Experience the intense dedication of the Take the Lake organizing committee with the just-released min-doc on the “Redneck Endless Pool,” with sincere apologies to the makers of the beautiful, real Endless Pool.

Mark Gilchrist demonstrates how you can train for the 4-mile Take the Lake Personal Endurance Swim Challenge without having to worry about getting lost or hit by Jet Skis. It’s an eye-opening video due to Mark’s glaring farmer’s tan, but mercifully, it’s also short. Please leave a comment with your favorite training method!

Click here to view the video.

The CREW token

New in 2010, the CREW token! It all started decades ago, when organizers of the Labor Day Swim awarded successful swimmers with certificates and then gold coins (donated by Colliers Jewelers.) In 2009, Take the Lake organizers expanded that tradition by awarding successful walkers, cyclists and paddlers with colorful custom-made J.A.M.A. tokens. The John A. McNeill Award is donated by the McNeill family, long supporters of the Labor Day Swim and of the fitness and health of Columbus County residents.

The CREW token is very much like the J.A.M.A., except for the word “CREW” on the front in place of the Personal Endurance Challenge name, and the back side is blank – good for writing a small inscription of thanks.

A limited number of CREW tokens will be available for a small donation during Take the Lake, so you can get several and give them to all your friends and family who supported and inspired you during your training and completion of your Take the Lake Personal Endurance Challenges.

Kasey Barker holds the Mile 15 sign that will be placed at the finish line of the Take the Lake Walk / Run and Bike & Hike.

Very soon, walkers, cyclists and paddlers around Lake Waccamaw will have a better idea of the distances of their exercise routines when crews install permanent mile markers on the roads and no-wake poles around the lake.

Produced by Take the Lake and paid for with a grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, through Healthy Carolinians, the signs will help the hundreds of participants walking, cycling and paddling around the lake every Labor Day weekend, but their duty won’t stop there.

Most of the 15 markers will be up year-round to help people maintain their exercise routines. Ten markers will be on public roads, measuring the miles from the start line at the Lake Waccamaw State Park visitors center, around the lake to Waccamaw Shores. These signs will be TarHeel blue and white.

Accuracy of the markers is expected to be within one foot every half mile, thanks to N.C. Department of Transportation employee Terry Church, who surveyed the route and measured each mile outside the park.

Markers inside the park will be state park brown and white, and ones on the hiking trails will be permanent. Park rangers will temporarily install signs on the paved park roads each year during Take the Lake.

A corresponding set of (14) markers will be installed on no-wake poles on the lake. They will match the road markers as close as possible, given the placement of the poles and the fact that the water route is one mile shorter than the land route.

Lake Waccamaw town employees will install road markers outside the park and Take the Lake volunteers will install ones on the lake.

In addition to aiding boaters in navigating the lake, it is expected that the mile markers may be helpful in water emergencies. Boaters in distress may be better able to provide their location after siting a mile marker, either one near them or one they had recently passed. Also, with the water and land miles matching, rescuers may be better able to coordinate operations.

TTL committee member Eric Brandt came up with a great idea. The week before the 2009 Take the Lake, we printed and hung “door hanger” flyers on every door around the lake. Their job was to alert the residents that we were coming and to ask their help (and forgiveness!) Well, the response was terrific, but some people said they wished we had done it earlier to give them more time to prepare or train for Take the Lake.

So, Eric suggested we hang another set of flyers for the July 4 weekend, and we did, and everyone we talked to is psyched about Take the Lake, and we still have two months to train! Thanks to Patty Lyerly for sponsoring this item, and we printed a few extra thousand so we’ll have plenty to pass around.

By MARK GILCHRIST
Chief Photographer

Along with the four Personal Event Challenges of Take the Lake this year, we’re introducing a fifth event, the party.

We were thrilled last year with the hospitable response from Lake residents toward participants who walked, rode and paddled past their homes. They waved and cheered and even handed out water and snacks. Certainly appreciated were the many signs and posters motivating participants forward.

