If you are not one of those swimmers who loves swim meets, USMS may have just the answer for you. Try one or more of the low-key, no pressure Postal Swim Events, where you swim a continuous distance in your own pool, and mail in your results! The first one of the series, the One Hour Postal, is coming up soon as it is to be completed during the month of January. And to make it even easier, COMSA has reserved pool time at DU for this event on January 15th at DU, check the homepage of the COMSA website for details.
In total, USMS holds five long distance postal championships each year: the One Hour, 5K, 10K, 3000 yd. and 6000 yd. events. Swimmers who complete all FIVE championships in the same year, titled the "USMS Long Distance Postal National Championship", will be sent a participation patch to honor their achievement. This series is a great and rewarding challenge. To receive the patch, all you must do is ENTER and COMPLETE each of the 5 events.
But completing all five is not for everyone and is not a requirement. Pick and choose the ones that you wish to complete. COMSA plans to provide pool time for each event at least one time within each allotted time frame. The annual timeline is:
All of these entries are available online
Since January is practically upon us, start to think about whether you are game for this Series. You'll need to do the One Hour Swim in January in order to be able to fulfill all five. Or think about just doing the One Hour Swim, to get a baseline on your own fitness for the year.