Hello LOSTies!
Okay, I know I’ve been a little remiss in putting up posts over the winter. I’d like to say that it was because I took a break from open water swimming over the winter, but of course, the opposite is true. I’ve been working hard (along with my son, Dylan) on growing and developing the Global Swim Series, which we started last year.
That’s a whole other story, but essentially we have grown it from just a handful of Canadian races (it was known as the Canadian Open Water Swim Series the year before) and about 2,000 swimmers, to over 32,000 swimmers, in 61 races, in 17 countries including: Canada, USA, Mexico, Haiti, St Kitts & Nevis, Bermuda, Barbados, Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Austria, Greece, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia.
So it has actually been a busy winter with open water swimming for us!
But now we are almost back to full circle and about to start the first LOST Swim of 2016! There are a few crazies that have already been in (ie Loren and Juan, training for their Lake O Crossings this summer!), but for the rest of us “normal” crazies, the first Saturday in June is always the first big day… so that’s Saturday, June 4, 2016 at 8:00 am, at LOST Beach!
This should be an amazing summer, tons going on. Like I said, there will be a few Lake O Crossings this summer, a few other marathon swims (Darren, Fannie and Jeff doing the 20k Swim Around Key West on June 4), and probably a few more swims that I have forgotten about, but rest assured I’ll keep you apprised as the summer goes on!
Speaking of new swims, I wanted to let you all know that this year for the 9th annual LOST Race on Aug 13, 2016 we will also be holding the first annual “LOST Mile”!
Start/Finish at Navy St Pier for LOST Mile.
The 3.8k LOST Race will be exactly the same, however, after the start of the LOST Race at Maple Grove the race organizers will hustle down to the Navy St Pier (LOST Beach) and start The LOST Mile. The LOST Mile will be a loop course, instead of the point-to-point route like the LOST Race.
I’ve wanted to add a shorter race for years, to allow more people to participate. It’ll be perfect for anyone who hasn’t quite worked up to the 3.8 km distance but still wants to do a good solid open water distance race (1 mile = 1.6 km).
After we had to shortened the LOST Race last year to 500m and 1k distances because of the cold water (55F/12C) we did realize a couple of things. One, that we could offer a couple of distances at the same time, and two, that having a loop course near the finish was actually great for the spectators to watch the race. And so the LOST Mile was born!
2015 LOST Race Winners
1 km (*shortened due to water temp, 55F/12C)
· Fastest ‘Naked – Man’: 16:45, Loren King
· Fastest ‘Naked – Woman’: 18:20, Sara Nicholson
· Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Man’: 11:40, Greg Streppel
· Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Woman’: 16:24, Lynn Rodgers
500 m (*shortened due to water temp, 55F/12C)
· Fastest ‘Naked – Man’: 10:11, Charles Bolduc
· Fastest ‘Naked – Woman’: 9:27, Kristen Sanhueza
· Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Man’: 8:14, Dylan Kent
· Fastest ‘Wetsuit – Woman’: 11:13, Lisa Pickering
Well that’s it for now. We’ve already had a ton of people sign up for LOST Swimming and the LOST Race. We should have a logo up for the LOST Mile shortly too… so go ahead and register for another fun summer of open water swimming… and LOST coffee!
I look forward to seeing you all in the lake, wetsuit or… naked! And I know I say this every year, but “this is going to be the best season of LOST Swimming ever!”. Stay tuned for some very exciting news from GSS this summer too! And I also have it under special advisement that there will be one or two Olympians that are joining LOST this year… this is going to be fun!
PS. I’ve been right about it every year too, because it does keep getting better!
PPS. Yes, it’ll likely still be “a wee bit chilly” when we start… but we aren’t the only ones who swim in chilly water! Enjoy…
Cheers,
Rob