The Pier to Pier is always a nice (near) end of season swim. I was trying to figure out how many years this swim has been going on… I’m thinking around 10 years… I’ll have ask Greg. The funny thing is it isn’t really a “race”, or even an event, as Greg would say. It’s just a bunch of swimmers swimmin’!
TCoB started it as a nice swim for their triathletes quite a few years ago. And then as we got to know Greg, Margaret and the gang at TCoB, and with a bit of “cross-pollination” between the two groups (Joanne joined TCoB and Helene and several other TCoB’ers have been LOSTies), we were invited to the swim. And now there are a ton of LOSTies enjoying this fun swim too!
So the stats: chatting with Bobby, who was good enough to run the clipboard this morning, I believe there were 65 swimmers… and the water was around 70F/21C… pretty flat, but a bit of chop by the end, even perfect water quality (David!). A very nice swim, maybe the nicest of the summer!
As I mentioned, it’s not a race. Most people just enjoy a good solid swim across Lake Ontario. The shortest Lake Ontario Crossing, a 2.4 km crossing! haha. However, that didn’t prevent some of us from racing it anyway!
I love racing. Any kind of racing. I never win, but I still just love giving it and pushing myself. At my age, the speed goes away, but the competitive spirit doesn’t! So I was one of the first dozen to jump in off the pier and quickly caught the leader. And figured therefore I should be able to hold the lead easily. Then I felt someone drafting tapping my toes. Damn. So I picked it up a bit. And they were still drafting off me. Damn. Then my cap slipped off and took my goggles
with them. Damn. But I got to see who was drafting off me. My son… and someone else. Damn. Then I had to sprint and catch them again. I passed the second person, who stayed on my heels. But couldn’t catch Dylan with only 400m left. However, I saw that he was making the rookie mistake by not accounting for the current, which was pushing him wide. Being the wily ol’ vet, I knew about the current and held a better line… and was now even with him. And pulled ahead of the person on my heels (it was bugging me that I didn’t know who that was, because I thought I knew everyone my speed, but obviously I didn’t!). 100 meters left and we were all close… anyone’s race… um, or “non-race”, as it were… and the little brat pulled ahead for the victory and all the prize money! I rolled in for second with, what turned out to be, Chris Jocelyn, on my heels! I didn’t feel so bad having him on my heels, he’s a very good swimmer (and biker and runner!) and is joining Brett and Helene at the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii in a couple of months! Pier to Pier finish (click for video, thanks for the proof Steve!… and the warm welcome, Madhu!)
Anyway, it was a very fun “non-event”! Congrats to all for completing the swim and enjoying a beautiful swim in the Lake!
… and here are some more pics… just because everybody loves pics! Enjoy!
Cheers,
Rob
