Thank you for supporting me in this historic, once-in-a-lifetime adventure that will carry on the legacy of the 29 men lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald 50 years ago. By helping me meet my fundraising goal, you are also helping preserve the Whitefish Point Lighthouse that safeguards mariners along Lake Superior's "Shipwreck Coast."
So why am I participating in this historic 411 mile swim? Short answer - I love swimming, I love Michigan and I love God. My grandfather worked on a freighter on the Great Lakes briefly following his return from WWII. He shared his love of history and of our great state. I visited the Ship Wreck Museum at Whitefish Point when I was young and returned as an adult with my kids. We grew up listening to Gordon Lightfoot's song about the Edmond Fitzgerald. I grew up traveling to state parks all around the state of Michigan and love our great state. Swimming has been a huge part of my life from the time I was young until now. I was a high school state champion in the 50 Free, swam in college at Eastern Michigan University and have swum as a US Masters Swimmer since then. When I was younger, I swam in the pool competitions and over the years have moved into longer events in the pool and then longer events in the open water. HS and college I swam sprints and went to YMCA and Masters Nationals competing in freestyle and butterfly sprints as well as backstoke (which I never swam previously). I liked it because I could get personal bests in events because I had never swum them before. I then tried longer and longer events for the same reason. I've made Long Distance All-American in Masters swimming competing in the 5K, 10K, 3000yd, 6000yd postal events as well as open water national championship events. My best and hardest was 2009 when the 10K open water National Championship was in Harbor Springs and I won my age group that year. More recently I swam around Mackinaw Island a few years ago and still have the Mackinac Bridge swim on my bucket list. My part in this swim will be Stage 8 that will be completed August 9-11, 2025 and runs from Presque Isle Beach to Thunder Bay Island. There are 4 swimmers in my stage that will rotate every 30 minutes until the distance is completed.
This Edmond Fitzgerald Memorial Swim is my motivation to get back in shape with a year to prepare and raise money for the event. All funds raised will go to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society earmarked for restoration of the Whitefish Point Lighthouse. The swim includes 68 swimmers and countless volunteers that will symbolically finish the route of the Edmond Fitzgerald starting where is sank in Lake Superior. Traveling 17 miles to Whitefish Point and then all the way to Belle Isle Beach, then a march to Mariners Church in downtown Detroit for a memorial service. Plans are to film the swim as part of a documentary to be released November 10th 2025 at the 50th Anniversary of the loss of the Edmond Fitzgerald and it's 29 crew members at a ceremony at Whitefish Point. If you have the means, I encourage you to support with a donation. I also ask for you to share the information with others so they have the opportunity to learn about this historic endeavor.
Here's the long answer for why I signed up to swim this event. I want to give credit to God for all I have and all I do. I feel blessed and want to give back. We live in the greatest country and in the greatest state surrounded by water that embodies the beauty of God's creation. I've been blessed with a loving wife and four children who we love very much. As I look back over my life, I see God's influence. He's always been there, even when I've forgotten him or drifted away.
As a toddler, I was actually afraid of the water. The result of a trip to the beach on the Canadian side of Lake Huron at a park called Pinery. I was enjoying the waves rolling in by running out when they went out and in when they rolled in. After doing this several times, I ran out and turned around to wave to mom and dad when the wave rolled over me and pulled me out with it. From then on, I would cry anytime mom or dad went near the water. I eventually learned how to swim a few years later at Camp Dearborn, but my sport growing up was baseball which I played from tee ball through sixth grade. Then I reached the point while playing that I had to hope for a single or a home run because I couldn't run past first base my heels hurt so bad. I finally went to the doctor and they diagnosed me with Sever's Disease. There are two bones in your heel that fuse into one as you get older. In my case I grew rapidly and the constant pounding on my heels separated the bones causing 4 fractures in one heel and 6 in the other. The doctor told me I had a choice. He could put a cast on both legs for six months or I could not run for 9 months to indefinitely depending on how long it took them to heal. Not liking the thought of a cast on both legs for six months, I said I'll not run. The doctor said you have to understand you can not join any sports that involve running or jumping. I looked at him and said what's left? He said you could swim. I remember telling him I hate swimming, but that's how I got started. I joined the swim team in junior high. At that time, I could swim a very weak freestyle, but no other strokes and had never dove off the blocks or done a turn prior to that.
This was also when my mom and dad divorced and I started attending church at Community Lutheran Church in Flat Rock. Donna Budde and Colleen Scott were my coaches in the early years. They were wonderful to work with and I began to swim year round. Mrs. Scott not only coached me year round though junior high and high school, but also taught me how to coach and teach others to swim. She more than anyone, fostered my love of swimming. The summer of my 10th grade year I was on my way to swim practice riding my bike when I turned the corner and my duffle bag got caught in the spokes stopping the bike immediately sending me head first into the pavement. I hit my left shoulder tearing the cartilage. We treated it with physical therapy and icing before and after every workout my junior year. I had a fantastic unofficial Class C-D State meet that year winning the 50 free, 100 free and 400 free relay breaking the varsity record, meet record and pool record in all three races. I took 3rd in the B-C-D State Meet that year and had surgery on my shoulder right after the season. That summer I re-injured my shoulder playing frisbee football at band camp. I didn't start swimming my senior year until a few days before the first meet. The doctor had me swim as far as I could before my shoulder started hurting. I made it 1200 yards and he said I could increase my yardage by 10% per week until it healed. I made every yard count and focused on technique - starts, turns and lots of kicking. When I reached my yardage limit, I would kick the rest of the workout. The season was nearly over when I finally got the green light to swim as much as I wanted, but by then we were starting to tapper for the state meet. I never made it over 3000 yards that year, but with God's help I never lost the 50 Free caping the season off with a win at the State Meet. I'll never forget that race, I've replayed it over in my head many times since then. I had a horrible start, and missed my turn coming off the wall a body length behind the leader at that point and spent the last length chasing them down not catching them until the last stroke of the race.
My swimming career ended early at Eastern Michigan University due to over training after a year and a half. At the time I didn't know what was happening. I knew I overtrained my first year, but was working with coach Mike Jones and Peter Lynn to try to adjust the second year without success. It was getting harder and harder to swim, my heart rate would raise to over 200 and stay there during workouts. It was still over 100 when I would try to go to bed at night and in the 70's in the morning. I couldn't sleep no mater how tired I was and reached a point where there were 4 days straight I couldn't fall asleep and I was having chest pains to the point I thought I may have a heart attack. The team doctor had no idea what was going on, so I finally quit the swim team, but the trouble sleeping and chest pains continued. After 6 months I finally found a doctor that diagnosed me with Adrenal Exhaustion. It's a very rare condition that occurs in distance runners and occasionally in swimmers. It starts when there is a large increase in yardage swum or run. I went from 3000 yd workouts my senior year to 20,000 yds per day in college. The body cannot produce adrenaline fast enough to keep up with the demand. Your immune system is depressed and most people get sick with mono, the flu or something else that knocks them out for several weeks and their body has time to recover. In my case, I pushed through and never had a break so my adrenaline supply was depleted throwing my other hormones off. Serotonin is used up as well trying to compensate for the lack of adrenaline. Serotonin is required for sleep, without it you cannot sleep which is what happened in my case. I finally had a diagnosis and treatment began. No more than 15 minutes of exercise per day, shots of B vitamins and a lot of patience. It took a year or more to fully recover and that's when I joined US Master's Swimming. I've been swimming as a US Master's swimmer every year since.
Check back, I'll add more to this story over the next year as I train for this historic swim.
