BONNYVILLE – Bonnyville Swimming Pool is introducing a fun Iron Horse Trail swimming challenge open to all participants. Collectively, the group challenge is for participants to swim a total of 271 kilometers, which is the length of the Iron Horse Trail. The trail in the Lakeland region is one of the world’s longest networks of recreational trails.
“The purpose is trying to get more swimmers to challenge themselves; they really enjoy doing it,” says Lori Sachko, intermediate lifeguard at the pool. “I have this map up at the pool, and every week I'm going to put a pin up to count everybody's length, how many meters we've done, and see how far we can all make it on the Iron Horse Trail.”
The map starts in Waskatenau and branches off into Cold Lake and Heinsburg.
“It’s a competition against myself to challenge me to do more lengths each time I come,” says participant Nicky LeDrew.
The pool has done swimming challenges in the past, but this year the challenge is both collective and individual. Individually, whenever someone completes 200 lengths of the pool, they can put their name in a draw with a chance to win a one-year membership for the pool.
For instance, if someone were to swim 40 lengths (25 metres) per day for five days, they would achieve 200 lengths.
However, the lengths will also be counted collectively as part of a larger group to reach the 271-kilometer goal, the length of the Iron Horse Trail, equaling 10, 840 lengths of the pool.
The challenge runs from Jan. 21 to April 30.
