Taking a plunge today
Posted online: Friday, 19 August 2005
She's one of hundreds on Hudson River swim
Taking a plunge today
She's one of hundreds on Hudson River swim
Saturday, August 20, 2005
By MARTINA BRENDEL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
Don't be surprised if you look out at the Hudson River this morning and see swim caps bobbing in the water.
They belong to 135 swimmers who have come from across the country to compete in the Little Red Lighthouse Swim, the last of several swims this summer sponsored by the Manhattan Island Foundation.
The foundation was created in 1993 to revive the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, a tradition dating to the 1910s. Today, 4,000 people participate annually in the swimming competitions and clinics offered by the foundation.
"(These swims) give people who are recreational to hardcore competitive swimmers in their local neighborhood a chance to enjoy vistas of New York," said Morty Berger, executive director of the Manhattan Island Foundation.
At 7:15 a.m., the swimmers will depart from Pier 96 at West 56th Street in Manhattan and swim 5.85 miles north to 165th Street, within view of the landmark lighthouse. They will be buffered from the commercial traffic of the river by motor boats and kayaks.
Among the swimmers will be Kathy Bradshaw-Galang, 32, of Weehawken, who said that when she first learned in 2003 that people swam in the Hudson, she thought it was "insane."
"I didn't believe people really did it," she said. "Of course I had to try."
She was surprised to find the experience enjoyable, despite the saltiness of the water and her inability to see very well.
"People joke, 'Did you find dead bodies?' and 'You're going to come out of the water green.' Those are stupid comments," said Bradshaw-Galang.
"When you're out there, you realize 'Wow, people really do this.' It's really inspired in me a love of the river."
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- The Jersey Journal
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