FYI
The Motor City Mile open water swim will be on Wednesday, July 6 at the Belle Isle Beach. For info and registration go to www.different-strokes.com and click on the leftside “open water”.
I did it last year and it is a great way to get some open water swimming practice in. There is just enough of a current in the river to give you a little practice with such things but not so much as to make it too difficult. It’s a triangle course so you get to do some navigating.
There were 400 participants last year, probably 350 of them were under the age of 18 but it is open to masters swimmers too and there were a number of tri swimmers there last year. Check out the results and I’m sure most of you will more than be able to keep up (I mean with the masters - the kids will kick all our butts). This is probably your only opportunity to do an organized open water swim this summer.
Anyone who is less than comfortable with open water swimming will be slapped to their senses after seeing a couple hundred kids hop in the Detroit River without wetsuits and go at it. For the kids it is a day off swim practice and there is a definite “party” atmosphere complete with a DJ spinning tunes. More than half of them are just there to enjoy a day off from practice and cover the distance (i.e. they’re not racing), so you don’t be concerned about stepping into some sort of super competitive environment.
PS - The guy who puts this on is my daughter’s swim coach. They hold the event at Belle Isle because of all the beaches in metro Detroit and the Belle Isle Beach consistantly has the best water quality ( that’s were the current comes in . . . .)