Hi All,
Like I always say, we have a great place to swim in Lake O! I had to laugh wh
en I compared my swim in Lake O with where I was swimming last week… in NYC! Let me tell you, when I was swimming around Manhattan, there was no point when the water was clear enough that I could see my hand pull underneath me, I could see about as far as my elbow… which was still clearer than the Ohio River that 15 of us that swam in at Ironman Louisville last September, where you couldn’t see anything! Now granted, those two set the bar pretty low, but the contrast was very apparent yesterday when I got in for the LOST swim!
The water was crystal clear yesterday… you could see the bottom perfectly… it looked like you were suspended in mid air… very cool. Reminds me of swimming across the lagoon in St Martin (except no Eagle Rays!)… okay, and maybe a smidge chillier! Yesterday it was about 62F, coolish, but comfortable for everyone in a wetsuit (and comfortable for me and Alex, without).
I’m pretty sure that yesterday was a record turnout too… we had 20 swimmers out…AWESOME! When I got there Jason, a Burlington Masters swimmer was already there, as was Joanne and Cathy. So I was thinking it might be a small group, but more and more kept trickling in… until there was about 18 of us… then we noticed that Hamish was just coming in from his swim, (as he had to get his swim in early) which made it 19… and our local Kona hero, Jackie Smalec, showed up late, bringing our numbers up to 20!
Most of us went for about 20 minutes out and 20 minutes back… but it was quite apparent no one was going to be negative splitting this swim, as there was a pretty strong wind and current going with us on the way out, which was nice… but it meant that it was therefore going to be an “uphill” swim on the way back! But, hey, that’s just good training too!
Special pat on the back goes to Alex Mcmillin for bringing his wetsuit… but leaving it on the shore! Alex joined me for a “naked” swim… and lived to tell the tale! Actually I was thinking he might be feeling the cold pretty quick, but he was in there for 45 minutes and was fine when he got out too! Well done! The gradual conversion of triathletes to open water swimmers has begun!
Great swim everyone and it’s great that we are getting such good numbers out! And still room for improvement, still a lot of swimmers faces that I haven’t seen out yet this year! Hope to see you all next week!
Cheers,
Rob
