When most of the town is still fast asleep, areaa athletes take to the lake

At 6:30 in the morning, as the sun crests the shadowed ridge line of the Mission Mountains and the glow of soft morning light radiates into its first fierce beam, a hardy group of swimmers from the Polson area is already lined up along the KwaTaqNuk docks.

Dressed in black neoprene wet suits and colorful rubber caps, these dedicated few, whose alarm clocks regularly beep before sunrise, know that there is no better time to be out and about. The air is cool, and Flathead Lake is surprisingly warm, at least by August it is.

Matt Seeley, of Polson, started swimming in Flathead Lake 13 years ago as a part of his Ironman training regimen.

A few years ago, he made his workouts official, inviting other area triathletes who wanted to improve their strength and skill in the swimming leg of the race, which Seeley said is often a challenge for runners and cyclists turned triathlete.

Now, the group’s members have expanded to include recreationalists of all ages and meets Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings when there is less boat traffic and typically calmer waters.

Before joining the group swims, Polson resident Deanna McElwee said she had never been swimming in open water, except from the boat to the dock, of course.

“Swimming in the lake can cause a little more anxiety, but I don’t feel anxious anymore,” McElwee, who has been swimming in the mornings for the past four summers, said.

Along with Seeley’s instruction, it took a little courage and a lot of concentration for McElwee to master the open water techniques of sighting (swimming straight) and adjusting her breathing and strokes to match the undulating waves.

“That was hard for me,” she said. “It can be scary, but knowing that other people are there with me and because I’ve done it enough times, now I just feel very relaxed when I’m out there.”

Last Tuesday morning, when the waves were so high they crashed over the docks McElwee said if it weren’t for the other swimmers, she would have driven home. Nerves on the dock turned into smiles in the water.

“That was so much fun,” she said. “I loved it.”

While there is a core group of three or four, including Seeley and McElwee, who swim three times a week all through the summer, participation is on the rise as of late, thanks in part to the Mission Valley Aquatic Polson Bay’s Water Daze, a one-mile swim event slated for Saturday at Boettcher Park.

Laurie Gregory traveled all the way from her house in Big Arm to swim with the group last Thursday morning. Raised in Polson, Gregory said that while she grew up on the lake, she never really open water swam, per se.

“I grew up in Polson and we just didn’t do it,” she said. “As I’ve gotten older, swimming is the exercise I can continue to do day-in and day-out because it doesn’t wreak havoc on the body like other things. I wish I would have started this kind of swimming when I was younger.”

Now that she lives in Missoula for the winter, Gregory sees the value of a year-round community swimming facility in the area.

“I think it would be a huge benefit,” she said of MVA’s mission to build a community pool in the Mission Valley. “People probably don’t realize that our time to be in the lake is so limited. We swim in the lake June, July and August.”

McElwee agrees.

“If more people would support it, we could have this fun group and also provide the opportunity for more people to swim year round,” she said. “I hope that more people in our community will start to support MVA and donate money because every little bit helps.”