Kingdom Swim 10-mile, Lake Memphremagog, Newport, VT

This past weekend was the very popular 10-mile Kingdom Swim in Lake Memphremagog. I couldn't go to the race last year because it was held on the same day we were flying to England for my Channel swim, but it was definitely worth the wait.

Mark had a weekend long class that ran Friday evening, all day Saturday, and all day Sunday, so I asked my other favorite crew person-- K-Crew-- to come be my 'Yacker. It was a girl's weekend with a nice little road trip to boot.

Unfortunately, I got tied up at work on Friday afternoon and we didn't get on the road as early as we had wanted to start the nearly 4-hour drive to the most northern reaches

of Vermont. We got stuck in Friday evening rush hour traffic on 93 North, and sat in bumper to bumper traffic well into New Hampshire. We eventually stopped for dinner in the middle of nowhere New Hampshire and by the time we got back on the road, the traffic had thinned out, thankfully.

We finally rolled into town about midnight and got checked into the little motel in town. The race started at 8am the next morning, so we went directly to bed.

The race itself was so much fun. Right from the start, I felt strong and like I had a

lot of room to run, so I pushed it as hard as I could with the strategy being to go out hard and then just hang on for dear life. (It was only 10 miles, right?)

When I got to about the halfway mark, I started to pick off other swimmers left and right-- reeling in all the swimmers who went out too fast at the start and started to flag. That's always a great feeling, to cruise past other swimmers after 5 miles of hard swimming and watching them disappear behind me, becoming a little less visible with each breath.

I had a little shoulder soreness at about mile 6, but a couple Advil took care of that. And before long, we were rounding the last buoy. As is true of all my really good swims, it seemed like it was over too soon.

Khrista did an awesome job kayaking for me. She didn't have much experience, but you'd never have been able to tell. She kept me on a nice, straight line and sighted the buoys well. Feedings went very smoothly-- she's an old pro at that by now-- and everything just sort of worked. We finished in 4 hours 54 minutes and 41 seconds, a better-than 2 mph pace, and about 6 minutes under my goal time of 5 hours. I was thrilled with it.

The water could have been a few degrees cooler, but it was manageable, and the weather cooperated for the most part. It rained a little bit, but no thunder or wind, which made for a smooth, steady lake and a long, strong swim.

Hats off to the organizers of this awesome race. I do hope to get back to the Northeast Kingdom again next year for another lap around the lake.

And maybe this time I'll actually get a glimpse of the lake monster, Memphre, or maybe even just a golf ball or two.

NEM News July/August Take 2

Having some difficulty posting the newest issue of NEM News. Here's trying again...

Another fine video offering from Marcy MacDonald

Thanks to Marcy for putting together another awesome video of us in action in the waters around Manhattan. What a great time we had! We really enjoyed our brief stay on the police boat at the end of the race. Looking forward to our second event of the summer, the Swim Across the Sound in Bridgeport, CT on August 7th! (You can still contribute to the cause online via our Swim Across the Sound fundraising page.)

Enjoy the fabulous shots of strong swimmin' ladies and thanks for your support and generosity!

More from the Wayland 1-mile Swim

A fun clipping from the Wayland Town Crier about the race last month. Me with my buddy Mark. Hope the photo is big enough to see-- I never did see the hard copy.

Spent the Weekend Underwater...

This past Saturday was the first annual Nubble Light Challenge, a new 2.4 mile race out andaround Cape Needick, that runs between the mainland and the island where the Nubble Lighthouse sits. It was incredible! Heavy fog, big surf and water temperatures that couldn't have been above 50 degrees made it a really tough swim- quite possibly the hardest swim I've ever done. Yep, at just 2.4 miles, this was the race I was grateful to have survived. The awards were icing on the cake of living through it!

I managed to nab a pair of awards: a 1st in the Non-wetsuit division and a surprising 3rd place in my age group. Complete results online at CoolRunning.com.

