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The LOST Race is a fun and competitive 3.8 km (Ironman distance) in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. It started in 2008 with just 8 swimmers… and now gets over 100 swimmers each year! It is very scenic, safe and fun race. The majority of participants are just regular swimmers that are up for a good challenge, but we always have some pretty amazing swimmers in the group too… tons of triathletes and Ironman especially, NCAA and Canadian Varsity swimmers, Olympians, people who have swum the English Channel, Around Manhattan Island, the length of Tampa Bay, Around Key West and of course, even a select few who have swum across Lake Ontario! So join us for a fun morning splashing around in one of the best open water locations in the world… with a bunch of other fun LOSTies!

Starting in 2016 we also started “The LOST Mile”! A bit shorter for those that haven’t worked up to the 3.8 km distance or a bit faster for those that want to do a 1 mile sprint! Either way it is a lot of fun too!

Note that the start and finish if the LOST Mile is at the same location (Navy St Pier) and is a loop rather than a point-to-point race.

Cheers,

Rob

PS. lots of information below… just keep scrolling!

Start at Maple Grove - Finish at Navy St Pier for LOST Race. Start/Finish at Navy St Pier for LOST Mile. — LOST Race: Start at Maple Grove – Finish at Navy St Pier
LOST Mile: Start/Finish at Navy St Pier

The LOST Race & LOST Mile

Location: Lake Ontario near Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Date: the 3rd Saturday in August, every year (Aug 18, 2018)
Start Location (LOST Race): from the foot of Maple Grove Drive, south of Lakeshore.
Finish Location (LOST Race): the Navy Street Pier on Sixteen Mile Creek.
Start & Finish Location (LOST Mile): is the same location, as this is a loop course. The Navy Street Pier on Sixteen Mile Creek.
Start Time: 8:00 am for the LOST Race… but you should be there at least about 60 minutes early to check in / register and for the pre-race meeting. 8:30 am start for the LOST Mile.
2 Distances: 3.8 km (2.4 mile)… & 1 Mile (1.6 km)
Water Conditions: the first 2 years were flat as glass, sunny and warm… but in 2010 it was warm, but very choppy! Also the first year there was a current that we swam against, the second year we swam with the current and the third year it was hitting us from the side! The water is almost always quite clear, and despite the common myth, Lake O is a very clean lake, particularly where we swim as the water circulates well. Having said all that, this is open water swimming, there could be wind, waves, cold water, seaweed and fish, who knows?!… but that’s the fun of it, the challenge of the conditions. There is rarely any seaweed or fish, but it’s cool when you see a fish or a turtle… but don’t worry, there are no fresh-water sharks… oh, and there are no lines on the bottom either.
Water Temperature: usually 60F – 70F or 16C – 21C. The average over the first 9 years has been 67F/20C… but this is open water swimming… who knows!
- 70F/21C and warmer – beautiful temp! I would give guidelines for warmer, but where we swim in Lake O it never really gets above 75F/24C
- 60F/15C – very comfortable in a wetsuit, you’ll have to be well trained to last very long at this temp naked.
- 55F/13C – was the temp we got in 2015, “the cold year”! We had to shorten the race to a 500m and a 1km race. Too cold to safely go much further.

Wetsuit Rentals
The water temperature in Lake Ontario is inconsistent and can range between 11-22C this time of year. If you want to rent a wetsuit you can try: Enduro Sport or Running Free.

Divisions: the results are sorted 2 ways:

Wetsuit and Naked Divisions (which is the “non-wetsuit” division, in case you were wondering!).
Male and Female Divisions

The Global Swim Series: The LOST Race is one of the founding members of the Global Swim Series! When you enter the LOST Race, you are automatically entered into the GSS, so you will have a Global Ranking!!! Check out the GlobalSwimSeries.com website for more info!

