In honour of her late father, Surrey鈥檚 Jen Soti celebrated her 50th birthday with a sometimes frigid six-hour swim in Harrison Lake.
She swam 15 kilometres Thursday, Aug. 17, followed by a 35-kilometre run/walk on forest roads back to the bay where the swim started earlier that day, at around 5:20 a.m.
Soti鈥檚 50K journey was done as a fundraiser for Ecojustice Canada in tribute to her father, Jim Keeling Jr., who drowned in Harrison Lake 27 years ago in a boating accident, at age 50, in May 1996.
For Soti, it was a 鈥渕emorable鈥� milestone birthday.
鈥淚 had all these people out celebrating with me so it was certainly a meaningful day, for sure,鈥� she said later.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW PHOTOS
Soti, a recreation professional, began her swim at Blind Bay, near where her father died, and made her way south to a beach/boat launch about a kilometre from Harrison Hot Springs Resort.
鈥淭he lake was super kind to me at first, calm,鈥� she reported. 鈥淏ut once I passed Echo Island, that鈥檚 where I was told it gets colder. There were sections that were absolutely freezing, so I was very surprised to feel how cold it truly is, but then it would warm up, which was quite odd. It wasn鈥檛 cold the entire way, it was just little pockets of it.鈥�
She knows how dangerous the lake can be.
鈥淢y father drowned there,鈥� she underlined. 鈥淪o all of that went through my head as I was swimming and tried to stay calm in some confused water, too.
鈥淥verall, it was good and I felt very happy with the swim, which was long 鈥� around six hours, 27 minutes,鈥� Soti added. 鈥淭hat was the longest I鈥檝e ever swam. I did some long swims at Sasamat Lake (in training), but not that length of time.鈥�
Soti is a member of the Keeling family that helped build Cloverdale Raceway horse track (now Fraser Downs) in Surrey. Her grandfather, Jim Keeling Sr., was a co-founder of the track, which opened in 1976. In 1980 he gave the reins to his son, Soti鈥檚 father.
Keeling Jr. was a lawyer by profession and served on the board of Sierra Legal Defence Fund, now known as Ecojustice Canada, the nation鈥檚 largest environmental law charity.
鈥� RELATED: .
Soti explains her money-raising motivation and offered updates in , where more than $6,700 has been collected, so far.
鈥淭hat exceeded the goal, which was initially $2,500 and then I raised it to $3,000, then $6,000,鈥� she explained.
鈥淎s my husband said, the money raised was a bonus,鈥� she added. 鈥淵ou know, people from my walking group drove from Surrey to Harrison, made signs and brought birthday cake. That support stayed with me, so it was a meaningful event.
鈥淚 hope to do it again next year,鈥� Soti said. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 do the fundraising but I would probably just make a donation on behalf of my dad.鈥�
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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