Take the Lake – which is only about 11 weeks away, on Labor Day weekend – is four fitness events on and around Lake Waccamaw. We refer to those events as Personal Endurance Challenges because, while they are not races, they are not cakewalks, either. The Walk/Run and the Bike & Hike are 15 miles long, the Paddle is 14 miles long, and the Swim is four miles.

These are formidable challenges requiring preparation, and most participants will likely train for the summer, and then stay in pretty good shape the rest of the year. This isn’t the most rigid fitness program going, but it sure can help keep you off that slippery slope of declining fitness through the years.
But, back to the party. Many residents last year had the clever idea of inviting friends and family to join them for the weekend. This is what we want to encourage, and in true Take the Lake style, we’re encouraging it in a big way.

Similar to hospitality houses at golf tournaments and major events – and what you see along parade routes during festivals here – we’re encouraging people to throw their own parties Labor Day weekend, and make Take the Lake a part of it all.

On the front lawns, I love to see the water stands and posters, but I’d also love to see who’s showing the spirit. Tabor City and Chadbourn middle schools inspired me last year when they displayed their school names, and I think schools, organizations, businesses and other groups can make their presence known around the lake that weekend.

Show the colors, with banners, signs, custom tents, etc. Think Relay for Life, without fund raising. (Take the Lake, after all, is all about your health.)

For an example, I spoke with Columbus County Library Director Morris Pridgen the other day, and this concept played out nicely – even though we have no idea if the library will be able to participate in this way this year.

What an organization like the library could do, for example, is, well, first, find someone with a home on the Take the Lake route around Lake Waccamaw – not too hard when there are 500 of them.

Then plan the party. Maybe a “Columbus County Library Loves You!” banner out front, and a few books, for atmosphere? Then start inviting librarians – and this is where the fun begins.

Fun, with librarians? You bet. There are a half-dozen library branches around the county, and employees at them seldom get to meet each other, so this is a great opportunity for employee fellowship and networking.

And, it’s cheap. Make it a potluck affair if you like, and make it as large or as small as you like. You don’t have to host everyone the entire weekend, just at the times that you feel are best. Remember, Take the Lake is free this year, and that’s great for any budget.

The excitement begins on Saturday morning with the Walk/Run. In 2009, we had well more than 200 people walking the four streets around the lake, (and this year we’re hoping for twice that many). This should be over in time for a late lunch for our librarians, their families and friends.

On Sunday, paddlers will circle the lake in the morning (when it should be calmer) and the Bike & Hikers in the afternoon, so any of our librarians not participating in either of those events may enjoy a morning on the beach watching paddlers float by, or the afternoon encouraging cyclists.

The Boys and Girls Homes chapel rescheduled its Sunday service last year to accommodate participants, and the campground has an outdoor service, which can all help make the weekend complete.

I see enthusiasm building through the weekend as some librarians work on their Personal Endurance Challenges and achieve goals beyond what they had thought possible. They may cheer and encourage each other as they work toward healthier lifestyles.

Ask any expert and they’ll tell you that one of the best things you can have in your fitness program is a partner who will encourage and motivate you, and these “parties” are really all about building teams and integrating support to build a healthier Columbus County.

But it gets even better. Why stop with just this county’s library? Invite some employees from surrounding counties to visit Lake Waccamaw that weekend. They can share librarian stories and compare overdue fines.

They may actually hold an educational seminar (librarians do that sort of thing) Saturday afternoon.

Let’s show everybody around the Carolinas what a beautiful county we have, and how we are forward-thinking people taking positive steps for our health.

If this works, then eventually, groups could hold team-building events, friendly competitions (the book-shelving relay?) or even clinics on cycling, paddling, swimming or other cool outdoor activities. We don’t mind starting out small, though, so just do what you’re comfortable with, and let it grow from there.

Someone mentioned this might be a good time to hand out literature promoting a company or organization, but I bet that won’t work. These participants are in the middle of a great challenge and they will not want to stop and discuss anything but the finish line, and they will not want to carry anything with them.

Monday morning is the swim, the oldest and greatest challenge, but also not a crowd-pleaser. So, for the most part, Saturday and Sunday should be the big days at your hospitality house, with Monday as a wind-down.