Race Cancellation: in the unlikely event that we have to cancel the race for safety reasons (storms, water temperature, rough water conditions, etc) we will unfortunately not be able to provide refunds as all of our costs are paid upfront (insurance, timing system, swag, medals, permits, etc). Naturally this would be our last choice, but we take the safety of our swimmers very seriously and is our top priority.

Safety: this is our top priority. So if you find that we tend to err to the side of safety, this is why. Realistically what this means is that if there is significant danger of any type we will cancel the race… or if we feel that for any reason you may not be able to safely complete the race, we will ask/tell you that you must abort the race. Naturally we want you to be able to complete the race and we will try our best to accommodate you, however there is a 2 hour cut off... but… it is a rough cut off (for the LOST Race, the LOST Mile is at the discretion of the on-water crew). Meaning that it depends on the conditions. If it is a tough year and everyone is much slower, then we will take that into account, but by the same token if it is a rough year we may make the cut off shorter too. Open water swimming is not an exact science, we balance: wanting to see you finish… with safety to make the call.

The LOST Race Results & Record Book

All-Time Records

LOST Race

Fastest ‘Overall’ – 44:55, Owen von Richter, 2013
Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Man’: 44:55, Owen von Richter, 2013
Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Woman’: 51:48, Lynn Rodgers,2013
Fastest ‘Naked – Man’: 46:58, John Steadman, 2009
Fastest ‘Naked – Woman’: 50:53, Elissa Gelleny, 2013

LOST Mile

Fastest ‘Overall’ – 24:08, Craig Ross, 2016
Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Man’: 24:08, Craig Ross
Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Woman’: 31:27, Heather Winmill
Fastest ‘Naked – Man’: 24:37, Luis Escobar
Fastest ‘Naked – Woman’: 32:23, Sarah Gallagher

Weather Records

2017, Aug 12 – 48F / 9C, the “Fog Year”, very foggy and cold. Shortened 750m & 500m
2016, Aug 13 – 72F / 22C, perfect conditions, flat water, air 35C. Stormed 2 hours later.
2015, Aug 8 – 55F / 12C, the “Cold Year”. Shortened it to 1k & 500m. Pretty rough too.
2014, Aug 9 – 67F / 20C, flat as a pool and a nice sunny day, not much current, air 26C
2013, Aug 10 – 63F / 17C, flat as a pool and a nice sunny day, not much current, air 28C
2012, Aug 11 – 73F / 23C, very rough, rain, strong negative current, overcast, air 25C
2011, Aug 13 – 71F / 21C, flat water, slight positive current, overcast, air temp 24C
2010, Aug 14 – 71F / 21C, very choppy, sunny, air temp 28C
2009, Aug 15 – 70F / 21C, flat water, fairly strong positive current, sunny, air 28C
2008, Aug 9 – 60F / 16C, small waves, overcast, air temp 22C

Number of Participants

2017 – LR – 44 swimmers – wetsuit mandatory
- – LM – 56 swimmers – wetsuit mandatory
- total: – 100 swimmers (176 entrants, lots of DNS)
2016 – LR – 114 swimmers – 73 wetsuit, 41 naked (36%)
- – LM – 55 swimmers – 38 wetsuit, 17 naked (31%)
- total: – 169 swimmers – 111 wetsuit, 58 naked (34%)
2015 – 90 swimmers – 74 wetsuit, 16 naked (18%)
2014 – 86 swimmers – 67 wetsuit, 19 naked (22%)
2013 – 94 swimmers – 77 wetsuit, 17 naked (18%)
2012 – 109 swimmers – 65 wetsuit, 44 naked (40%) (includes 10k Nat. Champs)
2011 – 85 swimmers – 56 wetsuit, 29 naked (34%)
2010 – 64 swimmers – 48 wetsuit, 16 naked (25%)
2009 – 39 swimmers – 33 wetsuit, 6 naked (15%)
2008 – 8 swimmers – 6 wetsuit, 2 naked (25%)