Barracudas’ 2-mile Relay


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.

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