The 3rd LOST swim of the summer… and we beat “the ratio”!

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Well that was a nice weekend.  We got a good swim in at LOST on Saturday morning… and then a fun race in the Caledon Quarry on Sunday (more on that in the other post!)

I can't seem to locate the group shot of the 54 swimmers that showed up on Saturday... but this still gives you an idea of what it was like... well except that it was 52F!  These were the "LOST Sun-Risers!"
I can’t seem to locate the group shot of the 54 swimmers that showed up on Saturday… but this still gives you an idea of what it was like… well except that it was 52F! These were the “LOST Sun-Risers!”

For the 3rd LOST Swim of the year we had another amazing turnout… 54 swimmers!!!  So we beat the “swimmer to temp ratio” for the second time this year!  Because the water temp was still a chilly 52F!  And if you think that is no big deal, well it kind of is… it wasn’t that many years ago when beating the “swimmer to temperature ratio” was a big deal… if it was in Celsius! (11C)… haha.

But, amazingly, everyone was fine with the water temp!  Don’t get me wrong… it was cold.  But it was still swim-able.  In fact, there was a hearty bunch that went out for a half an hour before the swim… naked.  That’s tough.  But it also shows how one can acclimatize to cold water.  If you are tough enough, that is!

For the rest of us mere mortals, 52F in a wetsuit was “challenging” enough.  But you know what, people still did multiple laps of the course we had set up, which was a short 300 m, given the temp.  But lots, if not most, people were still in for 20-30 minutes… without any problem.

Everyone still came out smilin’!  So I’ll call that another LOST success.

Having said that… don’t get impatient… it will warm up.  The Lake actually is right on schedule, which I wasn’t so sure it would be after how cold this winter was and how much ice there was on it!  I had never seen that much ice on Lake O in 18 years!  But my prediction is that we will be in the low 60’s by the end of June!

And in the low 60’s… well that really is totally fine.  All the warm water swimmers are safe to come out then!  It’s reasonably cool without a wetsuit… and perfect in a wetsuit!

So keep it up… and we’ll see you next Saturday!

Cheers,

Rob

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I founded LOST Swimming because I like open water swimming and would like to see it grow and thrive in Lake Ontario. I started as a competitive swimmer as a kid and ended up getting as far as a silver medal at Nationals and going to the Olympic Trials in 1988. But I retired after that, I was sick of swimming. So I got into running marathons and have run over 35 to date, as well as a few ultra marathons, including the Marathon des Sables (7 day, ultra across the Sahara Desert). I also kind of fell into triathlons and have done a handful of Ironman tri's too. This gradually got me back in the water and in 2006 I took the plunge and attempted swimming the English Channel. I didn't quite make it across, but the circle was now complete and after 17 years I was a swimmer again! Although I still do plenty of pool swimming, I now much prefer open water swimming and like to say that open water swimming is to pool swimming, what trail running is to treadmill running! As a result I hope to encourage more people to join me for a dip in Lake Ontario as often as we can!