Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott, Chronicle Staff Writer
Colby Jones Brown, 39, a Lake George mother of two and relief veterinarian at Glens Falls Animal Hospital, Moreau Animal Hospital, and Hometown Mobile Veterinary Practice, became the 15th person ever to swim the length of Lake George over Labor Day weekend.
“It was an unbelievable experience,” she told The Chronicle. “I still don’t really believe that I did it.”
Mrs. Jones Brown did the swim “unassisted,” meaning she was in the water the whole time without any flotation device.
The 2003 Lake George High School grad said she moved to Elizabeth Island on Lake George from her birthplace of Cornwall, Ontario, when she was 12.
She did not swim competitively in high school or college, but her mom Peggy Jones inspired in her a love of open-water swimming from a young age.
“That’s what I always looked forward to — being able to swim around [Elizabeth Island] like my mom,” Mrs. Jones Brown recalls. “I grew up loving Lake George just by swimming around our island. I just love swimming in the lake.”
A few years back, she set a goal of swimming around all of Lake George’s islands with her mom.
But swimming the entire length of Lake George in one go? “I really did not think that was something I would ever do,” she says, noting that the longest swim she had done was a 2.5-mile trip around Lake George’s Long Island.
Then a friend suggested she watch the Disney film “Young Woman and the Sea” about Gertrude Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel.
“After seeing this young woman in the early 1920s overcome so many things to swim the English Channel, I became super inspired,” she said. “I was like, if this lady can swim 21 miles in water that’s 50 degrees, with jellyfish and currents and that sort of thing, I’m feeling like the length of Lake George doesn’t seem as big of a feat as I thought it would be.”
Mrs. Jones Brown started training at the end of last fall. She joined the Master Swim Club at Glens Falls YMCA.
When the weather got nice, she alternated between pool and lake training.
“I planned out one long swim each month, and then just tried to do a fair amount of mileage each week to build up to 32 miles,” she says.
As to the date of the swim, “we picked the first weekend of September because it was the full moon, and it would be after Labor Day, so not a lot of boat traffic.”
Mrs. Jones Brown decided to start at Diane’s Rock and swim south. Diane’s Rock is named for Diane Struble, the first person to swim the length of Lake George. It’s where she started her swim in 1958.
“Everybody who has done the swim since Diane either starts or ends at that rock. I really wanted to go in the same direction as her.”
Mrs. Jones Brown chose to start her swim at 4 p.m. on Labor Day.
“You get to start in the daylight, and then you’re swimming overnight, which usually means calmer waters and very little boat traffic,” she explained.
Two boats guided her — a kayak and a rented pontoon boat from Chic’s Marina.
The crew was YMCA Coach Dennie Wilson, Mrs. Jones Brown’s husband Jeff Brown, her mom Peggy, and her friends Bida Clark-Bouchard and Amy Alfonso.
They gathered at Elizabeth Island and boated to Diane’s Rock.
Then Mrs. Jones Brown took off swimming, treading water now and then to eat food given to her from crew members.
“I tried to eat every 30-45 minutes,” she said. She ate ‘energy goo’ packets, raspberries, mashed potatoes sucked out of a baby pouch, and electrolyte pills. For water, she sipped from the lake as she swam.
“It’s hard to beat Lake George,” Mrs. Jones Brown said. “The water’s just so clean and so beautiful.”
Adversity came around the five-mile mark, when she vomited a couple of times.
“After that I couldn’t really eat anything besides white bread,” she said.
Seven miles in, she says, “I thought to myself, I don’t know why anybody does this. This is just crazy. This is just miserable, I don’t know what I’m doing here. This just doesn’t make any sense.”
She verbalized the feelings to her mom, who offered words of encouragement.
“My mom was like, you knew you were going to have some lows, it’s going to be ok, just keep swimming,” she recalls.
After that, she said she “did a lot of repeating mantras in my head to kind of keep me calm and keep me going” and kept reminding herself “nothing’s permanent, this is all temporary.”
Close to Elizabeth Island, at the 25-mile mark, she got really cold and started shivering. “I was really afraid that was the end, because it was hard to move and I was so cold and I was afraid of getting hypothermia,” she said.
In that moment of desperation, Coach Wilson gave her some simple advice —swim a little faster to warm up.
“Then finally the sun came up too, which was a big help. From then on I just swam, and I just didn’t look back.”
She finished at 11:24 a.m. on Sept. 2, greeted on the docks by family, friends, coworkers and celebratory sirens and lights from local law enforcement.
“I figured if I had a really good day, I could probably finish it in about 20 hours if all went well, and I was able to do under that. So I’m really happy with my time.”
Of the 15 people to swim the length of Lake George, the fastest time ever recorded was 17:07:58 in 2021 by Elizabeth Almond, 48, according to marathonswimmers.org’s database.
“I give a lot of credit and am amazed by all those who completed and even attempted the swim before me,” Mrs. Jones Brown said. “I can truly understand now the types of challenges they may have faced, and I am so honored to be able to say I’ve shared that experience.”
Mrs. Jones Brown noted her swim has to be officially ratified, a process that she hopes will wrap up by the end of the year.
She says her full swim of Lake George is “a one and done,” but she plans to continue open-water swimming and wants to complete her goal of swimming around all the islands of Lake George with her mom.
“I’ve recovered pretty well, surprisingly, so I guess my training was enough,” said Mrs. Jones Brown. “It was a great experience, and I’m so grateful for everyone who helped me along the way, especially my crew members for being up all night and doing everything they can to make it a successful swim.”
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