About

Kathleen O’Brien Lawrence:  65 years young.  Raised in the cold water and big lakes of St. Paul, Minnesota.  Swam as a kid in lakes and rivers for fun.  Became flight attendant TWA 60′s.  Became marathon runner (13) in my 30′s.  Did Pike’s Peak, Empire State Building Run-up and 3 Triathlons (2 sprints and 1 half Ironman.)  Took up swimming as exercise after I could no longer run due to osteoarthritis. 

     Retired to Sun City, AZ, with husband, Alex, in 1999.  Began to swim at pool here.  Joined the US Masters’ Swim team in 2000 and began competing in swim meets and the Senior Olympics with the Sun City Starrs Masters’ Swim team.  I have been fortunate to aquire about 50 medals since.   I was hooked.

     In 2007, I became the Honorary Grandmother of the Swim Neptune Team.  Kids swimming from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco Bay to raise drowning prevention awareness through the FAST Foundation.  This was founded by Joe Zamaitis, the youngest person to ever finish the Hawaii Ironman at age 18.  He is devoted to kids helping kids and please check out their link on my page.

    I swam the Alcatraz swim with them and my 10 year old charge, Alley.  We came in at just over 1 hour and it changed both our lives.

     I began my bottle-head swims as a training method for my backstroke as I am an IM swimmer on the team.  All 4 strokes in competition:  Fly, back,breast and free.  My coach, John Jorgensen, started us with a cup.  I forgot my cup one day and used my water bottle and found I could swim and swim with it and not drop it off my head.  I have since swam with it all over the world including:  Seine River, France:  Alaska glacier and Resurrection Bay, Pacific Ocean, Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, Bahamian out-Islands, Colorado River, Hoover Dam, La Jolla Cove, under the 2008 Discovery Launch at Cape Canaveral, New Mexico at altitude, Lake Pleasant, Lake Barlett just to name a few.  I swim up to a mile at a time without dropping bottle.

My goal:  to swim 100 miles with my bottle-head to raise awareness for Drowning Prevention…..drowning is the “silent killer” and even though a child my take swim lessons, they MUST be watched every second they are near water.

Please check into the FAST Foundation’s programs:  The Drowning Coalition, your local YMCA and private swim lesson businesses and fitness clubs as to how you can help save a child’s life around water.

The photo you see above on the blog is of me and Alex.  We are leaving the Marina at Rocky Pt., Mexico, for my one mile open water, Sea of Cortez swim.  The Mexican Navy had never seen anything like it!