Ohio Street, August 20

Before we headed to the Lake we (Joe, Jody, me and Kevin who we were to meet at the Lake) knew there were a number of things going against us: the wind, the waves, a serious threat of rain and perhaps thunder, the Air Show and next week's triathlon. But the waves looked to be worse tomorrow and Joe couldn't come. Joe and Jody, in particular, are constrained by work so weekdays are not good Lake days for them but both want more Lake time before Big Shoulders so we were committed to try.

The Air Show was not a problem at our hour (6:30AM), especially given the weather forecast, people do not arrive that early. But the triathletes and Big Shoulders swimmers made an earlier than normal appearance. The main downside was congestion and collisions in the water aggravated by waves making it difficult to see other swimmers. There was an upside, a bank of porta potties by the locker area. Other than the vision problem the wind from the south and waves from the north did not pose much of a problem swimming north. But the return swim was much harder. Jody and I were happy to swim to the 1/2 mile buoy and back but Joe and Kevin wanted to go to the 2nd tower on Oak St beach. According to Joe's watch it took him 27 minutes up but 49 minutes back.

As for the rain, there was a large rain system heading towards us all night and originally expected to hit Chicago at 6AM. But fortunately it got stalled, but not dissipated, and we only got wet from the rain going back to our car from Starbucks after getting our post swim coffee.

All things considered today worked out much better than feared. For the record the water temperature was a consistent 72.4 degrees.