Swimming & Kayaking in Richards Lake
“Will you be home this weekend?” asked my friend Kiri. “I want to swim in your lake.”
Kiri, it turned out, was going to do her first triathlon ever, which was going to include a swim of 800 meters. Having never swum in a wetsuit before, Kiri wanted some practice before sink-or-swim time. So she rented a wetsuit from a local outfitter, and then came over with Dan.
I swam with Kiri for half-a-mile in Richards Lake while Dan rowed along in my kayak. After that distance I had to walk back to my house in time for French Book club, but truth be told, I’m not sure I would have wanted to swim more than half-a-mile anyhow, being way out of practice. In fact for the first one or two eigth-of-a-mile width of the lake, I was very uncomfortable with my breathing. The third and fourth lengths I felt much better.
Kiri continued on, swimming a mile in total. The practice was great for her because for the first few laps, she was darting all over the place until she got her sighting down.
In any case, it was great exercise and—despite my inherent weakness in triathlon’s first discipline—even quite fun. The water, being mid-June, was a perfect temperature for swimming even without a wetsuit (warmer than my community pool somehow), and as usual seemed pretty clean.
So I am glad Kiri got me out into the open water. I really should do this more often.
