Ideal conditions produced fast times, and everybody finished.  That's the story of the 2005 Boston Light Swim. Overall and women's winner is Dori Miller (left), 34, of Somerville, MA in a time of 3:04.  Following Dori were Roberta Bernet (center), 39, of Wadenswil, Switzerland in 3:11and men's winner Doug Belkin (right), 37, of Swampscott, MA in 3:17.  The water was warm (65 deg F at the start), and the wind was light.  The only major waves were those produced by boats.  The race started on time, and all swimmers were aided by a good current, even near the end of the race.  Following the top three finishers came Dave Weisfeldt (3:22) and the father/daughter relay team of Fred/ Celia Knight (3:26).  Then, within 11 minutes, 5 people finished: Jen Dutton of Framingham (3:41), Kate Matwychuk of Groton  (3:44), Bill Wilson of Butler, PA (3:46), Mike Stanton of San Diego (3:49), and Mutlu Ozdogan (3:52).  All of these were under 4 hours, which indicates the good swimming conditions.  The final finisher was 67-year-old Bob McCormack (shown at the finish), by far the oldest competitor in recent history to finish the race and believed to be the oldest Light finisher in history!  Way to go, Bob!

Next year's event will be on Saturday, 12 Aug 2006 starting at 8:45 am.  Watch the www.bostonlightswim.org for more information.

Celia and I wanted to swim as a father/daughter team.  In two previous races, Celia had swum part of the course with me.  Only the cold water had kept her from doing a solo swim.  We had trained together in Squam Lake and decided to enter as a relay.   See a movie of our swim and read the commentary below.

Pre-race
By 6:30 am, Celia, my wife Ann, and I had arrived and began greeting other swimmers.  I found our boat captain, the reliable Patrick DeBoever, and passed out maps, reminding swimmers to look back as they motor out (more on that later).  By 6:45, it appeared that almost everybody was getting ready to leave.  We took less than 30 minutes to get to the starting line.  The preliminary horn went off at 7:25 and the double-blast start at 7:30.

Race
I jumped in to find the water brisk but bearable, and the waves were sooo small.  I was hoping for a quick run to George's Island, but I got there a few minutes later than last year.  I kept going until 1:03 as we approached Rainsford Island.  While Celia started stroking, I managed (just) to get into the boat.  Celia went well as we approached the bridge, jockeying for position with Dave Weisfeldt, who seemed to be taking an erratic course, but he kept in front of us.  Passing the bridge, Celia was going fine.  I took over at 2:06, refreshed from the break and nourishment.  In contrast to last year, the crossing to George's Island took only 35 minutes, similar to Bill Ireland's crossing last year but much faster than my 58 minutes.  In addition there was no cross current pushing me into George's Island as there was last year.  I felt strong and had passed Dave Weisfeldt.  At about 3 hours, Celia came back in, but I wanted to go to the finish, so we swam together toward what I thought was the finish line. 

Finish
About 3:15, Ann shouted from the boat that we weren't heading the the finish banner.  I scoffed because I thought I was heading for the bright squash courts, the usual finish.  She convinced us to alter course.  As we found out after reaching shore, John has been forced to move the finish lline outside the bathhouse.  We finished together, after Dave Weisfeldt because he had steered a better course.  We celebrated prematurely in the water, as John was taking time when we reached shore.  See that butterfly at the end!We got out and smiled.   Great fun.