Caledon Quarry Swim… the first local race in the COWSS!!!

On June 28, 2014 the first ever race in the Canadian Open Water Swim Series took place… The Epic Swim in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia!!!

Then on July 1, 2014 the second race of the inaugural year of the COWSS took place, The Canada Day Challenge, in Port Moody, British Columbia!!!

And so the first local race in Ontario in the Canadian Open Water Swim Series took place in Caledon, Ontario on July 6, 2014!!!

And I swam in it.  As did about 120 or so other people!  I didn’t win though.  You can imagine my disappointment.  Actually I took solace in the fact that some of the fastest young triathletes in Canada were there!  Hey, if you are going to get your butt kicked, you might as well have some fast swimmers do it!

Olympic triathlon coach, television broadcaster, coach of C3 Triathlon Club and owner and head coach of “Personal Best” tri training… Barrie Shepley… was the Race Director and founder of the race.  He took time to introduce a few of the new “young guns” who all all major national and international stars in the world triathlon scene… and all with a very good shot at making the next Olympics!  How cool is that!

Actually, I shouldn’t say they beat me… they didn’t.  We were in different races.  Phew.  They were all swimming the 4k race (close to the 3.8k Ironman distance swim).  But there were 1k, 2k, 4k & 5k races.  I wimped out and went in the 2k.  My daughter, Maisey, convinced me to go in the 2k with her.  At least I went naked… I had to, the water was a very warm 69F… I never would have lived it down if I had worn a wetsuit in that!  And I would have over-heated… it was a very comfortable temp.  And flat as a pool.  A great swimmin’ hole!  Definitely worth making the trip up for the second race there later this summer, if you are considering it… check out all the details at COWSS.ca.

So my illusions of grandeur were crushed in about the first 100 meters.  I was hoping to try and keep up with, or at least within sight of Maisey for the race.  Ya, not so much.  But like I said, if you are going to get beat, get beat by somebody fast… makes for a better story.  And she’s pretty fast… she a Div 1 swimmer for Bryant University in Rhode Island.  Takes some of the sting away from being beat by your 19 year old daughter.  Some.

The sting came back when I got to the finishing arch and trotted across the line looking for her.  I found her.  She was the one standing there all dried off with a shirt and shorts on, sipping on a Gatorade.

Oh well, it was a lot of fun.  And I can’t wait to see how I am placed in the National Ranking of COWSS!!!  I hope they have that out soon!

Oh wait.  That’s Dylan and I (mostly my son Dylan though) that’s doing the stats for that.  So that’s our next project!  We should have them out shortly!

Thanks Barrie, Miguel, Katie and C3 for a great race in the Quarry!

Cheers,

Rob