Courtesy of Karen Einsidler, Mighty Mermaids.

The Mighty Mermaids is made up of six women who are all competitive masters swimmers.

“We got together to do marathon swims when we were all over 50 [years old],” explains 61-year-old Karen Einsidler.

“We do one swim a year and are very selective about the swims we choose. Our inaugural swim together was the Lake Tahoe swim which we did a second time as well as completing the length of the lake on a third occasion.

We have also completed the swim around Manhattan Island, across the Catalina Channel and the length of Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, and the race in Lake Travis in Austin, Texas. We also did an over 25-mile swim in Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire where we raised over US$7,000 for video game units for children to use in hospitals as they are undergoing cancer treatment.

We were intrigued by the 24-mile Tampa Bay Marathon Swim as it is a good length for us and in a great location as two of the Mermaids have homes in the Sarasota area. Unfortunately the swim was cancelled while in progress last year – which was disappointing – though it was the right call by the race director.

The Mermaids did not like leaving a swim unfinished so we are back on April 1st. Doing it at a time other than the race day hoping for better conditions as well as allowing us to have a window of a couple of days. We look forward to completing what we could not last year.”

The Mighty Mermaids Relay include Tracy Grilli (60), Nancy Steadman Martin (62), Christie Ciraulo (63), Veronica Hibben (60), Karen Einsidler (61), and Jenny Cook (59).

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