So last week it finally started warming up! The first 5 weeks of LOST Swimming this year have been: 9C, 9C, 7C, 12, 13C/56F! Percentage-wise that’s up huge. The first 3 weeks were “stupid cold”, but last week, at 13C/56F is not too bad. Still cold, but pretty swimable… as 65 LOSTies made the swim. And, of course, for all those that had endured the previous 3 weeks of stupid cold, now found it quite nice! I mean, 13/56F is still pretty cold, but manageable.
But tomorrow… whoa, baby… it’s going to be sweet! Mid to high 60’s! Summer is here, baby!
And in other news… for those of you who were here last week, you may (or may not) recall my talk from the rock. And in that talk I said that we were going to build a cover for the garbage can that we have by the picnic table.
Ya, it’s nothing. But at least it’s something.
Someone had the idea that we should do a beach clean up day… like you often read about in the news. We LOSTies have been helping to keep the beach clean for the last 14 years, no fanfare or news or big garbage drives. We just know that it is better for us to have a nice clean place for us to swim. And what is good for us is also good for the environment and for all the other members of the public.
So rather than have one day that proves that we clean up beach, we came up with an even better idea. Let’s do something to show how we have always cleaned up the beach and continue to do that in the future.
So we thought we would “sponsor” the garbage can.
Ya, kinda weird. But a good idea. By building a nice cover for the garbage can, it draws attention to it. It makes people realize that we take pride in our beach and take care of it. And it encourages them to do the same.
And so, within a week, we went from idea to actuality! Big thanks to Mark and Geoff who did most of the work, while Darren and I supervised! A bit of siding, a coat of paint and some custom made signs… and presto! All done!
It is also a bit of well deserved recognition for LOST and all the LOSTies that have helped keep the beach clean over the years and continue to do so!
Next thing is the LOSTie of the Week!
We often get lots of new LOSTies. We get LOSTies from all over the GTA, including: Scarborough, Richmond Hill, Toronto, St Catherines, London, Burlington, Mississauga and, of course, Oakville. So far, this year alone, we have already had swimmers join us from: Brazil, England and Australia too!
But having said all that we have an even newer newbie to LOST swimming: Atlas Carl Escobar! Who was born just a few hours before we jumped in the water last Saturday.
So I’m being a bit facetious. Our LOST Olympian, Luis Escobar and his wife Erin gave birth to Atlas last week! (mostly Erin, truth be told). A big congrats to Luis and Erin… and big brother, Matteo (he was born on Christmas day, 2 1/2 years ago, Erin went into labour… but Luis still joined me and a few others for a run, but Erin had 30 hours of labour, so Luis had time to get back. But he didn’t want to risk it this time, so he sent me a picture to prove that he had a good excuse for missing LOST Swimming last week!
Okay. We’ll cut him some slack. But I still think that it was because he was a bit of a wimp with the cold water.
Luis swam the in the first 10k open water race in the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. (he missed the 2012 Olympics by 2/10 second! And we are working at dragging out his 2 time Olympic swimming sister, Suzie, to LOST soon too!) He was one of the top open water swimmers in the world from the late 1990’s for over 10 years. He is also the head coach of the Etobicoke Masters, the top masters team in Canada, and was previously named the Age Group Coach of the Year.
So we are honored to have Luis, Erin, Matteo… and Atlas as LOSTies!
See you tomorrow… and don’t forget to come out for coffee at Bean There after!
Cheers,
Rob