So one nice thing about LOST Swimming is there is an off season! That’s when I get a bit lazy and don’t put up as many posts (although there is still a ton of stuff on the LOST Swimming Facebook page, so join there if you haven’t!) and tend to take it a bit easy.
Actually… I haven’t really. I’ve joined EOMAC, (Etobicoke Olympium Masters Aquatic Club), which is great, I feel like I’m actually getting back into shape! Having placed very well at Ironman Lake Placid (in the swim ONLY!), a swimmer can fool themselves into thinking they are fast. That is a totally unfair comparison though. It is a real swimmer swimming against triathletes. It just makes you feel like you are fast. I’m sure its the same for good riders and runners who race against triathletes. But then I joined EOMAC. And started training and racing against swimmers. A bit of humble pie after feeling like a champ after IMLP. But the good news is it seems to be coming back. Slowly.
LOSTies at IMLP 2015
The other bigger news is the organization that Dylan and I are running. The Global Swim Series. It is going swimmingly. Pardon the lame pun.
Dad waiting for Dylan to finish his first Ironman… (yes, I phrased that so that you noticed I beat him… I’ve got to make note of it while I still can!)
You may recall that it started last summer as COWSS, the Canadian Open Water Swim Series. We were really happy with how it worked out, we had 12 races and over 2,000 participants across Canada! We were ecstatic, we had no idea it would be that popular.
So as you have probably seen, this year we decided to open it up to the whole world and call it the Global Swim Series. It is a ton of work, but you know what? It is an even bigger success. And again we are ecstatic, and had no idea that it would be this popular!
It has become the largest swim series in the world. Over 18,000 swimmers in all the races. 31 races have joined. 10 countries; Canada, USA, Mexico, Haiti, Barbados, Brazil, Ireland, Russia and Australia… and Bermuda (as I was writing this post!). And there are a whole bunch more that I’m speaking with that plan on joining in the very near future. The cool thing is that we are starting to get some recognition outside of our immediate circles. People and organizations are starting to come to us, rather than us going to them. That’s pretty exciting.
Ian, Mairi, Trevor & Cam… LOSTies in Barbados!
So now with all these races and swimmers and interest we are in a position where we can start looking to the future and adding more “things”. Obviously I can’t get into the details, but we would like to continue adding more races and swimmers… and then even add a world championship race and several other surprises too. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but things are coming together, maybe not by the end of this season, but we’re looking into it.
A big congrats, while I think of it, to all the LOSTies who participated in the Global Swim Series this summer! And a special “tip of the hat” to the LOSTies that went down to Barbados for the amazing Swim Festival there!
Anyway, the point of all this was to tell you why I haven’t been putting up many posts lately. It’s because I’ve been dogging it, it is because I’ve actually been swimming and promoting open water swimming around the world. Seems like a decent excuse.
PS. do me a big favor… like the Global Swim Series Facebook page… and sign up for the GlobalSwimSeries.com Newsletter and help spread the word about the GSS!!!
PPS. while I was writing this another race joined the Global Swim Series… Bermuda is in!
Cheers,
Rob