Soak your wetsuit a few days before the race. Soak it in a tub with 3 inches of water for about 5 minutes a few days before your race.

The Reason: Wetsuits are kind of like sponges. When they are moist they are supple and flexible. Believe it or not, your wetsuits stay moist for days, even weeks between uses, though appear dry… just like a sponge. Over time, as it gets really dry, it gets stiff and not-so-supple, thus feeling like it shrunk…like the way a sponge shrinks up. More wetsuits rip at the start of the season, than any other time of the year.

The Sale…

http://www.xterrawetsuits.com/index.php/slp/swift/?utm_source=streamsend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=15909325&utm_campaign=Xterra%20Wetsuits%20April%20Promotion

Hi all,

So here is a really good article about marathon swimming and… fat!  It is a very interesting article in H2Open magazine by Simon Griffiths.  Essentially he tries to mathamatically work out the cost / benefit to gaining weight (fat) for cold water swims like the English Channel (around 60F) and to a lesser degree, Lake Ontario (around 70F… in August!… hopefully).

Check it out below, or on the website, interesting read and surprising results.  I’m not entirely sure I agree with the magnitude of the conclusion, but I do agree with the general jist of it!

To see their detailed analysis click:  http://www.h2openmagazine.com/nutrition/quantifying-the-benefits-of-fat-for-open-water-swimmers.html

Cheers,

Rob

PS.  despite the picture below… this is, of course, talking about cold water swimming WITHOUT a wetsuit! 

Conventional wisdom and many (if not most) long-distance swimmers say you should fatten up to increase your tolerance to cold. Simple physics will tell you a larger person will cool down more slowly than a small one, and studies of swimmers have confirmed an inverse correlation between body mass index to core body temperature drop during long swims.

But, what we feel is missing, is a proper assessment of benefits (or otherwise) of an individual increasing their weight.

Someone training for a long distance swim will typically:

1. Eat lots in an attempt to put on weight
2. Increase their amount of training
3. Expose themselves repeatedly to cold water

Because all these activities are going on at the same time it’s very difficult to untangle the effects of each of these independently. In particular, both exposure to cold water and putting on weight will increase your tolerance, but what is the contribution of each?

Secondly, changing your body shape could slow down your swimming, but this will be countered by the increased training. Would your performance increase be even greater without the extra weight to drag through the ocean? The fact you become fitter means you can exercise at a greater intensity – and hence generate more heat – for a longer time and this will also impact your ability to withstand chilly conditions.

We therefore decided to take a mathematical look at things to see if, on a theoretical level, we could estimate the cold tolerance benefits of fat alone. It’s quite complicated and completely feasible that we’ve got our sums totally wrong, but we estimate the benefits are quite small.

We think there are two factors to take into account:

1. The actual increase in mass (as a larger body takes longer cool)
2. The insulation benefits of fat.

Our conclusion: increasing your body weight by 10% will increase the time you can tolerate a particular temperature of water by 6.2%. In other words, if you can currently tolerate a particular temperature for 1 hour then increasing your body weight by 10% will give you just under 4 minutes extra.

We suspect the extra padding may slow you down by a similar amount: a distance that previously took 1 hour to swim would now take a few minutes longer.

But would you dare to defy years of experience and the wisdom of hundreds of successful Channel swimmers and not attempt to increase your weight for a Channel crossing?

Let us know.  http://www.h2openmagazine.com/

Hi all,

So it’s shaping up to be a nice summer!… at least from this vantage point in March!  My boat captain (Tony) for my Lake O Crossing in August, sent me an email in February and said that the Lake was the warmest it had EVER been at that time of year!  Which means it won’t take as long to warm up!

I got another email today, from Curtis, another LOSTie… and he brought up a valid point… the water temperature is currently 46F… and we swam in water that temperature in June last year!  (however, briefly!). 

… and finally, Brett sent me a picture of his nephew, Braxton, who is 6 years old.  He spent 45 minutes in Georgian Bay on the weekend!  It’s not quite Lake O, but that’s still one tough kid!… and a LOSTie in the making!  Brett brought up the valid question as to whether or not they are really from the same blood line!

