by Jim Teisher
The Postal 2-Mile Relay is an event swum by 2, 3, or 4 swimmers, each swimming 100s in rotation until they reach 3,600 yards. This means if you have 2 swimmers, each swimmer swims18 x 100; 3 swimmers, each swimmer swims 12 x 100; and with 4 swimmers, each swimmer swims 9 x 100. The teams can be all male, all female, or mixed with equal numbers of male and female swimmers. Teams are ranked in 10-year increments based on the youngest swimmer as of December 31st of that year.
I first heard about a 2-Mile Relay back in the early 2000s when I was swimming at the Nike pool. Jeff Kaelon, the Nike pool manager, set up a 2-Mile Relay for some Nike swimmers. We had a month to get in the swims. After finding 3 other swimmers and a timer, we swam our 2-Mile Relay. I had so much fun that I completed the relay two more times that month. One of those relays was with Jeff Kaelon and Kelly Hibler. It was very challenging just having 3 swimmers, but it was still fun.
I asked Jeff how he came up with the 2-Mile Relay and this was his response:
It was some brainstorming that eventually led up to it. In college, we used to do a set known as Australian relay. You swam a relay consisting of usually 3 to 4 swimmers per team. You kept swimming 100s until one team lapped another team by a 100. This usually resulted in us swimming 8 to 12 100s.
The second part of the picture was runners of the Hood to Coast Relay, which Nike sponsored several teams, which had 36 legs, and I had done that on a team of 12 and a team of 9. So, trying to find something similar just happened to be 3600 yards which is about 2 miles or 36 x 100. Thirty-six (36) is a good number that divides into 2, 3, or 4 so that is how it came about.
I had such a great time doing the 2-mile relay that I thought someone ought to make it a USMS postal event. I waited and waited, and no one did it, so in 2017 I decided to start it. We have held the 2-Mile Relay four times now. Over those 4 years, we have had 75 men’s teams, 96 women’s teams, and 70 mixed teams. To see the results for each year the 2-Mile Relay has been held go to http://barracudas.org/two-mile-relay. To see the ranking of all teams for all the years the event has been held go here.
If you have any questions about the 2-Mile Relay, please contact me at meetdirector@barracudas.org.