Chattanooga Rat Race (shameless personal post)

Some of you may find this interesting, but I'm mostly posting it for folks here in Chattanooga.

The Chattanooga Rat Race is a 4.5 mile open water swim on the Tennessee River, scheduled to coincide with the start of the RiverBend festival. My older son has swum it every year since it began in 2006. He's won once, and placed 2nd 2 or 3 times. Two years ago, Sean Ryan won it at age 17. Sean is the fastest swimmer to come out of Chattanooga, and just qualified for the 2012 Olympics. (He only swam the Rat Race one year, before moving on to international open water swims!)

Winning times depend on the swimmers, and on current, but vary between 1 and 1.5 hours.

The photos below are a mix of years. (more to be added)

The course
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...800/Course.jpg

The swimmers, 2006
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...SCN7824-ed.jpg

The swimmers, 2011 (not all visible)
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x...SC03697-ed.jpg

The start, 2011
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...SC03703-ed.jpg

After 200 yards - 2011
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-9...SC03705-ed.jpg

Sprinting the last 500 yards - 2011
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-U...SC03706-ed.jpg

Finish in sight - 2010 (swimmer by blue kayak is my son.)
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...MG_7167-ed.jpg

After the finish, resting by the Walnut St. Bridge - 2010
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-_...SCN7838-ed.jpg

Out of the water, on to the monster breakfast - 2010
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-W...MG_7169-ed.jpg