Braxton in Georgian Bay... mid-March, 2012!

Usually the LOST pre-season starts May 1… and the real show starts June 1… usually…

Cheers,

Rob

Hi all,

Well, just 32 days to go until the 38k Tampa Bay Marathon Swim!… yikes.  They’ve posted all the solo entrants (below) and there are 3 relays as well (including LOSTie Ted Gregory’s team!).  Starting to seem real… and get scary!

Cheers,

Rob

Tampa Bay Marathon Swim

The Fifteenth Annual 24 Mile Tampa Bay Marathon Swim will be held on Saturday, April 21, 2012.

This 24 mile ultra-distance marathon swim race starts at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and ends on the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Tampa, in a race that covers the entire length of Tampa Bay.

Here are the 16 solo swimmers, and the 3 relay teams that have entered the race:

SWIMMER, AGE, HOMETOWN
Brad Denton, 48M, Scottsdale, AZ
Chris Burke, 50M, St. Petersburg, FL
Greg Larson, 43M, San Rafael, CA
Sarah Thomas, 29F, Englewood, CO
Rob Kent, 47M, Oakville, Ontario
Dan Boyle, 46M, New York, NY
Mark Smitherman, 53M, Clearwater, FL
Katie Brooks, 23F, Asheville, NC
Patti Bauernfeind, 44F, Dublin, CA
Tibor Molnar, 19M, Shelton, CT
Mauro Giancona, 40M, Palermo, Italy
Bart Cobb, 57M, Tampa, FL
Alan Barry, 48M, Asheville, NC
Pat Marzulli, 63M, Indian Rocks Beach, FL
Steve Gruenwald, 50M, Anchorage, AK
Arnie Bellini, 53M, Tampa, FL

Hi all,

If you are thinking of going on a swim vacation, here is a great one to consider!  It is put on by our new friend, Martin Strel and his son, Borut!  Martin has swum quite literally all over the world and he says this is one the best places to swim of all the places he’s travelled!  And because they love us so much and had such a good time in Oakville, LOSTies even get a deal!  Have a look…

Cheers,

Rob

Have you ever wanted to make a flip turn at a canyon wall or swim past the red rocks surrounded by the breath-taking scenery in the desert? Martin Strel (the Big River Man), together with his son Borut, are starting a new adventure swimming tour in the American West. Magnificent Lake Powell is the second largest man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona.  It offers an excellent playground for safe adventure swimming and exploration. Event organizers Martin and Borut Strel have extensive experience in running open water swimming projects. They have organized some of the most challenging swimming expeditions in recent history, including swimming the Amazon, Mississippi, Yangtze, Danube, Colorado and many other rivers around the world.

This tour appeals to all levels of swimmers, looking for swimming adventure surrounded by spectacular scenery.
Duration: 4 Days (3 Nights)
Average Daily Swim: 3 miles (5 kms) or adjusted to the group
Accommodation: Hotel on the lake
Escort: Luxury Houseboat, Powerboats, Kayaks

Dates are flexible, so speak to Strel Swimming directly to arrange a date.

L.O.S.T. Swimming Offer
All swimmers coming from L.O.S.T. Swimming group receive a discounted price. To book the trip for a specific date, please contact Strel Swimming team directly via www.strelswimming.com

Hi all,

Just wanted to let you know there is a great new local race in Oakville for those who are looking for a quick tune up race for short tri’s or just to get the legs going!  It is in its second year, run out of Coronation Park and in support of Juvenile Diabetes.  Have a look at the flyer below.

Cheers,

Rob

Peel Ford Race poster 

(click to view)

Registration/Start Time: 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. – Registration and kit pick up

10:00 a.m. – Race start time

Race Location: Coronation Park, Oakville, Ontario

Registration: www.vrpro.ca or www.runningroom.com

$35 registration fee before April 14

$40 registration fee after April 14

$45 registration fee on Race day

 Fundraising: Have family, friends and co-workers pledge your 5 km run

 Prizes for top fundraisers!

