Saturday, July 13, 2019

2019 Bear Lake Monster Swim

This morning Oliver, Sam and I arrived at the Bear Lake Marina in Garden City for the annual Bear Lake Monster swim.  I have never participated in this race as a swimmer in the past. Mostly as a director or paddler.  I arrived early to help setup the buoys with Chad and help with Josh at check-in.

My friend from work, Angela came to help paddle for the 1 mile section, and I had another boat that I originally was going to paddle, but realized I really should be in the water.  So I found a dad for a young swimmer that was willing to take my place as a paddler.


Two days ago, our family was up at Altamont at a family reunion, and we went on a training swim to Starvation reservoir.  The water was pretty cool getting in and I wanted the boys to experience a cold open water swim as a measure of what they should expect on Saturday.  They were doing so well! Sam was keeping up with me no problem.  At that point I realized I needed to show him how to draft and demonstrate the advantage that it is for an open water swimmer where drafting is legal.

At that point I decided I would do the one mile race as well.  We started that morning and Sam kept up with me the whole time.  I noticed that every time I would sight that I was already in line with the buoys that I was shooting for. So my stroke is pretty good as far as swimming straight.

Oliver swam the 1/2 mile, and Sam and I swam the mile.  There were several swimmers who "cut the line" to the proper buoys and shaved off some of the distance.  But to me, it's not about winning the race, but about getting the full distance in a time that meets or exceeds my pre-set expectations.

The goals we agreed upon:


  • Oliver - 1/2 mile in under 20 minutes
  • Me and Sam - 1 mile in under 30 minutes
We all made our goal and felt great about it.  Oliver got 18:56. I got 29:54 and Sam right on my tail at 29:58. It was nice to get out there and feel the coolness of the lake and see the fish below us in that beautiful crystal clear water.  It was a successful day!

Here are the results of the race.

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