For those of you looking to do a 1 or 2 mile swim in a different venue, check out the Crystal Lake Swim Race this coming Saturday morning. And ditch the wetsuit – the water temperature is around 78F!
Filed under: Event Alert
Event Alert – Crystal Lake Swim Race – Saturday July 12, 2008 (This Weekend!)
Posted on July 8, 2008 by srhernan
This race was really great – woke up at 3am to the massive thunderstorms pounding the area… then woke up again for good at 5am to weather.com telling me 100% chance of thunderstorms all morning long in Crystal Lake. But if you don’t like the weather… just wait 5 minutes.
Drove through the rain out to Crystal Lake – followed a group of sporty looking SUV’s to the lakefront and the rain slowed to a drizzle as we gathered at the lakefront. A lot of very fit looking people.
The lake was glassy – no wind – warm and clean. Perfect swimming conditions.
I was in the mile and hit it along with everybody else – there was a buoy shifted out of place that was clear from shore but once you got flat in the water it was kind of hard to pick out… one of those nagging things I didn’t need during the race.
And everybody said the course was long – I heard from 1.2 to 1.3 miles which makes sense with my longer than usual race time for the mile.
Coming in I was so happy to eat a ‘Country Donuts’ cinnamon roll and coffee. A nice, well organized race and a great start to a beautiful day – the sun was shining as I left and headed back to Evanston.
Wow…sounds fantastic! Thanks for the report, Chris!
Congrats!
I did the race too. My first lake race ever. I grew up in IL and was visiting anyhow, so when I saw that this race was offered, I decided to go for it. A friend of mine from Chicago was supposed to do it with me that I was staying with, but opted not to that morning cuz of the storm (I was willing to go for it anyway and the weather got better as I drove closer to the race).
I got lost and was running late. I got the address mixed up, as well as some of the directions. The worker at the Shell Station gave me awesome directions and probably saved me from missing out. I hadn’t seem a thunderstorm in a long time (we hardly ever have them and if so, most are piddly), so I was actually excited to see/hear it again.
When I had gotten there, I quickly checked in (was shocked because the races in Hawai`i, you can’t a half hour before it starts) and changed. When I got in the water with everybody else, they said that there was 1 minute to go. Couldn’t believe it! If just 1 minute longer, I wouldn’t have made it. I then blurted out, “What’s the course?” I had no clue, but the quick information was helpful. The race start was a gun I think or at least something different than what I was used to in HI.
The lake water was warm, but perfect for me. Not too hot or cold, at least not enough to bother me. Didn’t even get cold when I first got in. Was shocked to see some people in wetsuits. It was warmer than the pacific at home and people generally don’t wear wetsuits there. Couldn’t see much underwater, but still a nice lake and area.
The buoys set-up was kind of crazy (one was really out of place), but was able to follow them fine. Some of us got a little confused and had to ask one another some stuff. The time went by really fast. Even though I didn’t warm up like I had wanted, I felt fine and never got tired. I had been training for a 25K swim for the next weekend and was more used to it. It was good practice for that because there’s no lakes to practice in back home and it was different. Was really happy with the results and it was fun meeting those that I had.
Before driving back to Chicago where I was staying with my friend, I went to see where one of my favorite movies was filmed (Groundhog Day, which is in Woodstock, IL and I also saw 2 days later where my other favorite movie is filmed, “Field of Dreams”) and loved it. Thought I was driving back to Chicago afterwards, but it wound up being towards Wisconsin! Figured that I’d go there for the heck of it and then saw that Lake Geneva was there, so I stayed there for awhile to check it out and even swim in it a bit. A nice accidental detour. Drove onto Indianapolis later on that evening to continue on my crazy 2,000 mile roadtrip and of my 7 states (1 was only the airport though) of traveling.
For all you Chicago people out there, I did swim in Lake Michigan and I liked it a lot. It can actually get pretty rough out there when there’s a lot of boats around.
Hi Kendra! Thanks for the awesome report! I’m going to put up a separate post with some of your and Chris’ comments. If either of you have any pics of the event, feel free to send them my way and I’ll add them to the original post.
Best,
Steve
I just got your post. How can I send it to you? I do have some pics. I can even send you some from home if you want.
Hey! That all sounds great! Send anything you want me to post at srhernan(at)gmail(dot)com.
Hope all is well at your end!
Steve
Can anyone confirm the distance for the course. My time for the 2 mile was more then it should have been and I was swimming hard.