 Race Kit pick up: Oakville Running Room, on Friday, April 27

For more information: (905) 608-8067 or jwashchuk@jdrf.ca

JDRF Peel/Halton Chapter, 6620 Kitimat Road, Unit 1A,

Mississauga, ON L5N 2B8

#FordJDRF

www.facebook.com/diabetesrun

Hi all,

For the month of March (also June & August) Finis is offering 50% off of everything to it’s sponsored athlete’s… which is us!

Just click on the Finis logo on the right-hand side of this page and it will take you to their site… where you can see everything they have, from goggles and GPS to swim suits and bags!

If you want to order anything just email me and I can give you the code.

Cheers,

Rob

… in case you missed Martin and wanted to see him speak… you’ve got one more chance before he leaves town.  Miguel has set up a speaking engagement at the University of Guelph.  Here are the details and a link to the directions…

Thursday, March 1 at the University of Guelph, Athletic Building Room 202 at 6:30 p.m. 

Cheers,

Rob

… so back in October I reported that the City of Toronto had decided to allow a Triathlon in downtown Toronto!… which is good news, especially in a city that isn’t particularly friendly to racing on it’s streets.  It was going to be an Ironman 5150 race (Ironman’s new name for an Olympic distance tri)… but I spoke to Lisa Bentley about it and warned her that the odds were 50/50 for getting really cold water in July, she agreed and said that “that was one of several reasons they had decided not to hold the race”. 

But now I see there is a race planned for July 22 anyway!  Which is great, but there is still the risk that Lake O rolls over… especially for the wimpy triathletes that haven’t trained with LOST! 

It doesn’t look like this is an “Ironman Corp” event, so it looks like someone else decided to step up and take their place and start up a new race!  Good for them…  it looks like it will be well done and should be a great race… just  hope the water temp holds out… oh well, if it is cold, the tough LOST swimmers should kick butt!

About TTF

The Toronto Triathlon Festival is a celebration of the ultimate challenge of human endurance and tenacity. On July 22, 2012, for the first time ever, athletes will have the opportunity to experience a quintessentially urban triathlon on the downtown highways of Canada’s largest city.

http://www.torontotriathlonfestival.com/

PS.  a bit more info from another LOSTie on these races:  From what I’ve gathered the Ironman 5010 is still happening that same weekend in Muskoka (in place of the former long-course triathlon). The TTF event is apparently happening by another group in order to legalize the course for the Pan Am Games. In order for it to be legal there needs to be an age group event run on the same course before the games begin.

Cheers,

Rob

So Martin Strel came and made a presentation to our LOST swimmers on Friday… and it was great!  It was a casual event and Martin regaled us with his stories for over an hour… and man, does he have stories! 

Far too many stories for me to summarize, in fact, far to many even for him to touch on in one presentation.  You can start with the fact that he was a high level competitive swimmer, has run a 2:57 marathon (when he was out of shape and over 200 lbs) and then became an professional marathon swimmer.  But the real fun, and worldwide notoriety, came when he took on huge adventure swims.  Can you imagine the stories you would have if you’d sum for 84 hours straight… yes, 84 hours… down the Danube… or swam the entire length of the Mississippi… or swam the entire length of the incredibly filthy Yangtze River in China.  But the most intriguing swim, as if the others were boring, was his swim of over 5600 km’s, over 66 consecutive days, of the Amazon River!  Running into a the deadly Bushmaster snake on the second day… having to have his back stitched up from the piranha bites… enjoying swimming with the dolphins for days on end… because they protected him from the Bull Sharks!  And on and on…

Miguel Vadillo (Lake Ontario Crossing), Madhu Nagaraja (English Channel), Melanie Price (Lake Ontario Crossing), Martin Strel (Danube, Mississippi, Yangtze and Amazon Rivers!), Rob Kent (Manhattan Island Marathon Swim), Bill Johnson (Ironman), Bud Seawright (10k Champion)... an impressive group of swimmers!

A few us even got our picture taken with him, bought an autographed copy of the full length DVD of the Amazon swim (which won awards at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals) had time for a plate of nachos and a couple of pints after the presentation!

With regards to the movie, I must say that I had spoken to Martin and more so to his son, Borut, in the past, but most of my impression of Martin came from the movie.  And believe it or not, the movie made him look… hmm, more than a little crazy.  Well, he’s definitely cut from a different cloth than most of us… but I must say that I was surprised at what a “normal” guy he really is.  He would be the first to tell you that he gets into a different mind set for these big swims… which I would think is a bit of an understatement… but the Martin that we met was a thoughtful, intelligent, down-to-earth and just a generally nice man.  Really a treat to meet and speak with someone that has experienced so much in his life.  Thanks Martin!

PS.  If you want a copy of the movie, I’m sure you could drop him an email and either he or Borut would sent you a copy ($25), Strelswimming.com.  He has also started a new business, he and Borut run a swim camp in Arizona at the beautiful Lake Powell.  Borut is sending me some info on that and I’ll put that up in another post in a few days.

Cheers,

Rob

... and your choice of colors!

I couldn’t resist this one… I’m not sure if you can order these through our new sponsor, Finis, but they struck me as the perfect compromise between fashion and function!

And they would be great for the next LOST formal!… (or the next Italian cruise you go on!)

... hey, they look pretty good to me!

Cheers,

Rob

Swimming with a 7 time Tour de France champion

Thanks to Jason from Burlington Masters for sending me this story… pretty cool.  After I read it, I had to email my old college roommate from our University of Saskatchewan days, who now swims with CMSC and ask him why he wasn’t in the picture? (or workout!)… turns out he was travelling with work that day!  I think I would have had to call in sick that day and fly home!

Cheers,

Rob

Posted in Fun, Training by Kyle Marcotte

Hi all,

So I just got an email from our Irish LOSTie, Gerry O’Donnell, who is in Florida… but dreaming of colder swims! haha.  Here’s the link he sent for the World Winter Swimming Championships!  Although Gerry has done more than his fair share of cold water swimming in Ireland… he’s signed up for the 3 man relay in the Swim Around Key West!  We are now up to 6 solo and 9 relay swimmers in Key West and 1 solo and 6 relay swimmers for Tampa Bay!!!  Check out the LOST Travel Team tab above… it’s not to late to join us!

Or you can sign up for the Winter Swimming World Championships for next year!!!

The relay looks fun!... sitting here at least.

Hi Rob,

While we look forward to some Florida swimming this year I noticed a report on the World Winter Swimming Championships in Jurmala, Riga, Latvia, on Saturday 21 January. 

Some Irish Swimmers won medals including 2 gold in the 450 metre endurance swim.  The Irish team came 7th out of the 27 countries that competed and were competing against countries with a history of ice swimming including Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. I see that Canada won one bronze medal.

The water temperature was minus 1 degree and swimmers had to abide by normal sea swimming rules and not wear wet suits etc. The 450metre course they competed in was a “swimming pool” cut out of ice in the river Lielupe which flows into the Baltic Sea at Jurmala, Riga. The sea in Dublin this winter is around 4 degrees, so swimming at minus one is a substantial drop in temperature.

For pictures see  www.winterswimming2012.com

Cycling legend Lance Armstrong finishes second at Panama 70.3 triathlon 

STUNNER: Tour de France legend Lance Armstrong finished an incredible second in the Ironman Panama 70.3 triathlon in Panama City. Source: AP 

FAMILIAR TERRITORY: Lance Armstrong was in his comfort zone on the bike, but more than held his own in the swim and run legs. Source: AP

TOUR de France legend Lance Armstrong has made an extraordinary return to a sport he did as a teenager, finishing second to New Zealand’s Olympic gold medallist Bevan Docherty in the Panama 70.3 triathlon.

Cancer survivor Armstrong, who retired from professional cycling last year, was in the news last week when Federal prosecutors in the US closed an investigation of him following allegations of drug use made by his old teammate, drug cheat Floyd Landis.

