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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Bagpipes greet pair after 31-km swim
Greeted by bagpipes and more than four hours ahead of schedule, two Winnipeg men waded ashore Saturday after swimming 31 kilometres across Lake Winnipeg.
"We had the weather gods on our side," said an exhausted but happy Jacques Marcoux, 27. He and fellow swimmer Patrick Peacock left Victoria Beach before sunrise at 5:45 a.m. and arrived in Gimli by late afternoon. They had expected it might take them closer to 15 hours to cross the big lake. But, with sunny skies and a slight tailwind they were able to keep a three-kilometre-an-hour pace. Their feat, which hasn't been accomplished for 30 years, had a dramatic ending.
"As we arrived at the shoreline, we could see a group of people standing there," dressed immaculately, said Marcoux.
"We thought the white was for us -- it was a wedding," he said. "They had a bagpiper there. My father-in-law grabbed the bagpiper from the wedding to play for us."
In addition to the wedding reception, they were greeted with a hero's welcome.
"We had champagne and about 50 people or so."
It wasn't all warm and fuzzy crossing the lake, though.
"I had blue lips on the way out," said Marcoux.
Peacock stayed warm with a wetsuit but suffered a wicked rash as a result.
"It's designed to be worn for half an hour, not nearly 11 hours in the hot sun," Marcoux said.
Peacock, 37, was otherwise fine after applying some antiseptic gel to his shredded armpits, Marcoux said.
Marcoux suffered his own personal challenge. He's allergic to algae and, sure enough, swam into it about 10 kilometres from Gimli, he said.
"We hit a spot where for two miles (three kilometres) it was starting to get almost soupy. It didn't last too long," he said. "I stopped to sneeze once."
When they made it ashore, Marcoux said, his legs were wobbly and he was a little delusional from heat stroke.
Marcoux was glad to have the swim across Lake Winnipeg under his belt. He said he and Peacock are grateful to their crew in the Zodiac that accompanied them, making sure they were safe and providing them with water and power gels to keep them going.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 14, 2011 A7
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