Candlewood Lake Swim
October 4, 2008
This year’s swim, my 15th for charity and seventh for Epilepsy Foundation of CT in honor of my daughter, Kate, had a change in venue from an attempted double crossing between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, to a double length swim of Candlewood Lake in western Connecticut. This is only my third time swimming in a lake that is less than 10 miles from my house. When I was younger the 4-mile AAU Nationals were held in the lake when I was 16 years old. The Stamford Dolphins Swimming Team took 3rd as a team and I took 6th place.
Now, I was attempting approximately a 21-mile swim, if I could swim straight.
Unfortunately, the swim occurred about 3 weeks later than planned. Initially, I planned to attempt the Nantucket swim during the weekend of September 13/14. However, did not due to weather, the attempt was postponed for the next weekend. On Wednesday, September 17, three days before the planned swim, my captain called to say that he could not be out on the water for personal reasons. I then checked with my back up captain, and he could not help either that weekend or two weekends later also for personal reasons. My final back up captain also could not help, so I changed venues. Because _ of a business trip to our corporate headquarters in Dallas on September 27, we postponed the swim until October 4.
Therefore, while I tapered two separate weekends and then had to travel, I also caught a bad cold where my ears and were quite clogged. I was out of the water for 10 days, save 1 before the swim. In fact, on Friday, October 3rd, I went to the doctor’s office to see if I should swim or not. While not given a clean bill of health, the doctor told me I could swim.
We started later than planned at around 7:25 AM at Candlewood Shores, about 4 miles north of the Danbury Park at one of the two lower fingers of the lake.
At this point, a little history of the lake, as provided by Wikipedia is in order:
Candlewood Lake, 8.4 sq mi (21.8 km²), is located in Western Connecticut. It is formed behind a power dam south of the Rocky River's junction with the Housatonic River. Along its 86-mi (106 km) shoreline are five-star tourist resorts and recreational facilities such as golf courses, beaches, and marinas. The lake is used year round although tourists primarily come during the summer months for fishing, boating or golfing. The lake is bordered by 5 towns: Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, New Milford, and Sherman.
Candlewood Lake is the largest lake in Connecticut, and one of the largest man-made lakes in the USA. Like a giant battery, its main purpose is to store water during periods of low electrical demand for power generation when demand is high. Utilizing excess electricity from the valley's hydro-system, water is pumped up a hillside into the lake from the nearby Housatonic River during the Spring and overnight hours in Summer, then allowed to flow back down into the river when extra electricity is needed in the grid, often during the region's intense mid-to-late summer heat waves. Power is generated by turbines that are spun by the water flowing into the river while pumping is done by reversing the impellers.
Candlewood Lake was created in the 1920s. Inhabitants were relocated elsewhere, but many of the buildings were left standing and some farming equipment was left behind. The roads were not torn up before the valley was flooded. Scuba divers can investigate buildings from that era, following the roads underwater, and discover artifacts from that era onwards. Some of the notable underwater finds are model Ts, plane wreckage from small craft that have hit the lake since then and covered bridges from that era.
My wife, Trina, was my kayaker-support person for the first part of the swim. Tobey Saracino and George Hunihan, both successful English Channel swimmers in 2008, met us at the parking lot at Candlewood Shores. The three of us started to swim south. Tobey was nursing an injury, so the two of them swam an hour south and then back to the starting point.
Trina and I continued to swim south towards the Danbury Park. We swam very near a State of Connecticut park on the western side of the lake. At 2 hours, 5 minutes, we made it all the way to the park. After getting out of the lake and then back in, we headed back north to our starting point at Candlewood Shores. On the way back we went a slightly different route and were slightly against the wind. We arrived back to Candlewood Shores 4 hours, 15 minutes after we started. At that point we had Paul and Jon Vossbrinck in a zodiac and Liz Fry, her friend Debbie and Tobey Saracino as my kayak support. Paul and Jon helped Trina get her kayak out of the water while I treaded water. About 15 minutes later, we headed north towards the eastern-most finger of the lake towards Lyn Deming Park in New Milford. About one-half hour north I took my first feed with Liz and company. Paul and Jon headed home as the zodiac motor was having issues.
We continued north for another 90 minutes or so, feeding every 30 minutes. I was continuing to count my strokes. Over the last three years I have also transformed my stroke so I change sides breathing every 7th arm, even in a pool. This year was the first year that even in competition, even in long distance, open water events I am breathing/changing sides every 7th arm.
By counting every stroke, I have cycles of 105 (7 X 15) Also, it is the first number where changing sides every third arm or every 5th arm also has as the lowest common multiple of 105. In addition, every 7th cycle starts the process over. So, I have learned enough about the stroke count and timing that 24 cycles is about 30 minutes of swimming. This means that my stroke count is about 60 to 62 strokes per minute. This 105 cycle is also very useful when swimming/pulling in a 50-meter pool as I will change up my breathing pattern by including changing sides every 3rd or even every 5th arm.
I know I am in a “Zen- Zone” when I realize I am in the 3rd or 4th cycle and have not really noticed where I am. Of course, by counting the strokes, I do know about where I am in a cycle of 7, 14 or even 21 cycles of 105 strokes. It is the greatest feeling when swimming outdoors in open water, whether it is a lake, Long Island Sound or other salt bodies of water .As the saying goes: no walls, no lanes, no lines, no limits. Well there is a limit.
Being sick, being out of the water for ten days but one, and not having the kayaks equipped with lights, meant that we were not really prepared for a night swim. Two hours into the swim north, were still 2 hours from the Lyn Deming Park and therefore 6 hours from completion of the swim.
We could have gone another hour north and then headed back, but we still would not have completed the swim to the northern end of the lake.
As my groins were tired from treading water and I was tired but not in any distress, I decided to cut the swim short. We headed back to Candlewood Shores, about 2 hours away. While we should have had the wind with us, it did seem to turn around and in our face again.
Liz and Tobey felt that the stroke looked great the entire way. When we first turned around to head home, I was having trouble swimming straight. Typically, even though I am breathing to both sides, I fade right. This time, as in the English Channel, I was fading left a bit. However, after being told I was swimming slightly erratically, I fixed the stroke and started to swim straight again.
During the swim, many people came by to give us support as we swam. While I think they were more interested in the women kayaking that the swimmer swimming, but it was nice to have people give acknowledgement. In fact, the reason for my swimming these different venues is to get more people to learn about this horrible disease called epilepsy. In fact, epilepsy is the third most common neurological disorder in the United States. It is equal in prevalence to cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease combined.
As a group, all those raising money and awareness for epilepsy seek only one thing: a way to reduce or eliminate the number of seizures for those who are afflicted with this disease. We need this to happen sooner rather than later. With the help of all whom we reach, we will achieve our goal of “Not another moment lost to seizures.”