Swimmers test time, limits at Lake Arthur
MUDDY CREEK TWP — More than 120 swimmers ages 7 to 70 tested their limits and lap times at the Swim to the Bridge Race on Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park on Monday evening.
The open-water swim at Porters Cove Boat Launch was a Get Fit Families event and allowed triathletes and swimmers from Western Pennsylvania to race the quarter-mile, half-mile, one-mile or "to the 422 bridge“ two-mile course.
Joella Baker, of Harmony, is organizer and founder of Get Fit Families. Her 25 volunteers served as lifeguards, timed or set up the course of orange and yellow buoys.
“This is is our 10th year,” she said. “I formed a relationship with Moraine when people were rogue swimming. They asked if I’d organize a swim every week.”
Get Fit Families was created by Baker following her diagnosis with Lupus in 2001. Its goal is for her to share her experience and help athletes achieve their goals.
Baker said some of her youth triathlon team members with Get Fit Families were hoping to improve their technique through the event.
“This is to help people doing triathlons and get people comfortable going into a race,” she said. “There’s not a lot of opportunities to swim like this. This area is secluded from boat traffic.”
She added that local folks competing in Pittsburgh events and even someone from Germany were among the competitors.
Leah Bartholomew, a 17-year-old from West Middlesex, said she was testing her half-mile time before going to a national triathlon in two weeks.
“I just started competing in triathlons. I qualified for nationals last week,” she said. “Swimming is my lesser strength, so I come here to get stronger and get the feel of nationals.”
Megan O’Brien, a 15-year old from Cranberry Township, said she was entering her second season on the Get Fit Families team.
“Doing this with most of the team feels really good,” she said. “It’s to better my open-water skills. I got my normal time (in the half-mile), 13 minutes.”
Not all participants were part of Baker’s youth team. Melanie Marien, of South Fayette Township, Allegheny County, tested her one-mile time in preparation for an ironman triathalon in North Carolina.
“My mom has stage four breast cancer, and I’m competing in the ironman to raise money for the American Cancer Society,” she said. “This was my first open-water swim, I think it was more mentally challenging than anything.”
Marien is racing as part of Team DetermiNation with the society. She said swimming is her first endurance sport, and the ironman will consist of a 1.2-mile swim.
A group of six local swimmers traveled with her to Moraine for the event.
“People from my pool have been really supportive,” she said. “This is my way of testing my body, because cancer patients don’t get to have a choice when they feel like garbage.”
As swimmers resurfaced along the Porters Cove shoreline, spectators and families shouted encouragement. Anne Urling, of Gibsonia, waited for her son, Alex, to finish his two-mile lap to the bridge.
“Alex is competing in nationals with Get Fit Families,” she said. “I think the team dynamic, to be able to go out and swim with his friends, benefits him.”