I see alumni joining in on the fun. Groups from SCC, the UNC system, Wake Forest, Duke and others could host reunions around the lake. Spend part of the weekend improving your health and the rest, your spirit.

This should be a beautiful weekend for church groups, corporations, civic clubs, outdoors groups, healthcare professionals, fire departments, rescue squads, scout troops and packs, family reunions and many others.

It can give people the chance to participate in Take the Lake with their friends, and it also gives the people who can’t participate – or just don’t care to – a chance to join in the fun of the weekend.

Take the Lake, after all, is all about fitness, and if it’s not fun, then it’s not fitness for life.

Riders in 2005 camped in the WHS gym.

Cycle NC is back! The very popular, really cool cross-state bicycle trip is returning to Columbus County in early October. They have brought their 1,200+ cyclists through here three times, and we partied with them each time. Looks like they have 500+ riders signed up already.

Even better, why not join in their fun? The escorted and catered ride begins in Asheville and ends in Ocean Isle Beach. You can ride the whole way, (about 400 miles,) or you can ride just a day or two. The last day of the trip, Saturday, Oct. 2, is 47 miles from Whiteville to Ocean Isle Beach. Registration for one day is $50 per adult. Hey, registration for Take the Lake is still free, but we won’t carry your luggage or give you a gym floor to sleep on!

Visit Cycle NC through the North Carolina Amateur Sports web site or click here.

We’re very pleased to announce our first celebrity participant; Mrs. Natalee Whittington Whitaker, from Whiteville. The mother of two was recently featured by a regional magazine as one of our state’s healthiest mothers. Eastern Carolina Parent Magazine gave Natalee the runner-up nod in its Fit Mom contest, and she and her husband Kevin – who now live in the Greenville area –  will bring their children to Columbus County  on Labor Day weekend to encourage others toward healthier lifestyles.

Read Natalee’s inspiring story from a recent edition of The News Reporter. Click here for “She’s second in Fit Mom contest”

Just posted recommended training schedules for the four Personal Endurance Challenges. Accept a challenge or two today, and you’ll be ready by Labor Day – just set your mind to it, and nothing can stop you!

You’ll find a training schedule under the tab for each Personal Endurance Challenge.

Take the Lake was present at the 2nd annual CRHS Family Health Fair today, and we (Gina Deans & Mark Gilchrist) spread the word to about 200 attendees.

OOPS, I have been neglecting the other healthful events here (competitive runs) and will print a schedule to hand out at other fairs. In fact, I’ll make one for this site, so we can all work together for the better health of Columbus County! Look for it under the Community tab, and please contact us with any additions or corrections.

Click here for the video slideshow.

We just loaded the Labor Day Swim Registry onto this new site, and added the names of the 28 swimmers who finished in 2009. (Find the Registry under the swim tab, above.) Do you know anyone in the registry? Did we leave any names out or do you have photos to add? Please let us know by posting a comment!

We will soon see green & gold everywhere, as the posters, brochures and cards have arrived and are ready for distribution. if you would like some materials for your business, organization or church, just contact us and we’ll find a way to get some to you!

We love this time of year, because it’s when everybody starts talking about Take the Lake, and people resume their preparations for their Personal Endurance Challenges.

We have thousands of posters, brochures and cards ready to begin our march of fitness toward Labor Day. You will soon see the gold and green things everywhere, until you’re darned ready to hike 15 miles just so you don’t have to see them anymore!

No need to register yet. We have to figure out how to do this effectively and, well, for free. Most of the event registration companies charge about two bucks per registrant, which just won’t work for us. Feel free to leave a comment below, or anywhere on this site. Tell us how you feel, and you’ll feel better!

Swimming across Lake Waccamaw has been a personal achievement for generations, with its first proponent, Lee J. Greer, encouraging hundreds of youths and adults to join him each year, as far back as the 1940s, and it would become a Labor Day tradition. At the turn of this century, Grant Egley began organizing a walk around the lake each year on the same weekend. In 2008, a pilot event was organized, adding paddling and cycling, and in 2009, more than 400 people participated in Take the Lake.