Long Distance Swimming – April 2019 2

With snow still thick on the ground as I write, it seems that we have a very long way until summer.  Yet it’s time to start planning for summer excitement and fun.

For your planning, here’s the outline of the 2019 Oregon open water schedule.  Seven events all told.  Our seven events last year tied Oregon LMSC with Pacific LMSC (with their membership ten times ours) for the most open water events in the nation!  I’ll include a full preview & details of our summer schedule in the May Aqua Master.

• Beautiful Lake Juniper, Sun 16 Jun, at JSFC in Bend (note that COMA is also hosting a long course pool meet at JSFC on Sat 15 Jun—double your pleasure, double your fun!).
• Foster Lake Cable Swims, Sat 29 Jun, at Foster Lake east of Sweet Home. This will be dual-sanctioned with USA-Swimming this year for the first open water swims for kids in Oregon since 2011.
• Portland Bridge Swim, Sun 7 Jul, in the Willamette River in Portland. This is the USMS Ultra-Marathon Open Water National Championships for the second consecutive year!  Entry has been closed for several months, but there are lots of openings & great need for volunteer help.
• Southern Oregon Swims at Applegate Lake, Sat-Sun 13-14 Jul, at Applegate Lake south of Jacksonville. The 1500-meter swim will be the Oregon LMSC Championships.
• Cascade Lake Swim Series & Festival at Elk Lake, Fri-Sun 26-28 Jul, in the mountains above Bend. The 1500-meter swim will be the NW Zone Championships.  Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event.
• Southern Oregon Coast Swims at Eel Lake, Sat 17 Aug, just south of Winchester Bay;
• Lake of the Woods Swims, Sat 7 Sep, between Klamath Falls and Medford. Some of us crazies are planning a double-header with the Whiskeytown swims near Redding, CA, the following day.

At this point, all of these swims have been approved and will be sanctioned before you read this.  Online entries are either open, or will be open soon.

Here’s a novel idea!  Use the USMS long course 5-km & 10-km postal championship swims to help you prepare for open water season.  The window to swim these events is May 15 through September 15.  Rather than wait until summer’s end, I urge you to consider doing one or both of these swims as preparation for your open water swims—it’s a strategy that I use every year and that has brought me much success.  And if you plan to swim in the Portland Bridge Swim or the 10-km swim at Applegate Lake, it’s crucial that you log a few long practice swims.  Kill two birds with one stone; include one of the postal swims as part of your preparation.

To help you find long course pool time to swim your postals, we’ve scheduled the following opportunities:

• Amazon Pool in Eugene, Sat 25 May, 2:00-6:00pm. Although priority will be given to 10-km swimmers (who sometimes need the full time frame), there may be room for back-to-back 5-km swimmers if there is pool space.  Contact Matt Miller at matt@flytrapcare.com to reserve your spot on a first come first served basis.
• JSFC in Bend, Sun 26 May, 9:30am-1:30pm. 10-km swimmers must start at 9:30; 5-km swimmers may choose a 9:30 start or go later about 11:00 or so as lanes clear.  Contact Bob Bruce at coachbobbruce@gmail.com to reserve your spot.
• JSFC in Bend, Sun 9 June, 9:30am-1:30pm. Same info as above.

We’re still looking for more 50-meter pools to host postal sessions, particularly in May and June, but also later in the summer.  How about your 50-meter pool?

And if you need more motivation to do your postal swims, remember the GO PRO challenge?  Due to a generous offer from an enthusiastic Masters swim booster, OMS will pay your 2020 USMS and OMS registration fees if you swim and enter three USMS Postal National Championship swims in 2019.  Simple.  No other strings attached.  Now if you swam and entered the One-Hour Swim earlier this year, you have completed one leg and have only two (of four) more to go.  Good for you!  If you missed the One-Hour Swim and still would like to GO PRO, you must swim one or both of the long course postal championships to put you back in the game!  No more procrastinating!

Good luck and good swimming!