The July 4 deadline to enter one of the Chris Greene Lake cable swims is rapidly approaching! Don’t delay, enter now.

Cable swims are a great open water experience for beginners and veterans alike. Veterans will be attracted to the fact that it is a course that is surveyed to be exactly the stated race distance. Course conditions play a relatively minor role, so you can assess your training from year to year using your race performance.

Beginners benefit from a relatively mild introduction to open water swimming. Waves have only 10 people and are spaced out, and the cable helps with sighting. Worried about a 2-mile race distance? Then you can limit yourself to the 1-mile race.

CGL veterans Allison Czapracki, Caroline Kettlewell and Elizabeth Cohen have a blog about open water swimming. They recently posted a nice review of the race, targeted for beginners. But even veteran OW swimmers can benefit from a video included in the post, reproduced below.