Adirondack Sports June 2024

JUNE 2024 43
SWIMMING & TRIATHLON continued from 41
As such, working with an instructor who
understands swimming strokes and can
provide feedback in-person or by video, is
invaluable. For people who grew up with
almost no swimming experience, learning
to swim as an adult can be formidable.
While it’s never too late to learn, the
encouragement of an experienced swimming
teacher can make all the difference.
Depending upon your goals in swimming,
there is a subset of skills specific to
open water, particularly for those interested
in competing in any form at any level
or entering any kind of large group swim
event. Skills that need to be learned and
practiced include sighting, so that you
swim a straight line; turning around the
buoys efficiently on a marked course; and
breathing bilaterally for a better view of
the buoys or the shore. Drafting another
swimmer as a means of reducing your
energy output on a swim and gaining
comfort with swimming in a pack are also
valuable. And of course, there’s practicing
the start. Will the start of any given event
be by running from the shore and diving
into the water, treading in deep water until
the air horn sounds, or jumping off a pier,
dock, or boat? Given that there’s no wall
to be swimming towards every 25 yards,
what about pacing during an open water
swim event, and practicing the important
skill of rolling from freestyle to elementary
backstroke to rest, control anxiety, and
manage heartrate?
I think you really get hooked on the
joy of open water training and competing
when you have fun and put yourself to the
test in an event during our precious summer
months. If you’re a triathlete, event
calendars are a great way to find races so
■ GREAT SETTING AT LAWSON'S LAKE
COUNTY PARK WHERE BETHLEHEM
TRI CLUB SWIMS EVERY THURSDAY.
BETHANY KIERNAN
see the Calendar in Adirondack Sports
print or online: adksports.com. And visit
USA Triathlon: usatriathlon.org. Not
interested in biking or running? Plenty of
cyclists and runners would love to have
a competent swimmer to form a relay
team. Popular triathlons in our region
that welcome individuals and teams
include Wilson Endurance Sports triathlons
in Ticonderoga, Stissing, Litchfield
Hills, Delta Lake, and CassadagaMan;
Alpha Win’s triathlons in the Hudson
Valley, Lake George, and Saugerties;
Capital District Triathlon Club’s Crystal
■ SWIMMERS NAVIGATING THE
TURNAROUND BUOY AT BETSY
OWENS/TERRY LAUGHLIN
MEMORIAL SWIMS IN MIRROR LAKE.
Lake Triathlon; Vermont Sun Triathlon
Series, and the High Peaks Cyclery Mini-
Tri Series.
Perhaps your greater interest is in
open water swimming competitions?
In our area, Greenleaf Racing offers the
“Virtual 32-Mile Marathon Swim” for individuals
and teams, and the Lake George
2.5K/5K/10K open water swim races
in Hague in August. Greenleaf Racing
also partners with Adirondack Masters
Swimming (AD-LMSC) to offer the Betsy
Owens/Terry Laughlin Memorial Swim
Races in Mirror Lake every August, races
sanctioned by United States Masters
Swimming.
The US Masters Swimming calendar of
events is a great resource for finding sanctioned
open water races across the entire
country and for identifying open water
swimming events for competition or for
recreation where the purpose is raising
funds for an important cause, such as the
Against the Tide Swims sponsored by the
Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition,
and the Swim Across America–Rhode
Island to Benefit the Women and Infants
Hospital: usms.org.
Rays’s Notebook is another awesome
resource for finding competitive open
water swim races and open water swim
events for recreation and to raise funds for
important causes: raysnotebook.info/ows.
And for the heartiest among us, how
about an open water swimming vacation
that takes you to stunning places around
the globe and makes all arrangements for
travel and accommodations, with well-organized
daily swimming opportunities? I
have swimming friends who have traveled
with Swim Trek and have raved about
swimming in the Galapagos Islands,
Nevis and St. Kitts, Croatia, Sardinia, the
Bahamas, and Greece: swimtrek.com.
Hey, why not??!!
Whatever level of swimmer you are,
and whatever trajectory you may be on
with your swimming, stay after it and
keep at it! Swimming provides tremendous
cardiovascular benefits, is a full
body workout, is easier on the joints
than some other forms of exercise and
can provide improvements to mental
and emotional health. As many will
attest, “You’re only one swim away from
a better mood!” These benefits are compounded
when swimming outdoors in a
clean, beautiful lake or river in magnificent
Upstate New York!
Interested in learning, fine tuning,
and practicing your skills? Join us for
an Open Water Swimming Clinic on
Sunday, June 30 from 2-3:30pm at the
Glens Falls Family YMCA. Cosponsored
by the Glens Falls Family YMCA and
Adirondack Masters Swimming. Register
in advance: glensfallsymca.org.
Kathy Meany (kmeany2@verizon.
net) is vice-president and sanctions
chairperson of Adirondack Masters
Swimming and a representative on the
board of the Bethlehem Triathlon Club.
She is a retired teacher, principal, and
school district superintendent who is
an avid swimmer, cyclist, triathlete, and
pickleball and tennis player.