Big Shoulders, Ohio Street, Sept 6

This year I was joined at Big Shoulders by lake crew members Heidi, Sue, Ellen and Ken, as well as fellow morning pool swimmers Leo, Paul and Charlie. In addition my daughter Tammy flew in from out of town just to swim. The system that blew in Wednesday brought waves, rain and cool weather to Chicago, it was on its way out today. The entire Lake was completely flat this morning, if one believes the weather.gov site, a very rare occurrence. That was certainly true here. But the computer prediction of water temperature failed for this spot, which being enclosed probably deviates from the model. The model said to expect 73 degrees but when I tested the water before the race my trusty watch thermometer said 68. I had trouble believing that because it did not feel that cool to me. Charlie, who is sensitive to cold estimated 72 while Leo, who loves cold said the water was warm. And there was a little girl lying in shallow water up to her neck saying the water felt good when she got used to it. So I lied and reported 70 to my crew. The air was cool, in the 60s but with a nice sun only occasionally broken by scattered clouds.

After the race most of us guys said the water was fine and the conditions were better than average for the race. The ladies were of a different opinion. Both Heidi, who originally registered as a wetsuit swimmer but changed her mind earlier this week, and Tammy, who did wear a wetsuit came out of the water with hypothermia symptoms. In Tammy's case after some immediate attempts at warming treatment she had a choice of reporting to the hypothermia tent or having a beer with Heidi and Ken. She chose the latter and that seemed effective.



There were two issues. One was floating seaweed, both on the first leg with small annoying but easily disposable strands but also on the final leg along the wall. Here there were huge clumps and if you accidentally swam into one it was hard to extract yourself. The T-shirt was controversial, I thought it was amusing but most of the contestants did not appreciate the joke.