5 weeks to go to the 20th Annual Chicago Masters' Big Shoulders Open Water 2.5k and 5k swim.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway of Swimming! But without the flags!
www.bigshoulders.org
This swim is also part of the USMS H2Open Series and the Great Lakes GLOWS series, all compelling reasons to attend the church of the 5k butterfly.
For those unfamiliar with the venue, swimming can be done at Ohio Street Beach any day (short of bacterial counts high enough to close the beach), so a trial swim along the seawall in the days preceding the meet is easily done.
Lake Michigan temp has been much warmer this summer. We don't need woollen leggings and ski caps after a 6 a.m. swim.
:)
... are slow-steady swimmers allowed to "compete"? Or is it really limited to the speedway types?
Absolutely! It's a giant community swim. Dogs have done it. Ppl in flippers have done it. (Not recommended, but it's happened.) And the person who has done the 5k all butterfly for several years has been joined by a 2nd.
By speedway I refer to the double circuit for the 5k swimmers - twice around the single circuit that the 2.5k swimmers swim. And some of the 5k swimmers are fast. This year the top 50 fast swimmers get their own heat, which should improve the journey for tourist swimmers like me.
The early, cheap registration ends August 15, and part of the fee in past years has gone to the Alliance for the Great Lakes (keep 'em clean!), so it's all good.
... are slow-steady swimmers allowed to "compete"? Or is it really limited to the speedway types?
Absolutely! It's a giant community swim. Dogs have done it. Ppl in flippers have done it. (Not recommended, but it's happened.) And the person who has done the 5k all butterfly for several years has been joined by a 2nd.
By speedway I refer to the double circuit for the 5k swimmers - twice around the single circuit that the 2.5k swimmers swim. And some of the 5k swimmers are fast. This year the top 50 fast swimmers get their own heat, which should improve the journey for tourist swimmers like me.
The early, cheap registration ends August 15, and part of the fee in past years has gone to the Alliance for the Great Lakes (keep 'em clean!), so it's all good.