After the race was over, I was interviewed by a local reporter about the swim. Had a great time chatting with him. The whole "wussies" comment was taken slightly out of context- I was trying to explain the two camps in Masters swimming- those who wear wetsuits and those who don't, and well, I did say it, though tongue firmly planted in cheek. I hope I didn't offend anyone- it was meant only in good fun- because anyone who even started that race, wetsuit or no, has my complete respect. It was no joke out there! Seriously, it was tough!

Congrats to all the other finishers and to the race organizers- Bob and Josh Reed- on an

excellent first outing as race directors. I was so impressed by the vast army of volunteers they had assembled and how smoothly everything went, even when the conditions wer

en't really cooperating. Is it too early to sign up again for next year?

Ok, so that was Saturday. Sunday found me swimming another 6 hour (I had done one of those last weekend up at Plum Island so that my friend Jen could get in her qualifier for the English Channel) with Greg, who's training for a Catalina Channel swim this September and Jen as well as my friend Lynn who's also doing the 10-mile Lake Memphremagog (actually, all 4 of us are doing the 10-miler in 2 weeks!). I felt fine out there at Nantasket for the first 3 hours or so, then started to get really tired and a little achy. Weirdly, my thighs had seized up a bit during the race on Saturday-- presumably form the cold-- and I was feeling that fatigue while swimming on Sunday. But we managed to get it done. Sore today, too, at workout- feeling all the crazy swimming in my left shoulder... need to keep an eye on it, but I'm pretty sure it will pass.

It was nice to be back at Plum Island and Nantasket, two of my favorite places on earth to swim.

Breaking News: Great Whites and Channel Swimmers Favor Same Water Conditions

According to a story that ran in the Boston Globe yesterday, Jaws apparently favors the same water conditions as channel swimmers:

"Yesterday, Skomal said his preliminary analysis suggests that great whites spend most of their time in waters ranging from 59 to 67 degrees." (Now that sounds familiar)

“That’s a really narrow temperature range for a fish,’’ he said. “That gives us a sense of where we can expect them to hang out and how long they hang out.’’

How about 14 hours somewhere between England and France at about 62 degrees? Sounds positively delightful to the big bastard fish, I should think!

The article also explores the threat to swimmers at beaches on and near Cape Cod and finds that at the moment, there should be little cause for concern-- for most bathers. Once seal carcasses start washing up on shore, then they'll sound the alarm in earnest.

As is typical of these annual 'Shark Attack' stories, there was the standard advice to be cautious (perhaps a bit paranoid?): "Bowles encouraged beachgoers to use common sense while swimming, taking particular care to avoid splashing in waters near seal colonies."

How about an even more practical suggestion such as trying to look less like food by leaving the wetsuit at home? I'm just sayin'...

Of course, no shark post would ever really be complete without the Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus clip that leaves me in stitches every time I see it. Can't remember if I've posted it here before or not, but it's a classic...

Mind over Matter

“We tend to think that we have limits that are wired-in, which we may or may not have, and we’ve reached them in some sense and as we get older we become less and less on those dimensions,” Langer said.

Interesting piece on NPR this morning about the power of positive thinking-- dubbed "mindfulness" by Harvard Psychology Professor Ellen Langer who was profiled in the piece. Her take on "mindfulness," which, based on the brief story this morning sounds like it's really just a healthy dose of doubt, fresh observation, a positive mindset, and not taking anything for granted in equal measure, rang true for me. She talked about her theories of what's essentially the power of positive thinking to reverse aging in something of a less-magical sense than what you might find in, say, The Secret. Langdon has some interesting theories that I think I agree with, even if she is going to be portrayed by Jennifer Aniston on the big screen. Who's got a little light reading ahead of her?

Article links here.

This interview made me think about my own journey over the past couple years through self-doubt, uncertainty and trying to accomplish what so many think is impossible. People often ask me how I can stand the cold water or how I can manage to not get bored during the course of a 14 hour swim, and as flip and simplistic as it may sound, the answer generally is little more than "mind over matter." Not easy to master, but a good motto to keep in mind. And while I may have had a fair bit of practice over the past two-years, I still have a lot to learn in keeping the right perspective and keeping my mind squarely in charge of my matter.