When my Hague 10K swim turned into a 7.5K swim, I was very upset with myself for several reasons, but my main problem was that I lost my focus. Live and learn.
Missing the mark that day was hard, but it prompted me to continue to train. I had been considering Sharkfest Boston Harbor, and finally registered for it. I found a campground that was close enough for packing up the morning of the race, and I headed off on adventure.
I am so glad I went to Boston. Finding the campsite took forever, but was great once I arrived. Finding the race venue the next morning was tricky, but I got there in plenty of time to hunt down a Starbucks for bagels, a banana, and chocolate milk. I stashed my belongings in a secure location and waited to take a ferry to the starting point across the harbor.
It was a cool September day, but warming in the sunshine. All around me, people were getting into wetsuits! Someone said the water was around 68F, which is warmer than the ocean I had been in a few weeks prior, and about what Lake George was at the time. I wasn’t worried, but I saw fewer swimsuits as time went on. I started to wonder how many in my age group would be wearing wetsuits. Awards are given for both wetsuit and non-wetsuit swimmers, and it was looking like I might just stand a chance at placing in my age group!
Jumping off a dock into chilly water isn’t my preferred way to get wet, but it’s what we had to do, and after the initial surprise of the chill, I found my bearings, and headed off past a few moored sailboats. My goggles needed frequent attention, which was a bit frustrating, but I felt solid in the water, and kept a strong pace throughout. Once I was able to discern the finish area, I was able to dig up a burst of energy to finish with power.
Redemption.
Finishing felt great. Wearing the shirt that says “I Swam Boston Harbor” is a treat. Getting an award for finishing third in my age for non-wetsuit swimmers was the frosting on the Boston Cream doughnut. I was much happier ending the open water season on a positive note.
Not everyone swimming that weekend had a good event.
While the skies were clear in Boston, the Lake George Marathon Swim Event in upstate New York was facing a brutal weather forecast. Due to start at 4:00pm, many solo swimmers, relay teams, kayakers, and boats set out into some of the worst wind sweeping up the lake that anyone could remember. Chop grew into waves, boats were pushed too close and too far from swimmers, and after about 6 hours, the whole event was called off. After months of training, and swimmers traveling from all over, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Upon my return to New York from Boston, I started tracking the progress of the pods of swimmers and support boats until no data was updated any longer. A few days later, one relay team still in the area took advantage of a shift in the weather to give it a try, and they were successful.
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to swim Lake George. And the more I thought about it, the more confident I became that I could do it. I wasn't sure how, but I had a few ideas. Reading about Diane Struble, the first person to swim a documented solo of Lake George, it occurred to me that she likely did not have access to winter swimming pools. Maybe if I worked on increasing my time spent in motion, I could be ready for distance swims longer than what I had done before. I walked. I ran. I started hiking up Mt. Defiance, sometimes once, sometimes twice. I used some weights, I did range of motion exercises, and I researched.
I swam in Lake George for the last time in 2016 on October 21. I swam about two miles in water under 60F. A few of my late season swims had been in about 55F, and I was able to tolerate the initial chill long enough to get a quarter mile behind me. After that, I felt good.
Really.
Surprisingly.
I was going to hold that thought until spring, when I could once again work on getting used to functioning in cold water, so I’d know I was ready for any cold pockets the lake might throw at me on a mid-summer night.
For information about the swims in Hague in August:
To learn about the documented solo swims of Lake George:
To find a Sharkfest swim that sounds cool to you:
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