Castle 2.5/5/10k Swim Recap

To start this recap off, I was did not take part in the swim as a participant or volunteer; Sam and I flew out for 2 days to hustle ducks at the Saturday Castle 2.5/5/10k swim. Event info: https://mountainswimseries.com/events/castle-10k.

In the past few weeks, Sam and I have had the privilege to vend and witness several other events (I owe the blog some writeups of those), as well as crew for Boston Light Swim. This event intrigued me for a few reasons:

1) It's the highest elevation swim in the USA

2) It's gorgeous - Wellington Lake is stunning

3) The race runs 3 distances concurrently, with the longest swim (10k) being a marathon distance

Sam and I flew in on Friday morning, grabbed our rental car, and drove out to Wellington Lake in Bailey, Colorado. I was warned it could take up to 3-4 hours, but it took about 2 hours. Google Maps warned me there was going to be unpaved roads once we got off the highway, and although a few spots had some deeper ruts, it was mostly flat gravel, and pretty accessible to most vehicles. The location was pretty remote, and the event's campground had no running water, so we had to purchase a few gallons on our way in. (This was a big lesson for me - always research whether there's running water at the venue! I had confirmed there was a fire ban, but not about the running water.)

Because of the potential 3-4 hour commute, we opted to camp on-site through the event. The race organizers reserved a group campsite and we, as well as about 35 other participants and volunteer overnighted at the rustic campground. Sam and I set up camp and then headed down to the lake (about a 15 min walk) for a short swim. Growing up in Indiana, then living in Boston and Portland, I've never lived at any elevation, so I felt like I was breathing through a straw on our walk down. We brought our Quackpackers, Caviar and Mango, and opted to do a point-to-point swim to explore the beach the event would start from the next morning. As we were getting in, dark clouds rolled over the lake, and we started hearing thunder, so we swam a little faster to the exit point. We did grab some funny footage of Sam pulling a train of Quackpackers to showcase how you could truly bring everything you need to swimpack with you, but you can see how dark it was getting in the video:

Once we saw lightning, we hauled our butts out of the water and headed back to camp. The rain started on our walk and didn't let up until early the following morning. We opted to eat our dinner of PB&J sandwiches and tuck in early, listening to a book in our tent while it rained and thundered around us.

I've previously camped before a swim event once in my life, and I had hoped this time would be a little easier or more restful. Unfortunately, we had brought our tiny backpacking tent and as little equipment as possible (I even forgot my pillow and had to use a stuffed drybag), so the sleeping wasn't as comfortable as I needed to get a good night's sleep. I also kept waking up a little wet, and realized the copious downpour was resulting in water pooling under my side of the tent. I called it quits on sleeping in my puddle before anyone else was awake at camp, and sat in the rental car, trying to dry off. At around 4 AM, the rain stopped and the sky cleared long enough for me to see so many stars! The stars redeemed the wet trip so far, and I started getting ready to set up our vending station.

We dropped off our suitcases (yep, we were duck hustling out of suitcases) at the beach and helped a race organizer, Larry, get his small boat onto the water so he could swap the overnight buoys for the larger directional race buoys. We saw their finish area had bartending rubber mats, which were heavy enough to sink, helping make the exit from the water a little less sharp. Sam and I are planning to investigate those for the Portland Bridge Swim.

Participants had to park at the campsite (regardless of whether they were camping for the event) and walk down to the beach. Check-in started around 7 AM, with the 3 distances having different color caps (pink = 2.5k, yellow = 5k, blue = 10k). All swimmers had to declare whether they'd be swimming with or without a wetsuit, and their body marking had to match with their attire (non-wetsuits had to mark their upper arms, and wetsuits had to mark their hands with their swimmer numbers).

As folks were checking in, the safety meeting took place, which I stealthily listened in on to see what improvements I could suggest for Portland Bridge Swim.

One point that I hadn't considered was notifying the volunteers that there were two hearing-impaired swimmers participating and detailing their swimmer numbers and which distance they were signed up for. Because the day was overcast, there was a risk of inclement weather, so Larry wanted to make sure all of the paddlers understood they may need to use a different method to communicate with those 2 swimmers to clear the lake. This made me wonder if it makes sense to have hearing-impaired swimmers visually identifiable to ensure other swimmers and volunteers understand they're not being ignored if that person doesn't immediately respond to them.

This swim was a 2.5k loop, so all of the swimmers would start together and complete either 1, 2, or 4 laps of the course. Swimmers were not accompanied by a support kayaker, so they left their feeds on a floating platform just off shore at the beach and could stop for a feed at their discretion. This system required each swimmer leaving a feed on the platform to add red tape with their swimmer number onto each bottle or baggie, and take their feed to the platform before the race start.

Swimmers were a little nervous about the water temp, as it had fallen from 68 the previous day to about 64 that morning due to the rain, and it was overcast and a little chilly out of the water. Everyone stayed bundled up until the swimmer pre-race meeting, were the organizer provided a description of the course, instructions for inclement weather/other emergencies, and instructions about the feeding platform. He also explained where safety paddlers would be stationed between buoys, as well as the second emergency exit point on the far side of the course. He did give all swimmers a heads up about the two hearing-impaired participants and encouraged everyone to help communicate with them if there was a need to clear the course due to weather.

Although the race started a little late, the cut off times were adjusted to give the 10k swimmers as much time as possible to finish. There were a few swimmers who ended their swims early, but the majority of swimmers completed their intended distance. A few swimmers opted to use the warming tent, which was staffed by a pair of first responders, and there were a handful of first aid needs (rocks + toes = finish line injuries), which were also managed by the EMS staff at the warming tent. They had a propane-fueled heating system set up inside the warming tent, which I may take back for any cold-water/weather races I help organize in the future. I have a small solar generator that I can plug a heater into, and that seems like a more effective approach than just having towels or blankets.

The feeding station setup allowed spectators to cheer on the swimmers, which really boosted morale. Once swimmers finished, they came up to the food station, which had plenty of salty and sweet snacks, as well as Gatorade and some warm beverage options.

The last swimmer finished in a little over 4 hours, and the organizers held awards for the top wetsuit and non-wetsuit finishers in all 3 races. The awards were really cool horseshoes and some other items, like paddles and goggles. Afterwards, most participants had already hiked back to the campground, so we packed up our table and headed back to breakdown our wet tent and get ready to drive back to the airport.

We had a great time at the event, and although our tent and sleeping bags are still drying out, we learned a lot seeing how a very remote marathon swim was run. If you're looking for a relaxed and picturesque swims, I highly recommend looking into the Mountain Swim Series events: https://www.movemint.cc/series/moutain_swim_series_2025.