Mile After Mile

Inches...feet...yards...pounds...quarts... while the world used metric measurements, a handful of countries still use the imperical units of measurements: UK, US, Myanmar and Liberia.

Although 1K, 2K, 5K, 10K and 25K races are popular the world over in open water swimming, mile (1.6K) swims are gaining popularity.

These one-mile races include the RCP Tiburon Mile in San Francisco Bay, the new Pagganck Mile that will be part of the Governor's Island Swim Weekend in New York City, and the Great Swim Series that includes Great London Swim, the Great Scottish Swim, the Great North Swim and the Great East Swim.

This Monday morning in California, there is also the Millerton Mile that serves as the 2009 US Masters Swimming 1-mile national championship. Mike Shaffer, 43 of Ventura County Masters, and Jeff Erwin, 44 of Idaho's Sawtooth Masters (shown on left), who both dominated the distance freestyle events in the pool national masters championships are expected to be the class of the field in the Millerton Lake.

Photo of the start of the 1-mile Pacific Open Water Challenge in California by Bob Maguglin.