This morning he was capturing headlines again after an astonishing second place in the 1.9 km swim,  90km cycle, 21.1km run triathlon in Panama City.

“It’s great to be back,” said a sunburnt Armstrong after his second place.

Armstrong was run down by Docherty (3hr 50min 13sec) in the final leg of the race, finishing in 3hr 50min 55sec and ahead of Australian athlete Richie Cunningham (3hr 52min 59sec).

 The American said he had recorded all his data from the race and would look over it in a bid to improve his performance in his return to triathlon after more than two decades.

A talented triathlete as a teenager before shifting his focus to cycling, Armstrong’s grand plan is to contest the Hawaii ironman triathlon – rated one of the toughest endurance races in the world.

His result in Panama this morning shows he may not just be there for the challenge but as a contender for the podium.

The seven-time Tour de France winner will contest Ironman France (double the distance of the 70.3) in June in an attempt to qualify for this year’s Hawaii ironman on October 13.

… so everyone has speculated for years about Lance’s return to triathlon… more when, than if… and it’s finally happened, he’s back!  He was a professional triathlete at 18, took a few years out to work on his biking… and is now entered in 3 Half Ironman’s (I guess he needs some time to catch up to the rest of us before he can do the full IM!) and then IM Nice!… and presumably IM World Championships in Kona in October!

That’s great for triathlon… and now I’m tempted to enter one of the 70.3′s he entered… and kick his butt!!!… (umm, in the swim!)

Welcome back, Lance!

Cheers,

Rob

Lance Armstrong Foundation, Ironman Announce Partnership

The Lance Armstrong Foundation Announces New Partnership with Ironman to Raise $1 Million for People Affected by Cancer

Today, the Lance Armstrong Foundation announces a new partnership with Ironman to help raise more than $1 million for people affected by cancer. Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor, champion cyclist and the Foundation’s founder and chairman, will compete as a professional athlete in several Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races including Ironman 70.3 Panama, Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas, Ironman 70.3 Florida, Ironman 70.3 Hawaii and Ironman France. Armstrong is racing with the goal of qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i, on Oct. 13, 2012, and will be competing as a member of Team LIVESTRONG, which is adding these Ironman and Ironman 70.3 races to its endurance events series designed to raise funds for people affected by cancer.  

“I am grateful to Ironman for partnering with LIVESTRONG to raise funds and awareness for people affected by cancer,” said Armstrong. “In my career as an athlete and as a cancer advocate, I’ve learned that progress demands partnership, but it’s not without a struggle.  And that’s what Team LIVESTRONG is about – it’s about purpose; it’s about challenge and it’s about empowering survivors to fight like hell.  There’s progress to be made with cancer and we invite anyone up for the challenge to join Team LIVESTRONG.

“At 13 years old, Lance got his start in triathlon by racing in the IronKids Series,” said Andrew Messick, Chief Executive Officer of World Triathlon Corporation.  “At 16 years old, he went pro and was considered a star in our sport.  At only 18, he was racing against the best triathletes in the world: Mark Allen, Dave Scott and Scott Molina.  We are happy to have him return to our sport.  Lance is a fierce competitor and his involvement with Ironman and Ironman 70.3 is good for triathlon.”

“Lance’s involvement at perhaps the toughest one-day event in all of sport sheds light on what surviving cancer can mean to millions around the world,” said Scott Tinley, two-time Ironman World Champion and Ironman Hall of Fame Inductee.  “I remember Lance as a determined kid who channeled that competitive spirit into an amazing career as a cyclist, survivor and advocate for survivors of a horrible disease. A partnership between LIVESTRONG and Ironman will further improve the lives of people affected by cancer. People need to realize that Lance’s foundation represents the use of sport to improve our world. There are only positive things that can come from having Lance join the Ironman family.”

“It is exciting to see Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest-ever endurance athletes, coming back to race triathlons in 2012,” said Craig Alexander, three-time Ironman World Champion and two-time Ironman 70.3 World Champion.

