Huntington Masters Swim Team: 5K / 10K In The Bay: July 11, 2010

Huntington Masters Swim Team

The Huntington Masters Swim Team ("HUMS"), an official club of US Masters Swimming, holds daily early-morning pool workouts year-round at the Huntington YMCA, 60 Main Street, Huntington (contact the Y at 631-421-4242 for Full Y membership fee information).

Indoor Pool Workouts in one of the Y’s two 25-yard pools begin at 5:30 a.m. weekdays and 7:00 a.m. weekends and last one to two hours. These workouts are open to all Full Y members.

Open-Water Swims are held from May to November at West Neck Beach and other local Long Island beaches. Outdoor swim schedules are posted on The Water-Blog.

Want to swim for the Home Team? You can! Join HUMS at clubassistant.com.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

5K / 10K In The Bay: July 11, 2010

Sunday, July 11, 2010 dawned bright and clear -- near perfect race conditions for the annual 5K In The Bay, Huntington Bay, New York. Of course, it's easy for me to say "perfect race conditions" since I wasn't swimming so we'll really have to wait to hear the judgement of those who were ACTUALLY swimming either the 5K or the 10K -- or one of the age group races that were swum between the docks of the Huntington Bay Club and the Nathan Hale Beach dock (where I was taking these first pictures -- we await photos from Bob who was on the Western-most turn boat, closer to Huntington Harbor and the Lighthouse). Perhaps I should just say that viewing conditions were perfect! The crowd above seems to agree.

These are some pictures from the age-group races... and by the way these kids were swimming, I don't think that it will be to long before they "age-up" to the 5K!

You should be able to "click" on any individual picture to make it bigger -- though don't expect to be able to pick yourself out in the crowd if you were at the Bay Club -- that was about 1,000 meters from where I was taking these pictures!

We're safe -- just as long as one swimmer is looking!

Of course, the folks in the kayaks were the ones who were really keeping everybody safe! It would be hard to have a race without them.

In the shot above, you can just about make out the Kayaks -- good luck spotting the people with them swimming the 5K or 10K -- they were really out in Huntington Bay!

The turn-around point for the age-group races at Nathan Hale Beach dock came with LOTS of encouragement to the swimmers. The swim back always seems shorter -- at least it does if the tide and currents are cooperating!

In the picture above, you can see Bob Miller manning the western-most boat -- the turn boat to start the swim home. Can't see Bob? The picture below is as close as I could get... that is Coach Bob isn't it? If not, then somebody stole his orange turn buoy and hoisted up his mast like the Jolly Roger! Pirates in Huntington Bay -- who would believe it!