Liz Fry’s Great (Lake) Swim

They don’t call them the Great Lakes for nothing. They’re big.

But Liz Fry is a great long distance swimmer. Earlier this month, the longtime Westporter became one of the few people in history — and the 2nd-oldest — to swim solo across Lake Ontario.

She wore just a swimsuit and goggles. She started at midnight, and finished 15 hours and 46 minutes later.

But the 32.1-mile swim from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Toronto was just one more walk in the park for Fry. She has already completed the “Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming”: the English Channel, California’s Catalina Channel and circumnavigating Manhattan Island.

Twice.

Liz Fry, moments after completing her Lake Ontario swim.

On her Lake Ontario conquest, her coaches — riding in a boat in front of her — fueled her with water bottles and cookies.

She told the Canadian Press, “My only sense of feeling comes in the form of cookies. At some point I need something crunchy because you’re basically on fluids the whole time. I really just zone out and enjoy my environment.”

Fry — who in her other life is a financial services consultant — trained for the event in a pool and Long Island Sound. She said the swim was one of her hardest. She also called it “fun and challenging and cold and bumpy and all those things.”

I call it “great.”

(Hat tip: Debbie Masso)