Frequently Asked Questions

This event is open to all USMS (United States Masters Swimming) (or FINA-equivalent masters swimming for swimmers outside the United States) registered swimmers 18 years of age or older on the day of the race. If you are not a registered USMS or FINA mastersswimmer, USMS “One-Event Registration” is available for this event for $20.00.

Join (USMS) by going to http://registration.usms.org/. If you already registered for the event and want to apply your “One-Event Registration Fee” towards your membership, please email pnaregistrar@usms.org to register with the local area USMS association PNA.

Registration fee starts at $85 and goes up as we get closer to the event date. Register early. If you are not a registered USMS swimmer or a registered FINA masters swimmer from outside the USA— ADD $20 to the above prices. Please understand that most of the costs are fixed regardless of number of attendees so we cannot accommodate refunds for any reason.

Your registration fee gets you entry into one of the premier open water swimming events in the country, a commemorative t-shirt, a quality swim cap, and a spread of yummy treats and beverages to consume post-race.

Your entry fee helps cover: mandatory permits, mandatory insurance, taxes, registration fees, equipment rentals, honey buckets, timing fees, buoys, sound system, harbor patrol boats, lifeguards, boat and paddle board rentals, gas for boats, EMTs and stand-by ambulance, participant and volunteer t-shirts, web services, food, garbage bags, transportation for your gear from start to finish, and a handful of other miscellaneous expenses. Not included in your fees are the 100’s of volunteer man hours that go into putting on a quality, well run race.

Yes, 350 swimmers.

We have had many years where we have sold out the event in advance or race day. We encourage you to sign up as soon as you are sure you want to swim.

No. There are NO REFUNDS, TRANSFERS or DEFERRALS FOR ANY REASON. We are sorry about having to be firm on this. The costs to run this event are higher than you might imagine and offering refunds, transfers, or deferrals would require us to charge everyone more to cover the costs.

If weather issues arise on race morning, we’ll wait it out as long as we can. But if we decide that it isn’t safe to put swimmers in the water, we’ll cancel the race.

You’ll still get shirts/ caps/ bagels/ coffee etc. BUT unfortunately, WE CANNOT OFFER REFUNDS OR DEFERRALS. The cost of the event is fixed and the money was already spent by race day.

Absolutely, but you will swim in the wetsuit division, and compete against only other wetsuit swimmers. Results will be displayed separately.

Water temperature has been anywhere from 58°F to 72°F at this time of year. The lake is much colder than the average swimming pool. Many participants choose to wear a wetsuit. There are definitely many who choose to go without as well. It depends on YOUR comfort level and cold-water tolerance and you’re the only one who can make this important decision. Also consider the distance of the swim and your time in the water. Note that you can choose to change to/from the wetsuit or non-wetsuit category on the day of the race if needed. Sign-up for the option you are most likely to do.

Under USMS rules, all suits that are disallowed by FINA and USMS for pool swims are also banned from non-wetsuit open water swimming. However, you can wear it if you’re OK with competing in the wetsuit division.

Yes, as long as it does not extend below the neck, and you wear the supplied brightly colored cap that correlates to your wave ORDER.

No, but you must contact the race director, PRIOR to race day to find out the color of your wave, and bring a non-latex cap in that same color for the race.

All 3.2 mile race participants should be able to swim a 5000-yard free in 1 hour and 45 minutes or less. This is an approximate time swum in a POOL to establish if you should sign up for this race.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Participants who are NOT ON TARGET TO FINISH the 3.2 mile swim in 2 hours WILL BE PULLED from the water at the discretion of the Race Director and Safety Official, no questions asked. Please read more about this here: Safety and Time Guidelines.

Time guidelines are for the safety of everyone involved in the event. We’re not trying to exclude anyone, but we must give fair warning that you may be pulled from the race if your speed puts others at risk. There are many reasons for this: Simply put, it’s not an easy race to swim OR support. For example, you are not going to be swimming close to shore for a quick exit. And we do not want you to leave the water onto the nearest shore exit during the race.

