A big thanks to Margaret Dorio and Greg Pace from the Tri Club of Burlington, TCOB… (not to be confused with TCBY… The Country’s Best Yogurt)… for inviting all us LOSTies to their annual Pier to Pier Swim!
I was talking with Margaret after the swim and I believe there was 58 swimmers, a record for the P2P Swim! We had the usual strong contingent of LOSTies present, with about a third or more from LOST, especially if you count all the swimmers that are members of both teams! (not to mention a big thanks to all the unsung hero’s… the kayakers and boaters that helped out too!!!)
The thing that I think is really cool is that not only did we have the best turn out ever for the LOST Race this year, with 94 swimmers and another 20 for the 10K National Championship (on a really crappy day)… and 7 LOSTies attempting to swim across our Great Lake… but the P2P also had the most swimmers ever too! I love the fact that so many people consider it normal to swim in Lake O!
Today was another great example of why Lake O is such a spectacular place to swim! The water was about 70F / 21C… clean, clear and… well, kinda rough! There wasn’t much of a current today, which there often is in that little corner of the Lake… but there were pretty strong waves coming out of the east, slapping swimmers around pretty good! Hey, you can swim in Kelso or Gullivers or any of the little ponds around… and that’s fine to get used to swimming outside of a pool, nothing wrong with that (although they are both pretty soupy this summer with all this heat)… but THIS is real open water swimming! To put it in triathlon terms: of course it’s nice to ride and run on nice flat routes… but it’s not until you hit the hills that you really get a good work out and get tested… and more to the point, nobody comes back from a ride and says “gee, that was quite a ride… all that flat, boring pavement!”… nope, you know as well as I do that you have a much greater sense of pride coming back from a ride saying “omg… those freakin’ climbs up 50 Road and Bell School Line and Appleby Line almost killed me!”
Well today was just like one of those rides… tough, but swim-able… and you feel pretty good about accomplishing it when you are done! Good swim everyone!
Cheers,
Rob