“Lance is an exceptional athlete; he’s the type of person who wants to excel and be the best at whatever he puts his mind to,” said Chris Lieto, multiple Ironman and Ironman 70.3 champion. “I’m excited to see how his participation in our sport will draw attention to what it takes to be a triathlete and how challenging it can be.  It will definitely bring triathlon more into the mainstream and I know pro athletes, including myself, will look forward to racing with him at future events.”

Team LIVESTRONG adds Ironman races to its endurance events series designed to raise funds for people affected by cancer

Team LIVESTRONG has a limited number of entries for these events and people interested in joining Armstrong should visit www.TeamLIVESTRONG.org for more information.  Athletes who are already registered for one of these Ironman or Ironman 70.3 events can still race as part of Team LIVESTRONG.  General entry is also still available for each of these events and can be accessed at www.ironman.com. 

Through this partnership, Ironman will serve as a gold-level sponsor for the Team LIVESTRONG Challenge Series.  As a sponsor, Ironman will donate four Ironman World Championship slots in 2012 and 2013 to be auctioned with proceeds going directly to LIVESTRONG.

LIVESTRONG is the brand of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, created in 1997 by the cancer survivor and champion cyclist to serve people living with cancer and empower communities to take action.  The Foundation specializes in patient navigation services that help cancer survivors and their families overcome the insurance, financial, emotional and practical challenges that accompany a cancer diagnosis.  As a member of Team LIVESTRONG, people walk, run, ride or tri in the fight against cancer in the LIVESTRONG Challenge Series or in other major athletic events around the world.  By participating and fundraising for Team LIVESTRONG, participants join a group of committed individuals dedicated to inspiring and empowering people affected by cancer.  To date, Team LIVESTRONG participants have raised $82 million for Foundation programs and services.  For more information, visit TeamLIVESTRONG.org.

Originally from: http://ironman.com/mediacenter/pressreleases/the-lance-armstrong-foundation-announces-new-partnership-with-ironman-to-raise-1-million-for-people-affec#ixzz1luhbusWi

… oh yeah, he can swim!

Here’s a great video, one because it’s kind of cool seeing Lance swimming… but also because it is a great analysis of his stroke (and therefore lots you can learn from hearing the critique too) by the very smart guys at SwimSmooth.com.

It’s kind of long… but worth the watch.

Cheers,

Rob

Town councillors confirmed their commitment to the Pan Am Game’s velodrome Monday, pointing to a long list of benefits that can come from the indoor cycling track.

Council voted 9 -2 in support of becoming the facility’s host municipality. However, minor adjustments to the agreements with Infrastructure Ontario and the Pan Am Toronto Organizing Committee and site plan approvals will have to be hammered out before the Town signs a binding agreement.

Overwhelming, councillors voiced their support for the project and confidence that the $40 million facility will come in on time and on budget.

“People have said other municipalities have looked at it and said no. What do we know that they don’t know? The difference is Milton delivers,” said Councillor Mike Cluett. “That’s a message we have to send to every other municipality. When we set our minds to something, we don’t need 18 months, we can do it in two months.”

An indepth business plan and staff report, along with consultations with the GTA cycling community and an online public survey, were undertaken during a whirlwind couple of months.

If all memorandums of understanding are passed by council, construction is scheduled to begin in June.

The Town’s total capital contribution to the project is pegged between $3.45 million to $6.25 million. The annual operating budget is estimated between $220,000 to $330,000, some of which will be offset through the Game’s Legacy Fund.

How much money the Town will receive from the fund is still unclear, but part of the staff recommendation included having a Town representative on the Legacy Fund Corporation.

Milton’s CAO Mario Belvedere stressed that the money the Town plans to spend on the facility will come from development charges earmarked for recreational facilities and can’t be spent on hospitals, roads or affordable housing.

The desire to redirect the money was a common thread in the Town’s online public survey. An overwhelming majority of the 161 respondents were against Milton pursuing the Pan Am velodrome, while 43 indicated their support and 22 were undecided.

“We know we’ll have a facility for the Games. Our question is what legacy is evident and how does that translate to risk, revenues and expenses,” said Jonathon Hack of Sierra Planning, the agency that drafted the velodrome business plan.