Lake Washington is big and VERY deep and finding people is virtually impossible. We only have a certain number of volunteers and boats to keep everyone safe. Should one or two swimmers be way behind the pack, and we find ourselves having one boat per person, this jeopardizes the safety of the entire group. Therefore if the Race Director and Safety Official, or the lifeguards, feel you are a safety risk, you will be pulled from the water.

You can read more about this here: Safety and Time Guidelines.

Only you can make this decision. If you have any doubt at all, we strongly recommend that you sign up for another shorter distance open water race first.

We hope that you have an enjoyable experience, learn what open water racing is all about, and then come back the next year and try for this longer distance event with the proper knowledge and training. Find other races at the PNA website.

We STRONGLY recommend that all swimmers spend time swimming in a lake or ocean, one with temperatures close to Lake Washington’s, to prepare for open water swimming. Learning how to breathe in choppy water, sight for buoys, swim in a pack, and turn around buoys is extremely beneficial to open water swimming and racing. This race is longer and harder than you think. Really.

No, but there are many local coaches to help you with your open water swimming.  Some local triathlon training groups hold clinics on various weekends in and around Lake Washington as well.

We hire City of Seattle beach lifeguards and supervisors to provide the safety patrol and oversee the course. This is in conjunction with a dedicated Event Safety Director, a fleet of volunteer motorboats (including Harbor Patrol and Coast Guard vessels) and a lot of kayakers.

We also utilize Ham Radio operators (also volunteers) in each motorboat to communicate swimmer status and any issues back to land quickly and efficiently. There will be an ambulance on site at Madison Park during the entire event.

Please see the King County Swimming Beach Monitoring webpage (for Madison Park Beach). Additionally, you can find current water temperature year-round by checking the buoy (click the red thumb tack).

Carpool!! At the end of the mandatory pre-race meeting, people with cars will be asked to raise their hands in order to help shuffle people into groups and get down to the starting lines. It always seems to work out. Some of the event organizers also typically have space in their vehicles too. Uber/Lyft may also be an option too.

If you have a car, we encourage you to drive as many people as you can. If you need a ride, look for someone who has a car. These are friendly people! Then, after the race festivities are over, if you got a ride to the start, you can offer someone a ride back to pick up their car.

To get your clothes and stuff back to Madison Park, everyone will get a large white bag at check-in. They’ll be marked with your race number. Your gear goes in the marked bag at the start and put on a truck to be transported back to the Madison Park finish area. Bags are with volunteers at all times, but we do recommend leaving valuables at home as we cannot be responsible for lost items.

Entry fees will be reimbursed to swimmers who can provide us with a motorboat AND driver, OR two kayakers/paddleboarders WITH their own kayaks/SUPs

However, we MUST know about them ahead of race day so that we can make sure they are qualified to volunteer AND also give them the proper instructions.

THEN, your volunteers must show up on the day of race in order for you to get the refund, so you must still pay to enter the race now. If you are not a USMS registered swimmer, the “One Event” fee is not reimbursable — only the entry fee.

PLEASE DO NOT park directly in front of the restaurants and businesses of the “downtown” Madison Park neighborhood adjacent to the park. (You will be ticketed, guaranteed!) Please park legally, in the nearby residential areas.

Park responsibly and please also be courteous in the residential neighborhood. Not everyone is going to be as excited to be awake on a Saturday morning as you are!

Due the popularity of the 3.2 mile distance and the limited number of participants we can have in the water, the 1.2 mile offering unfortunately was discontinued prior to 2015. Events with shorter distances such as 0.5 mile, 1+ mile, and 2+ mile are often offered by other masters swim teams in the greater Puget Sound as well and some city of Seattle sponsored events.

As much as we would like to include some younger strong swimmers to our event, we typically fill the event to capacity with adult swimmers. Our event is also sanctioned and insured by United States Masters Swimming which requires participants to be 18 and over on the day of the event. tion