Olympic competitors and all manner of other swimmers will vie for first place at the tenth anniversary of the Bay Area’s most remarkable open-water race, the RCP Tiburon Mile, on Sunday, September 13 at 9 a.m.
The view of Tiburon and Raccoon Straight from Ayala Cove on Angel Island. Photo by Joel Williams
For the second year, local non-profit hospice and palliative care provider Hospice By The Bay is the designated charity for this prestigious event. More than 800 swimmers between the ages of 8-75 took part in last year’s sold-out race. Returning this year are the Elite Male and Female 2008 winners, Australia’s Trent Grimsey and Germany’s Britta Kamrau, who took a bronze medal in the Beijing Olympics. World open water champion Thomas Lurz, Russia’s world open-water champions Vladimir Dyatchin and Ekaterina Seliverstova, Olympic Gold Medalist Ous Mellouli, Olympian Chloe Sutton, Olympic hopeful Eva Fabian, CAL American record holder Dana Vollmer, World Champion and tri-athlete John Flanagan, and World Champion and marathon swimmer Erica Rose will also take to the scenic waters of Raccoon Strait, aiming to win the winner-take-all $10,000 prize.
Along with the elite swimmers, hundreds of college, high school, national and local pool and open-water swimmers of all ages, as well as eight local and international Special Olympics athletes, will vie for prizes. To register to swim, to pledge to support a swimmer, to volunteer, or for more information about this world-class event, visit www.rcptiburonmile.com or call the Race Hotline at (415) 721-9990. Volunteers are needed on land and on the water on event day for everything from registration to assisting the swimmers in the water. Owners of kayaks, jet skis and surfboards are welcome to contact the Hospice By The Bay Volunteer Coordinator, (415) 526-5500 or by email at events@hbtb.org.
Marin County native Robert C. Placak founded the Tiburon Mile in 1999 as his “way of giving back to the sport. I always wanted to create a world-class swim event for the community.” As an open-water swimmer himself, Placak has experienced the cross currents and tidal flow that make this race a challenge. “Swimmers must use their own talents to navigate and race against the best,” he says.
