Finger Lakes Open Water Swim Festival
Aboutthe swim
The Finger Lakes Open Water Swim Festival is a new event in the beautiful mountains and famous lakes, of up-state New York. The race is near the quaint town of Watkins Glen, and is surrounded by majestic pine forests, spectacular waterfalls and lots of wineries and micro-breweries in immediate area too. Which always a nice stop after the raceā¦ and makes it a little easier to sell the gang on taking a fun weekend road trip.
The cool thing about this race is that it raises money to support the Nazareth College Swimming and Diving Team in Rochester, NY. Swimmers supporting swimmers. Nice to see.
The actual race is held in the crystal clear water of Seneca Lake, in the Watkins Glen State Park and just outside this beautiful little town only a few minutes from Ithaca, NY too.
The Festival is set over 2 days with the long race on the first day, a challenging 10.5 mile/17 km race. Then on the Sunday there are: 2 mile, 1 mile & 1/2 mile distances (3.2k, 1.6k & 800m).
With the strategic location of the race, you can expect to see a lot of local triathletes, because of the strong triathlon culture in the area given the classic Lake Placid Ironman is only about 5 hours away. The race will also draw triathletes and swimmers from Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse, not to mention the strong contingent of Canadians that are likely to make the short trip south too.
So mark this one on your calendar for a great weekend swimming get-away.