8/3/2019 – Sandpoint, Long Bridge Swim

We woke up very early on Saturday morning because it was the day of the swim. We were very excited and wanted to be ready for the swim. We got up and ate early and then pretty much paced around the house waiting until it was 8 AM and we had to meet Eric at the high school for the safety meeting.  We met him outside of the high school and waited for the safety talk. Eric was the founder and first swimmer of the Long Bridge swim and it’s in existence really because of him. At the safety meeting the new director Jim (we had other names for him that we won’t list here) made sure to talk about his family and his kids in the pre-race meeting but on the 25th anniversary of the start of the swim never mentioned Eric the founder. 

Well that was all that Conrad needed to have the adrenaline to finish the race. 

After the safety meeting we boarded school busses to get to the start of the race. We could choose to either start in the water or on land and have our start time recorded when we crossed the timing mat. Eric started in the water and Conrad and I started on land. We headed off on the swim with Chris and Linda watching from the bridge after Cindy dropped them off. 

The water was a bit choppy but Eric and Conrad in their wetsuits and me in my regular swimsuit managed to finish. Eric finished first in 55 minutes. Conrad finished in 1 Hour and 5 minutes and I finished in 1 hour and 9 minutes. We finished on Dog beach 

Here’s the link to the race website – this was totally conceived and started by Eric Ridgway – so cool 

Www.longbridgeswim.org

Conrad and I on the finish line

Me crossing the finish line

All of us at the finish line

Eric crossing the finish line

After the swim was over Eric was his usual social butterfly self and stayed to talk with everyone and make sure that they all had a good time. We checked our results and then headed back to the house. 

Conrad finished at 1:05:01 averaging 1.6 MPH, 288 of 511 swimmers, 17 of 27 men 55-59 and 148 of 238 of all Males

Shawn finished at 1:09:46 averaging 1.5 MPH 350 of 511 swimmers, 20 of 29 females 55-59, and 179 of 273 females. 

We will just say that Eric kicked our butts at 55 minutes after really not training at all. 

After we headed back to the house and got cleaned up and took a bit of a rest we headed out to Beyond Hope campground where we were having dinner at Art’s restaurant (Cindy’s son) the food was absolutely amazing and we had so much fun seeing Art who is all grown up. We had so much fun. 

An overlook along the way

Bald heads of the Ridgway Men

After having dinner at Art’s restaurant