With apologies to The Clash… but the sentiment is right! If you went into hiding after last week’s 48F dip, it’s time to come out and play! Not that 92 swimmers is a small group, by any stretch! Our second largest ever, in fact!
PS. little known fact: Joe Strummer was a big open water swimmer… take a look at where he filmed the greatest punk song ever recorded!
We started off unusually warm this year, then it got back to normal… cold … 62F, 50F, 54F, 56F, 48F (rollover)… and now back on track… 64F! Best swim so far!
64F/18C is nice. Not hot, by any stretch, but nice. In a wetsuit, which the majority still are, it is almost perfect. I don’t think I heard a single person getting out saying they were cold this week… first week for that!
Which leads me to the next topic… how many people got out of the water and weren’t cold? 92! Second biggest group ever! We had a handful that went in early to get long swims in. Loren, who is training for his Lake Ontario Crossing in less than a month is building to get his 6 hour qualifier completed. He did 4 hours on Saturday in that 64F water… naked, of course! So when I say that 64F is “nice”, it is… but it certainly becomes a bit more “challenging” when you are doing 4 hours in it, naked! Well done, Loren… and his pacers!
It was one of those mornings when you could have easily slept in. Or at least I could have. It wasn’t particularly warm out when I woke up. And was overcast and had rained. But by the time we got in the water it was sunny, warm and a beautiful day for a swim!
Many of you know that I often say that based on my experience over the past 11 years of Saturday morning swims that we probably get about 8/10 swims where the water is pancake flat… and 2/10 that are wavy. Well we’ve now had 6 that were pancake flat… so I’m thinking we are due for a wavy one. It’s warmed up now and will continue to warm, until the next rollover (which is usually much more mild than the first one of the season), but the lady of the lake likes to keep us LOSTies on our toes. There has to be some kind of challenge in it! So I’m calling it… 2 of the next 4 swims will likely be warm… but wavy! But that’s not a bad thing… try it, you’ll like it!
See you on the Beach.
PS. Congrats to all the LOSTies that did the Toronto Triathlon Festival and the Muskoka 70.3… great day for it!
Cheers,
Rob