Hart resident Glenn Evans knew when he signed up for the over eight-mile Mackinac Island Swim, which took place Sunday, Aug. 9, that it would be difficult. But, as he put it, “It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. It was really a lot harder.”
Evans, 64, had never participated in a major swimming event - he has done large-scale bicycling events before - but found the challenge intriguing when he originally thought to participate in the 4.5-mile Mackinac Bridge Swim, which takes place in late July each year. He began training last November, getting up prior to 5 a.m. three days per week and traveling to Ludington High School, the closest available pool, to swim. He originally swam a mile per visit and later began to do two miles, at one point moving his training swims to Manistee due to time limits in the Ludington pool.
However, in the midst of Evans’ training, sign-ups for that event closed ahead of when he thought they did, leaving him with the choice of pursuing the 8.2-mile Mackinac Island Swim or, in his view, wasting the training he’d already completed. He chose the former. There was one perk to the longer swim - unlike the Bridge Swim, the entire thing takes place in the much shallower Straits of Mackinac, a change Evans said “made my wife happy.”
When swim day hit, Evans felt he was ready. He had capped his training with trips to Charles Mears State Park in Pentwater, swimming the 1,200-foot area available for swimmers nine times back and forth during ‘green flag’ swimming conditions - a total of four miles. If the waters were choppier - ‘yellow flag’ conditions - he limited himself to two miles.
It was in those choppier conditions that Evans developed a shoulder impingement that led to him cutting off swim training early and paying for online physical therapy programs that helped him get ready for the big show.
“I got some exercises, and I did those, and it seemed to help right away,” Evans said in an interview conducted prior to his swim. “In the next week or so, I’m not going to swim. I’m just going to stretch out every day a couple of times a day, and do those exercises. I feel like physically, I can do the distance just by relaxing (my muscles), and I just want to make sure I don’t have a shoulder problem.”
Evans was indeed able to do it, though he did have to fight through significant cramping that required attention at one point from the lifeguards that stay near to the action in case a swimmer needs assistance. He said with two brief stops at the rest stations that were along the eight-mile course, he swam for 3.5 miles, then 2.5 miles, then 2.2 miles, with the first segment being the most difficult due to choppy waters.
While the swim was taxing for Evans, he enjoyed the clear view in the straits by comparison to the more muddied view in the lake swims he’s used to. It was the first time he’d ever visited Mackinac Island.
“I didn’t get to see much of the land on Mackinac Island, but in the crystal clear water I got to see thousands of beautiful rocks of all sizes that surround the island,” Evans said.
One unfortunate side effect was the loss of Evans’ wedding ring, which came loose a couple times during the swim and ultimately slipped off his finger without his notice during the swim. He said he didn’t realize it until the next day when he saw his bare finger while driving home. Even then, though, he said he couldn’t regret all the effort he put in to pull off the swim.
“I don’t think I’ll ever look back and regret the many months of early morning training or the struggle of swimming the whole Mackinac Island Swim,” Evans said. “There were many mornings during my training – especially during the harsh Michigan winter - when the alarm would go off at 4:50 a.m. and I would really regret making the commitment to swim three mornings a week. On those mornings, I’d get up, turn on a light and remind myself that I won’t always have the opportunity or ability to do this - that what I’m doing is good and the only downside to it is that it’s hard.”
Evans’ next challenge, he said, is less physical and more mental. In the distant past, Evans studied biblical Greek while briefly in the seminary. He plans to pick it back up and use his knowledge in Bible studies.
“Lord willing, over the next two years, I will become highly proficient in biblical Greek and help others learn enough basic Greek grammar so they can understand the better exegetical (language based) Bible commentaries,” Evans said.
