Endurance swimmer to take on Lake Tahoe
By Lou Fancher, Contra Costa Times
To kick off his Labor Day weekend, Lafayette’s Jamie Patrick is taking a 360-degree spin around Lake Tahoe, in Lake Tahoe.
Last year, the 41-year-old athlete swept down the Sacramento River on a 111-mile swimming trek. The year before, it was back-and-forth-and-back across Tahoe. And recently, he swam from Spain to Africa, then came home to spend 12-hour overnights, training in Lafayette’s Springbrook pool.
You could call him fond of water.
Which is why he’s pairing up with the Sierra Club’s Water Sentinel Program.
“In the previous swims, I raised money for Buena Vista, a local literacy program,” Patrick said. “For this swim, I wanted to do something for water. It’s so right up my alley; they help people get out, enjoy water, and want to take care of it.”
A graduate of Miramonte High School and an All-American swimmer while at the University of Hawaii, Patrick has an athletic resume as long as his wingspan.
“I do these things to go beyond what I’ve done before,” he says, shrugging off more complicated reasoning.
He and his 15-person crew have already raised $2,000 in four days since the campaign began. One hundred percent of the donations will go to the Sierra Club.
To make it easy to support his cause, he’s partnered with Metabender, an athletic tracking company, to develop a portal through which people can follow his swim in real time GPS, with stats, crew updates, videos and a comment option.
