Last weekend (Aug 18) I did the LOST swim. Its an annual race held every August by the Lake Ontario Swim Team members based in Oakville http://lostswimming.com/. In the past I’ve done both the 1.6k (mile) and 3.8k (iron) distance events, depending on what my training schedule fit at the time.
Despite it being held the same place and same time every year, the conditions are always different each and every time - at least all four times I’ve done it (2015-18). The night before the race, a wind and rain storm past through the Great Lakes region, and although the weather had cleared race morning, there was still a tremendous energy held by the water from the previous nights storm. In other words, the swell was big.
All the swimmers waded down the rocks and into the lake from the entry point at Maple Grove Drive, and immediately the swell began tossing the swimmers around. It was going to be a rough swim. The airhorn blasted and off we went. While the water was much warmer this year (71F) than last years event (a bitterly cold 44F due to a lake inversion), the swell was some of the toughest I’ve swam in.
Looking around me, it was hard to see the buoys at times, and I could barely see any of the other swimmers. Typically the bright yellow swim caps made the other swimmers easy to spot, and offered reassurance, but this year I saw hardly any other swim caps in the water. I felt lonely out there, weren’t we a big crowd when we started? Like over 100 people? That’s when my mind started to play tricks on me. I began to think that I was the very last swimmer. I was struggling in the swell and convinced my performance was sucking, hard. I couldn’t see anyone else, so obviously they had all gone ahead of me and left me in their wake. I began to feel so defeated that I even refused to look at my Garmin, because if I hadn’t swam far enough yet, and the GPS confirmed it, I would be devastated. I thought about quitting for a few moments, but I had never quit a race before, even the year the water temperature was a frigid 41F. So after collecting my thoughts, taking a deep breath, I continued on.
About 30min into the swim I started to feel the further effects of the waves. Nausea began to set in from the rough swell tossing me around. I really wished I had taken some of the ginger gravol I had in my first aid kit. Oh well too late now. If I puked in the lake so be it. Probably the best spot to do it, I suppose.
With all these negative thoughts and forces of nature working against me I had two options:
1. Give up, signal to a kayaker and swim ashore, or
2. Refocus my efforts and swim better so that I would hurry up and finish the damn course so that I could get out of the water at the Navy Street pier with my dignity intact.
I chose option 2. I refocussed my form, kept my head down, tightened up my arm position closer to my body through the downward pull for efficiency and swam to get this the hell over with. It was the right approach. I finally arrived at the LOST beach and gladly let the volunteers help drag me out of the waves crashing on the shore.
I finished the 3.8km point to point course in 1:24:02. I finished 5th in my age group, so much for being last!
The last time I did the 3.8km swim (2016), I finished with a time of 1:29:58. Contrary to the tricks my mind was playing on me, I actually performed much better, cutting 5min 56sec from my previous time. I was almost 6 minutes faster! I was really pleased with that. Six minutes is significant.
I had been making a real effort to improve my swim times this year, including some private coaching sessions from Miranda Tomenson, and spending more time in the lakes doing open water versus pool swimming this summer. And it looks like its paying off. If I had pulled out when things got tough in the lake, I would not have this validation.
This event is an excellent reminder of how important mental grit and having a positive attitude is for endurance athletes. We can train our bodies to travel long distances when conditions are great, but what happens when our perfect game plan falls apart, due to bad weather, or other issues out of our control? A well rounded and successful endurance athlete has to develop mental strength to get them through every situation, especially the bad ones. Its just as important as all that time spend in the gym and the physical aspects of training.
The mind is the single most important part of our body that we have to train. We train it to control our limbs and breathing rates when we swim, bike, run - the physical stuff. But we must also train it to think strategically, positively and to suffer through the discomfort when things go wrong. Remember - its OK to not be OK. As it is often in the moments of greatest vulnerability and discomfort that we dig deep to find the courage to proceed and reach our highest peaks of performance. Remember greatness was never found in comfort zones and if you want to get stronger, faster, better than before you need to get uncomfortable.
So get out there and be uncomfortable. Good luck with your training!
- Kelly
P.S. Oh, and I didn’t puke, but it was close.
