Well another Pennock Pennock Challenge has come and gone. We had thirteen solo competitors and one relay compete this year. The weather was incredible, 80 degree air temp, water temp had to be in the low 60s over most of the course and the wind a mild 10 knots. The only problem we had was not timing the start correctly and sending all the swimmers into a 2-3 knot head current about half way down the first leg. The current added about 30 to 45 minutes to each swimmers first leg. The extra time left some of us wondering if we had packed enough food for the entire swim. We did enjoy an extremely fast second leg since rounding the corner put the current and the wind solidly behing us and made up for all the pain and suffering earlier.
Of the origonal starters we had three swimmers pull for cramps and cold and one swimmer timed out after spending 5 hours. It was nice to see that the safety craft we have in place for each race worked well, getting distressed swimmers from the water and onto a boat. Its the first time we had to pull swimmers and it went well.
After the swim the participants had time for a rest then a banquet was held and we celebrated the swim,listened to a speaker from the ADA, watched a slide show of the race and passed out the participation medals and ribbons. Its always a great time to hear stories of happenings on the course during the banquet. One swimmer actually caught a fish on the course, her method was unique. Other swimmers recounted seeing schools of salmon, small fish, gaff hooks, jelly fish and some other interesting items.
Next years Pennock Challenge is scheduled for August 7th, date may change to the 14th.
Willie Schulz
Thanks for the follow-up post! Cold water swimming is growing, slowly. The course holds a lot of interest for me. I'll look for this year's pictures on the teamada Web site.
