Lake Erie Open Water Swim

7:30 on a partly-sunny summer Saturday morning, Kate, Lindsay, and Adam took to the Cedar Point Beach for their first open water swim. The first few photos show Kate and Lindsay lining up, then taking off with around 25 girls in their age group to attach a 2000 meter swim (approx. 1 and 1/4 mile).

The temperature outside hovered around 68 degrees and the water proved to be just a bit warmer. The buoy's were set 500 meters apart so essentially, the girls swam two full laps.

The first lap went pretty well, but the second lap went a bit slower and included a combination of 20-30 freestyle strokes followed by two-three breaststrokes, two "bobs" to bounce off the bottom of the lake, and a dive to swim normally again.

Kate and Lindsay finished 15th and 16th. Since the 6th place finisher's time was around 26 minutes, we estimate the girls finished in around or a little over 30 minutes.

Kate felt the pains of a long distance swim and could barely lift her arm after she finished. Lindsay was fine, and Adam seemed to do much better despite having to swim a greater distance than the girls.

Yes - Adam smam 3000 meters, almost two miles which included 3 laps around the buoys.

A week later, Kate's pains subsided and she was ready to go for the summer season championships. At 11-years-old, there was more excitement for the final day of swim practice where water balloons and squirt gun fights dominate the session!

Stay tune ~ there's a mini-Triathlon at Portage State Park in Akron this September with a 200 meter swim, 7 mile bike ride, and 1 mile run...but that will probably have to wait until next year! One thing is for sure, training with friends can be FUN!