More than 90 swimmers will take to the waters of the Long Island Sound for a marathon swim from Port Jefferson to Connecticut all in the name of charity.
Unofficially the racers have raised over $100,000 for St. Vincent’s Medical Center to date. According to the organization, all money raised goes toward funding cancer screenings at low or no cost, support groups, prostheses, wigs and financial help with daycare, transportation, utilities and mortgages.
The race starts at West Beach in Port Jefferson at 8am and swimmers will head toward Connecticut. Swimmers can be solo, duo or as a relay swim team. The race course is over 15 miles and the cutoff to complete is 9 hours 30 minutes. Last year the fastest swimmer completed the course in 7 hours 21 minutes. Volunteer boats follow the swimmers to enure their safety during the race.
Separately, in Glen Cove and on the same day, Swim Across America is hosting a charity swim. According to the website, fundraising goes to support immunotherapy research at the Swim Across America Laboratory at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, lung cancer clinical trials at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, pediatric brain cancer research at the Feinstein Institute of North Shore and pediatric oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Children's Cancer Hospital.
The organization has raised over $400,000 so far from this event this year.
The course consists of multiple races including half mile, 1-mile, 5K, 10K and a Kid's Splash swim in the Long Island Sound. The races finish on the beach at Morgan Memorial Park in Glen Cove. The 10 K race start at 6am with the subsequent race starts staggered throughout the morning.