The 2nd annual Toronto Island Lake Swim was held on Sunday, Aug 17, 2014
An event in the Canada Open Water Swim Series: http://www.cowss.ca/home
This year race organizers offered 3 different distance categories: 750m (sprint), 1.5km (olympic), 3.8km (iron). I raced in the 1.5km distance category, as a training test for my olympic distance triathlon coming up in Wasaga Beach on Sept 6.
The air temp was a lovely 22C that morning, but the water temp was a chilly 15.5C (60F), so I opted to use my wetsuit, as I usually do when swimming in Lake Ontario. The winds were low, and there was little in the way of waves or chop to deal with, thankfully. This beach doesn’t have many strong currents to fend with, although after the first turn-around point swimmers did notice one rougher, cooler patch in particular, maybe a small undertow or current was at play there. But overall, it was a nice course to swim. Clear water, sandy bottom and no weeds to deal with, which often plays up the creepy factor for some.
This was my first 1.5km lake swim, as to date I’ve been racing in the 750m swim category. Thus far, my swim times this summer were:
Binbrook = 16:37 / 750m, pace 2:13/100m
T.T.F. = 16:29 / 750m, pace 2:12/100m
Belwood = 16:05 / 750m, pace 2:09/100m
I was hoping for a time of 32:10/1500m, with a pace of 2:09/100m, at this event - the same pace I kept at the Belwood swim in July. Optimistic, yes, but I’ve been doing a lot of swimming this summer, so I felt it to be a reasonable expectation for myself.
However, holding that pace for the longer distance proved to be too difficult for me that morning. I ended up with a result of 34:51/1500m, with a pace of 2:20/100m. But I’m not upset by that result. It was my first attempt at an open water 1.5km swim and I’m taking it all as a learning experience. Naturally, a longer course will challenge the endurance more and one has to pace themselves a little slower than the usual shorter courses I’ve been doing. I’ll be taking that into account for the Wasaga Beach olympic distance triathlon (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) when I set my goal times.
Overall, I had a great day at the Toronto Island Lake Swim. The group of swimmers were all very friendly and shared a sense of humor, encouragement and camaraderie. The organizers even arranged a reggae steel drum band to play near the start/finish line which added a great festive atmosphere to the event. Considering the event was just a short ferry ride from downtown, and offered a lovely sandy beach to relax on and enjoy afterwards, I’m sure this will be a swim I’ll be participating in again in the future.
Of course, I've included some videos and photos of the event:
Here's a link to a YouTube video of the my wave start:
I did it! Just a fun finish line pose, a little after the race crowd cleared out.
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