He said the only other velodrome in North America that meet the standards to host international events is in California, adding that cyclists from throughout the country are expected to descend on Milton for events.

However, he said, if the intent of the facility is to be cycling-focused, cycling will have to take precedence over activities planned for the infield.

“The opportunity is there for some other uses, but it’s inherently a cycling facility,” said Hack, cautioning against hosting trade shows and concerts at the venue.

The business plan presented to council estimates during peak hours in the winter months the velodrome will see a 98.3 per cent utilization rate. Utilization during off-peak summer hours drops to 49.8 per cent. “This does not operate like an arena. This is a velodrome, the only one in Canada. The demand potential is there,” said Hack.

He estimated the Milton facility can attract four international events a year that would result in 10 to 12 event days.

London’s Forest City velodrome sees 85 per cent local usage, which Hack said won’t be the case in Milton. “This is going to have a national brand and be used for the elite training of national cyclists and up and coming youth development events. This means that they’re going to have a significant ask of the facility and pay a rental fee for it. But we certainly heard the message loud and clear, there is a potential for a non-elite club, or instruction. This facility would certainly seek to maximize that.”

He said one of the biggest challenges for the Town would be hiring the right management that can balance the local need with the needs from the greater cycling community. “This may or may not be an international search, someone with experience working with national cycling bodies.”

Member of GTA cycling/philanthropy group Les Domestiques, Howard Chang told councillors his organization is committed to a significant fundraising effort for the velodrome. “According to Stats Canada, 50 per cent of Canadians own a bike and ride it at least once a year. Only five per cent of Canadians play hockey once or more a year. Yet if this was a hockey arena I don’t think we’d have a lot of debate.”

He said the impact of the cycling facility will reach beyond events days. “If I’m driving in from Toronto, I going to spend the weekend, bring my family and kids and eat at the restaurants.”

However, Miltonian Bruce Sharp addressed council on behalf of what he called “the silent majority.”

“I’m here to level the playing field,” he said. “Projects like this in my view are shiny objects and take away from the more important tasks at hand. The timeline is very short and residents feel council is being forced into doing something pretty quickly that’s out of their comfort zones.”

Councillor Rick Malboeuf agreed. “When you sign that agreement, you’re signing on behalf of the Town of Milton for $19.8 million. It’s not the cycling clubs of the GTA that are on the hook if anything goes wrong. It will be the citizens of Milton’s responsibility.”

But the majority of council was convinced of the velodrome’s potential.

“One comment that no one mentioned was the velodrome in Carson, California, which after five years was actually making money,” said Councillor Colin Best. “In the Halifax Canada Game Centre, a separate management authority runs it and returns money to the City of Halifax.”

Councillor Zeeshan Hamid reminded council and the audience that Town was planning on spending $3.8 million for recreational facilities regardless. “Either we get a $3.8 million facility or a $40 million facility. That’s 10 times the rate of return. That’s well worth the risk.”

Ward 1 Councillor Sharon Barkley added, “I don’t see this as a leap of faith. I see it as a prudent business decision that shows we are both progressive and aggressive and make decisions in the interest of our taxpayer.”

The start at The Gingerman: Andy, Scott, Mark, Rob, Huge, Darren, Cousin Al, Pete, Brian, Scott, David

… both literally and metaphorically.  Metaphorically, as in: we all train hard and can sometimes get wrapped up in our training, our races, and even ourselves, sometimes a little too much… so it’s good sometimes to step back and take a look at the big picture.  Literally: well, it was pub crawl… balance is important for that too!

...off to the King's Arms... yes, there was "some" running involved! (click to enlarge)

Do we still think we’re going to make the Olympics?  mmm… probably not.  So why do all this training then?  Well, that’s the question that all those non-athletes always ask all of us… and we have lots of reasons: health benefits, adventure, competition, sense of accomplishment, etc… but for me one of the main reasons is just for the fun of it.  Hangin’ out with friends, which often means havin’ a few pints too. 

