It’s peak open water swimming season… and peak Triathlon season too!

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… so Lance dodged me again.  (see Boston Marathon report in April for the last time I missed him!)

Joanne wanted to to the new (?) 5i50 Olympic Distance, or should I say, “International Distance” Triathlon (WTC doesn’t own the rights to “Olympic Distance”… all very confusing!) in Muskoka this weekend… and wanted me to join her.  Forget the fact that I’ve run a grand total of about 30k this year… and haven’t even bothered to put the pedals back on my bike since we all did Ironman Canada last September… but Lance was going to be racing there… so I said sure, I’m in!  He was banned from racing the next day.  Sigh.

 

Training weekend in Muskoka… (?), Josh, Joanne, Helene, Margaret, Steven & Claudia… some smokin’ fast riders!

Then Joanne went up and did a training camp with a bunch of the TCOB (Tri Club of Burlington, http://www.triburlington.ca/theclub.html ) gang, for a training ride of the new course.  Of course, this really is a derivative of numerous previous Muskoka tri courses… so it was hilly and pretty challenging.  And Joanne took pity on me… rather than “chicking” me… as I’m sure she would have… she let me off the hook and politely suggested that I should perhaps consider just doing the swim and drop out of the bike and run… so I said sure, I’m in!… I’m happy to bail!

I just did the swim.  Much like the Peterborough tri, it was a fun, albeit a bit weird, to just do the swim.  It was a wave start, so I got to chase down several waves in front of me, which is fun, but I like the mass starts better, as you can see where you are in the swim… and the rest of the race too.  I ended up 21:37 for the 1.5k (plus the run to transition), first in my division and 6/366.  A very enjoyable swim.

But the cool thing was hanging out with all the stars from TCOB!  The first 2 spots in each age group got spots to the World Championships in London, England… on the Olympic course!  Very cool.  And the top 5 in each age group got spots at the US Championship… in Des Moines, Iowa… a bit less cool… but hey, I wasn’t top 5 either!

So check out how everyone did!  Congrats to Margaret, Helene, Claudia, Josh and Joanne for winning spots!

 (click on chart to view more clearly)

Also, at least one LOSTie, Mike Perrier, was doing his first Ironman this weekend, IM Lake Placid!  That was the site of my first IM too… great course, great event!  Congrats Mike!… and Joann Daxner… and Steve Brown too! (I missed Steve, so he doesn’t get his stats up, but his time was 13:54… but he gets his mug on the site instead!  That’s how you finish the swim… with a big ol’ smile!

Steve Brown… out of the water smilin’… must be all that LOST swimming paying off! (click to enlarge)

(click on chart to view more clearly)

And another also… was LOSTie Darren Osborne, who did the first “Olympic Distance” Toronto Triathlon Festival… which is the ITU series, not the WTC series… and unlike the Muskoka course, it was pretty much flat and fast!  Looks like an interesting course.  Good work Darren! 

(28:10 swim, 1:08 bike, 41:34 run = 2:21 overall, 10/80 in div, 19/247 overall!)  http://edge.raceresults360.com/rr360/race/84ThZ9/#/person:&entry_id=302:1343064234821

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!