By Hayleigh Gowans
Staff Writer
Ever since she was a little girl playing in the water while visiting her grandparents in Skaneateles, Keone Weigl has had a dream to someday swim the 16-mile length of the lake.
On Sept. 22, she made this dream a reality.
“It was on my bucket list,” said Weigl, of Manlius. “I’ve been involved in endurance swimming for a few years doing various races in the area. Skaneateles has been my dream lake and I’ve been going there since I was a kid.”
Weigl swam the entire 16-mile length of Skaneateles Lake in 8 hours and 17 minutes. Previously, her longest open-water swim was a 9.11 mile swim in New Jersey to honor victims of the 9/11 attacks earlier in September.
After a swim at Lake George was cancelled, Weigl said she started contemplating actually going out and swimming the length of Skaneateles Lake. Weigl texted her friend and fellow endurance swimmer Bridgette Hobart Janeczko, a woman who last year completed a goal of swimming all nine of the swimmable Finger Lakes within a year, to ask if she thought Weigl could do it, and she gave positive feedback.
“We checked the weather and picked the day. I decided it was best to take it one mile at a time, and it didn’t really hit me that I was actually doing it until I was about a mile in,” said Weigl, who wore only a bathing suit, swim cap and goggles on that day.
Usually when Weigl is on a marathon swim, her husband Steve Weigl kayaks next to her and serves as her teammate, but on this swim, Steve got the opportunity to borrow a boat from a friend and kept close to Weigl while she swam.
“I have music playing and try and enjoy the scenery but I keep an eye on Keone, keep track of the time and distance, watch out for other boats or obstacles in the water, serve up Keone’s feeds and lead her on the course of the day,” said Steve. “I’m just as amazed at what she does as everyone else.”
“It’s never a solo swim, you couldn’t do it without support. He’s my teammate and I couldn’t have done it without him,” said Weigl.
When it comes to obstacles to overcome during a long distance swim like this, Weigl said an obvious one is the pain, but it’s something you have to acknowledge and move on from. Another is that your senses are limited in the water, so having a guide is essential to complete an open-water swim this long.
Once she was finished, Weigl said it took a moment for the reality to set in that she had just completed the 16- mile swim. She also said her appetite was huge and she celebrated by having a burger from Johnny Angels.
“I felt amazing; it took a little bit to sink in. I did have a bit of emotion,” said Weigl. “I’ve been thinking about it for so long. Steve and I were like, ‘Did that really happen?’”
Growing up, Weigl said she got into swimming at an early age by participating in the Syracuse Chargers swim club, and then swam for her high school and college teams. As she moved into the professional world and raised kids, Weigl said she was not able to be as involved in swimming with her busy schedule. Now that her children were older, Weigl decided about three years ago to get back into the sport and was encouraged by an old friend she made who was involved with the Syracuse Chargers to try out endurance swimming.
For the future, Weigl said she is planning what her next swim will be, and that she has many ideas in the works.
“It just goes to show you that you can achieve your dreams at any age,” said Weigl. “By doing this, I learn more and more about myself. I love it. I really, really love it.”