Having beers with friends doesn’t directly help your times… although I would argue that indirectly it does.  My logic goes like this: I’ve been running and biking and swimming with this same group of guys, and adding more friends every year, for almost 15 years… and if we weren’t having fun over a few beers… our group, which has grown to include all our LOST friends too, never would have lasted this long.

How’s that for a rationalization for having a few beers with the boys on a Saturday afternoon… ah, what they hell, it was just good fun!

So here was the route:  Gingerman, 1 beer… King’s Arms, 1 beer… Queen’s Head, 1 beer… O’Finn’s Irish Temper, 1 beer… Moonshine Cafe, 1 beer… and back to the Gingerman… for a great lunch (I had an amazing lobster bisque and casadillas!)… and another beer!

A good time was had by all!  See you next year!

Cheers,

Rob

Leave no man behind!

In case you don’t know Finis, they are one of the top sellers of all things swimming! (a competitor to Speedo, Tyr, etc).  They have tons of great products, just click on the link to the right and check out all they have to offer!

And the sponsorship part is that we get 25% of everything, all year long!… and 50% of everything for 3 months per year… March, June & August!!!  Awesome!

Cheers,

Rob

If you don’t know “TED… ideas worth spreading”, you should.  It is an amazing site, with speeches from experts in virtually every field in the world, making brief but excellent speeches.  And Diana doesn’t dissapoint either!

Cheers,

Rob

So at this point I’m the only one doing the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim (38k) solo on April 21… which I’m nervously excited for!  However, I just found out that Ted “The Pennsylania Kid” Gregory has got a harem of 5 ladies to join him in a 6-person relay too!  Good work Ted! 

Alex

The LOST Travellers are also invading Key West!!!  We now have 12 swimmers (and lots of “athletic supporters”) going down to swim the 20k FKCC Swim Around Key West on June 16!!!

There are 6 of us registered as “solo” and one 2-man team, and one 4-man team (which consists of the LOST International Team: 2 swimmers from Belgium, one from Texas and one from Pennsylvania!). 

Darren

(check out the “LOST Travel Team” tab above)

Further, my sources say that there is another 2 man team in the making… a certain triathlete who will be using the swim to help him qualify for Ironman Kona… and another triathlon star who has been sidelined from running since Ironman Canada last fall and is therefore in great swimming shape!  (Brett and David… oops, I guess I let that slip!).

On a related note… I’m going to get some LOST Travel Team t-shirts made for all these LOST adventurers… so is anybody good at photoshop that can help me design it?  The last logo I designed was the LOST logo, but it seems that my photoshop software has gone missing!  Also, I’ve got a couple places I’ve used, but if anyone has ideas on a good place to have them done, let me know.

Hell, with t-shirts in the mix now, I’m sure we’ll see a real flurry of people signing up!  (John & Jenn!)

Lynn

Ted

Brett

Art

David

Me!

Bud

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

So if you are a swimmer, be it a sprinter, marathoner, triathlete, pool or open water swimmer, we all have one thing in common… the search for the perfect stroke. 

Like a golfer searching for the perfect swing, it’s a pretty elusive and debatable thing.  But there is a website out of Perth, Australia that has become quite well reknown for their instructional videos on swim strokes.  If you go to their website they even have a great annimation of the perfect stroke!  (http://swimsmooth.com/)

But now they’ve gone one step better than that… they’ve tracked down Jono Van Hazel… who has probably the “perfect” stroke!  And they’ve captured it in the video below. 

If you’ve ever wondered if you were supposed to enter the water finger tips first or thumb first?  How wide your pull should be?  What your head position and breathing should look like?  The shape of the pull?  The depth and speed of the kick?  It’s all there!

You know the only thing better than looking at this video, is getting someone to video you… and then compare it to this one… you’d be surprised!

A big thanks to SwimSmooth.com, they are a great website out of Perth, Australia and have tons of videos and tips and reviews on all kinds of things… one of the best swim sites out there!  Have a look: http://swimsmooth.com/

PS.  I put it in the “videos” tab too… so you can find it later… in case it doesn’t all sink in on your first viewing!

Cheers,

Rob