Image: GARY GIROLIMON
Great Glennie!
Gary Girolimon’s Glen Lake Swim embraces local lore and quirky creativity
As a kid, Gary Girolimon enjoyed swimming in a local quarry and skipping school to jump from the quarry’s cliffs. Though he wasn’t a competitive swimmer then, he was competent and enjoyed his time in the water.
As an adult, in 2004, a health scare pushed Girolimon, now 72, to get back in shape. He started logging laps at a local pool and before long, he’d connected with the Masters swimming community. In time, he began swimming regularly at Glen Lake, a small, clean lake in Goffstown, New Hampshire.
In venturing back into open water, Girolimon rekindled an old love and stumbled upon an ongoing source of joy and unparalleled opportunities for community-building when, on almost a whim in 2018, the New England Masters Swim Club member decided Glen Lake needed a 1- and 2-mile open water race.
Thanks in part to the rich folklore surrounding a beloved local lake monster, Glennie, and Girolimon’s own boundless imagination, the event has since become a major draw for swimmers from around New England and across the country.
Cast in the mold of Loch Ness’s iconic Nessie, Glen Lake’s Glennie has long lurked beneath the surface of the 137-acre pond. In fact, tales of the creature originated with the Abenaki people who’ve lived in what’s now New England for millennia. Before the swim every year, representatives from the Abenaki Nation offer a blessing of the swimmers and the lake.
Each year, the swim also has a theme centering on a cultural touchpoint or film. One year, there was a “Star Wars” theme; another year featured a nod to “The Twilight Zone.” Another outing—“Viva Las Glennie”—had an Elvis theme, replete with an Elvis impersonator gyrating around the staging area and crooning to swimmers as they prepared for their races. The 2025 edition featured Glennie’s salute to 50 years of the ultimate monster movie, “Jaws.”
These themes allow Girolimon’s whimsical creativity to run wild as he brings in local actors and artists to elevate the experience for all attendees. For the “Star Wars” theme, Girolimon brought in the 501st Legion, a group of “Star Wars” enthusiasts who dress up in highly accurate costumes from the beloved film series.
“When the swimmers got in the water, everyone got a large, colorful pool noodle to use as a lightsaber and we had lightsaber fights,” Girolimon says, laughing. “They’re really finicky about the costumes so it was really authentic and very cool.”
The 2026 theme is “The Good, the Bad, and the Glennie,” a spoof on the Western film “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” that will feature plenty of 10-gallon hats and cowboy boots. “We’re going to have a water pistol shootout between the 1-milers and the 2-milers,” he says. Rumor has it special prizes may also be offered to the first swimmers who cross the finish line while wearing cutoff jeans during the event on Aug. 16.
From theme-based prizes and games to a post-event film each year, the all-volunteer- run Glen Lake Swim gives back to the community. Proceeds benefit local recreation opportunities and aquatic safety through the Granite State Health & Fitness Foundation, making Girolimon’s flight of fancy so much more than an open water race on a summer weekend; it’s a community-building celebration of the quirky side of life and the swimmers who venture into the deep in search of the friendly lake creature.
And the open water swimming community has fully embraced this cheerful event. “Right from year one, the open water swim community has been so great,” Girolimon says, noting that the folks who stage the annual Charles River 1-Mile Swim were generous with their advice and support and the Swim With a Mission in Newfound Lake in New Hampshire lent their course buoys until Girolimon could purchase his own. He’s also gotten plenty of volunteer help too, not least of which was from Jef Mallett, the artist who draws the syndicated comic strip “Frazz,” donating the first year’s T-shirt artwork.
Over the eight years his event has run, Girolimon says he’s gotten plenty of “super competitive swimmers,” but he’s always focused on making “the event fun for even the back-of-the-pack swimmers. I want the person that comes in last place to have fun.” And they do because all-comers have a place in the water alongside the great and gentle Glennie.
