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It's going down this weekend and you might just spot them under the George Washington Bridge Saturday morning as part of New York Open Water's "20 Bridges Swim."
This year, swimmers hail from Mexico, Peru, New Zealand, Gibralter and more.
Among them is 58-year-old Susan Kirk from Califon, New Jersey.
The mother of two remembers always enjoying the open water – water skiing, playing in the surf, and so on. But it wasn’t until about 20 years ago that she began venturing into open water swimming, starting with ocean miles down the New Jersey shore along various beach towns throughout the summer, she says,
“I discovered the sheer joy and excitement that I experienced, and learned that I wasn’t ready for the swims to end at 1 or 1.5 miles," she said.
Thus, she began seeking out longer and longer swims in the Northeast, Florida (e.g. 7 mile Swim Around Lido Key, April 2015 & 2017), Tennessee (e.g. 10 mile Swim the Suck, October 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017), and even Bermuda (e.g. 10K Round the Sound, October 2008 & 2010).
In 2012, Kirk was a part of The Jersey Girls 4 person relay with Sarah Clark, Lynn Ascione, and Mary Guilfoyle. The notoriously powerful and friendly quartet blazed around Manhattan and had an amazing experience!
“This ignited a trajectory of open water marathon swims including the Ederle swim in 2013," said Kirk, "and completing Stages 6, 4, 1 and 3 of 8 Bridges respectively in 2015-2018.”
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