(Wishing I was still) Running St. Paul: My First Open Water Swim

In truth, I have done open water swimming before. I have swam in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico numerous time. However, on those occasions, I just splashed around and rode the waves in on the raft. There was only one time I have swam in open water with the purpose of locomotion. Here is that story…

In the summer of 2003, I went to camp at Stony Lake Camp in New Era, MI. Upon my arrival, they told us that if we wanted to swim in the lake, we had to do a swim test. No problem, I thought. So, I grabbed my trunks and meandered down to the lake. The goal was simple: swim back and forth across the swim area once on your front, then once on your back. I started out on my front, and while I probably didn't do the front crawl, I made it the full distance. Then it was time to do the lap on my back. If you've ever done backstroke, you know it's tough to keep going in a specific direction. Well, take a look at this photo:

If you can imagine, the blue line is the desired back-and-forth route that I was supposed to swim. The red line is what I actually swam (this is not an exaggeration!). What would happen is that I would swim too far out and the lifeguard would whistle at me and tell me to turn. So I did. Then I would swim so close to the shore that I would hit bottom and have to turn again. I then repeated this a number of times. So, my first open water swim with the purpose of locomotion was not a success. As it turns out, I didn't swim for the rest of my time at camp…

Alright, back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

If you remember, Katie and I bought wetsuits a few weeks ago, so we we're eager to try them out. We decided that Memorial Day weekend would be the first time out. We looked at lakes, and decided to go to Square Lake just north of Stillwater. This lake is well-known for being a very clear lake. This was a plus (particularly for Katie).

We headed out to the lake and set up camp on a picnic table near the water. Here we are in front of the lake on a beautiful Minnesota morning:

Yeah, I wasn't so good at taking photos this morning.

When we got there, there were maybe 3 or 4 boats on the lake, and a few fisherpeople on the dock, but for the most part the lake was empty. We then began the process of getting our wetsuits on. I ran into an issue right away—I ran out of Body Glide! I managed to get most of my ankles and some on my neck, so I hoped that would be enough (it was). Katie got hers on first, and struggled a bit getting everything adjusted.

See the pink flowers on the ankles?

Success!

Katie got hers on, but it wasn't quite right, so she went into the water to get everything adjusted properly.

While she was doing this, I was trying to get into my wetsuit. Katie was not as generous as I was, and took some less than flattering pictures of me during the ordeal. Here are a few of them:

Working the legs up.

What am I doing here? I don't know, but probably grimacing because I'm so pale. I apologize for my paleness—that's just how I am after the winter in Minnesota.

Fiddling with the pull tab.

I'm in.

Returning from the water after getting my suit adjusted properly.

Looking like a dork with my Creamsicle colored swim cap (the color is supposed to be unnatural so boats don't run you over, or Katie just wanted me to look silly).

Both of us, ready to go! (Yes, another bad picture. Blame it on the self-timer)

With our wetsuits on, we headed into the water. Typically, at this time of year, lakes in Minnesota are rather chilly. Because of the unseasonably warm weather we've had since, well, March, the lake was not cold at all. Another swimmer told me the lake was already at 72°! In May! Not quite pool warmth, but there was not danger of being too cold.

Wearing a wetsuit in the water is rather odd initially because you notice the added buoyancy right away. I was so light in the water. It's also a little alarming when you get deep enough so the water reaches the zipper, and a cool water flows in rather quickly. We swam a bit just to get used to the water and the wetsuits, and ventured outside the swim area a bit.

My suit has arms, but I didn't feel any restriction in my shoulders, so I'm confident in my suit purchase. I also enjoyed being able to flip to my back and float when I got tired. The buoyancy of the suit helps out tremendously.

As I already mentioned, the lake is very clear. This is helpful for Katie because she isn't a fan of open water swimming. The combination of not seeing things, and the weeds, and the fish make her uneasy. Since this lake is so clear, she can see what's under the water, and she felt much better than in her other swims. Go Katie!

There were also a few other swimmers there. One guy got in the water when we did, then swam around the whole lake. I don't know how far that is, but I'll guess he went almost 2 miles in the water. 2 other guys showed up and stayed pretty much right by us. It was their first time in wetsuits too, so we all got to experience the new things together.

Unlike a pool, the lake isn't marked for distance. We swam back and forth just inside the ropes 2 times, and halfway once. I also created a triangular lap between 3 buoys just outside the ropes and did that twice.

My swimming actually went quite well (no doubt assisted by the wetsuit). The wetsuit acts a lot like a pull buoy (in fact, my suit has a feature called a "virtual pull buoy", which means it has thicker material around my thighs). I thought it worked better than a pull buoy because I got the buoyancy effect, but could still kick. With the ability to kick, I could work on that a bit, without having to always try and keep my lower half high in the water. I was able to slow my kick down a lot and just work on form. It was great.

Overall, I had a great time swimming in the lake. I enjoyed it 10 times better than swimming in the pool, and didn't really want to stop swimming. There's something about being in nature on a beautiful day that just draws me in (much like the difference between running on a treadmill and running outdoors). If I could do every swim in the lake, I would.

We did quit at some point, though, and headed out of the water. Katie stripped her suit off right away, and had a little trouble on the beach doing a fancy dance. I didn't get a picture of this, but here she is rinsing her suit off: