La Ronge woman swims marathon in Saskatchewan's deepest lake
A La Ronge chiropractor and long distance swimmer dove into northern Saskatchewan's Reindeer Lake to swim just under 11 kilometres on Tuesday afternoon.
Dionne Tatlow said she originally planned to do the swim on Wednesday morning, but instead started a day early at 2 p.m. CST because she thought it would be less windy.
Tatlow admits it didn't go according to plan as the water was choppy the entire time. Despite the conditions, she was still happy with her finish.
"I was hoping for four hours and my watch said four hours and 11 seconds so that was lovely," she said.
When deciding where to do her next swim, Tatlow said she knew she wanted to do it north of La Ronge.
"I had heard about Deep Bay and it's actually a meteor crater from millions of years ago and it's the deepest body of water in Saskatchewan. So, I thought it was kind of a good project," she said.
According to Tatlow, a thermometer on one of the boats indicated the temperature of the water at the time was about 65 F, which is just over 18 C.
She said the cold water from deeper down stung at times, but the bitter cold served as motivation.
"Every once in awhile you get a bit of a bite and you work a little harder and kick a little harder," she said.
Tatlow completed the swim without a wetsuit. She said in the marathon swimming world, technically your swim is considered assisted if a wetsuit is worn; it's the same case if you touch a boat during your swim.
Three boats followed Tatlow the whole time but by the end, there were six boats with people cheering her on.
Tatlow said when she finished, she was greeted by elders from the community who called her a polar bear.
"I love swimming and the cold was just an unexpected challenge that I truly enjoy. It's weird," she said laughing.
