Break Wall Swim and Breakfast

Every Tuesday morning, the Cleveland Metroparks offers a class at Fairport Harbor called the Break Wall Swim and Breakfast. It is awesome because it gives swimmers an opportunity to do something they normally cannot do. That is swim to the break wall at Fairport Harbor and back. It is about ½ mile in each direction. Normally this area is inundated with boats and wave runners. I have done it twice so far this year. The third time I didn’t go because it was pouring down rain.

Anyway, last year it took me all season to build up to swimming ½ mile (one way). I’d kayak out with another kayaker, hop out and swim back. Most of the time I’d swim as far as I could then one of the lifeguards on a wave runner would bring me back in the rest of the way. This was no big deal because I never had to swim more than 750m in a triathlon last year. I was good with my endurance at the time. But as I said, the last swim of the year I made it the full ½ mile. It took me nearly ½ hour.

This past winter I worked on my speed and endurance in the pool. The first time out on July 6th this year I did the same thing. I kayaked out and swam back. However, I made it the full distance without exhausting myself. I’m still slow but I managed to pick up my pace and did it in about 25 min. My second time out I managed to take off another minute. The next time out I plan on working on swimming the full distance. The only problem is the swimmers swim out to the wall, break as they wait on the slow swimmers then swim back to shore. I’m so slow I worry about holding up the process. I will do my best though.

After everyone is done swimming, one of the awesome ladies who swims makes everyone breakfast – and I’m not talking just cereal and milk. I mean a full blown breakfast. There is always some sort of eggs, some sort of carb (pancakes, French toast), bacon or sausage, coffee, OJ, tea, fruit, breakfast breads, etc. It is amazing and a lot of fun. I t only costs $5 for the entire 8 week series. An unbelievable bargain!