The Second Annual Kingdom Swim
10 miles, 3 miles, 1 mile, ¼ mile, 100 yard
Saturday, July 24th, 2010
Kingdom Swim is a true celebration of open water swimming held on Lake Memphremagog in the heart of the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont – one of ten geotourism areas in the world specially designated by National Geographic. Kingdom Swim is a competitive and recreational charity swim for all skill levels, young and old alike, offering distances of 10 miles, 3 miles, 1 mile, 1/4 mile and 100 yards on Saturday, July 24th, 2010.
The 10 mile, 3 mile and 1 mile swims will host two divisions, wet suit and non-wet suit. In the morning, the10 milers will leave from Prouty Beach, in Newport, head out of the bay, north to the border, around Black, Belle, and Cove Islands and back. The 3 milers will leave shortly thereafter and head out of the bay toward the lighthouse and then return. The 1 mile, 1/4 mile, and 100 yard swims will be run in Newport Bay in the afternoon.
Kingdom Swim was sanctioned by USMS in 2009 and we will seek sanctioning again in 2010. All adult Swimmers are required to be USMS members. All youth swimmers are required to be members of USA Swimming. We offer one day only memberships for those who do not have yearly memberships.
Registration for each distance in 2010 is now open. Registration for the 3 and 10 mile courses will be closed on June 15th, 2010. Registration for the 1 mile course and the shorter youth courses will remain open until July 15th, 2010. Youth under 18 can participate in any of the five events. Adults can participate only in the 1, 3, and 10 mile swims.
Only 100 swimmers will be allowed to enter the 10 mile swim in 2010. A similar limit has been imposed on the 3 mile swim as well as the 1 mile swim. These limits have been set to assure that this event does not grow too fast and that we can adequately support each swimmer who makes the commitment to join the swim.
The adult registration fee is now $100 with minimum pledge of $100 required at the time of registration.
Registration on line and more information is available.
The prior open water swimming experience of all registrants for the 10 mile and 3 mile swims will be reviewed by Leslie Thomas, a member of our Advisory Committee to assure that they are sufficiently qualified to enter the event. We also offer ongoing assistance in planning, preparation, and training to assure that swimmers with limited open water experience can become qualified in time for the event and also to help any and all entrants get the most out of their Kingdom Swim experience. For more information, please check out Technical Support.
We encourage and support recreational as well as competitive open water swimming. However, 7 hours after the start of the 10 mile event, we reserve the right to pull any remaining swimmers out of the water. Our volunteer flotilla of patrol boats will need to get ready for the evening’s activities and we can’t expect them to stay on the lake beyond that point. 3 mile swimmers will be pulled after 3 hours.
Those interested in participating in the youth swim are invited to check out our Youth Swim section on this home page. Youth swim registrations will also be limited to the first 100 paid registrations we have received, however youth swim registrations will remain open until July 15th, unless we have 100 registered youth swimmers before then.
This is a charity swim to suppor t IROC’s Healthy Changes Initiative for people suffering from Diabetes, Obesity, and Heart disease. Prizes will be offered for highest pledges, largest groups, biggest families, furthest traveled to the event, plus the fastest times. We’ve got some great prizes lined up already, including a guided Alcatraz Swim in San Francisco Bay donated by Swim Art. We will be adding prizes right up to the day of the event. Please check out our Last One Back to the Barn Award, a complete autographed set of the works to date by Howard Mosher. We also offer the George Hunihan For the Love of the Swim Award, for that swimmer who best reflects the spirit of Kingdom Swim, a dinner for two at the Eastside Restaurant. A very special prize will be awarded to any one who spots and photographs our very own lake monster: A lifetime registration in all of IROC’s special athletic and recreational events including, Dandelion Run, Tour de Kingdom, Kingdom Swim, and Kingdom Triathlon.
There will be a Swimmers and Pet Parade on Friday, July 23rd starting at 6:00 pm. Swimmers are encouraged to bring their state, provincial, and national flags to fly in the parade. There will be a Swimmers and Kayakers pasta dinner at the Gateway Center in Newport immediately following the parade.
For more information, contact Pete Kellaway or Julie Gunn at (802) 334-8511 or e-mail phil@wilsonwhite.com . For more information on the Youth Swim, please contact Peter Stuart at pstuart@NCHSI.org, or Charlotte Brynn, cbrynn@theswimmingholestowe.com
Aerial photo of Newport, VT courtesy of Scott Wheeler