Swim to the moon.
On Sunday, August 16, 2026, the curator swims the 10K "Full Moon" at Swim to the Moon — an open-water festival through the Hiland Chain of Lakes near Hell, Michigan, that funds a summer camp for kids with serious illness. A public clock is the best coach there is. Tick, tick.
to race day · Sun Aug 16, 2026 · the 10K (Full Moon)
Official event & registration: swimtothemoon.net (opens in a new tab). Distances from a half-mile to 15K — a moon for everyone.
Why this one
10K — the "Full Moon." Six-plus miles of open water, no walls to push off. The real event the training's been pointed at.
Swim to the Moon, near Hell, MI, through the Hiland Chain of Lakes. Distances run from a half-mile up to 15K — a start line for every level.
Warm in August. The YMCA pool directors told the curator the water's warm for the swim that time of year — good news for six miles of open water. Warm enough the curator plans to swim it in just shorts 🩳 — no wetsuit. A wetsuit is buoyancy you didn't earn; just shorts is touching the wall, the hard way. Plan, not a promise — relayed from the Y's pool directors, not an official lake-temp reading.
Proceeds support North Star Reach, a camp for children with serious, chronic, and life-threatening conditions. The swim pays it forward.
Breaststroke the whole way. Small breaks for water only, plus snacks along the way — steady over fast, finish over flash. The curator's race-day plan — a plan, not a promise; the lake gets a vote.
Come swim a distance — any distance. Or come cheer from the shore. Or just back the kids' camp from your couch. The point of a countdown isn't to find one person; it's to get more humans in the water, which is the whole creed in a wetsuit. Sister rooms: The Pool Wing, The Road to 97.
The turtle strategy 🐢
The goal this year is one word: finish. Not place, not race — let everyone go ahead. Steady beats fast over six miles, and the swimmer who's still moving at the last buoy already won the only contest that counts. The hare's a story; the turtle's a plan.
And this one's a keystone swim — a baseline, not a peak. The point of finishing it is to know where we're at, honestly, so next year has a real number to build on. Hopefully we train harder and swim it butterfly next year — but that's earned by finishing this one first. You don't get to claim the harder stroke until you've touched this year's wall. Baseline now; build on it later.
The curator's own race plan and goal — a plan, not a promise; the lake gets a vote, and next year is a hope, not a guarantee.
And waiting at the wall: a cigar at the finish line. 🚬😉 The turtle's whole reward — not a medal, not a time, just the slow, earned smoke of a man who finished what he got in the water to do.
What actually trains for it
Counter-intuitive, but ask any distance swimmer: a 10K of open-water freestyle isn't won by the shoulders. It's core and posture. The lower back and abs hold your line and rotation so you stop snaking and bleeding meters; the neck is what lets you breathe and sight the next buoy without wrecking the stroke. The arms just finish what the core started.
So that's where the work goes — back, abs, neck: the unglamorous middle that holds a body straight for six miles. The curator's own training focus — general open-water wisdom, not a prescription. Every body's different, and a coach beats a website.
Where the registration goes — the receipt
The Swim to the Moon registration carries a donation to North Star Reach, a 501(c)(3) camp in Pinckney, MI (about 30 miles from the start at Halfmoon Lake) that runs life-changing camp experiences for children living with serious health challenges and their families. The curator registered June 17, 2026; the $1 added to that registration went to the camp. Small money, named honestly, on the record — the dollar isn't the point; the receipt is.
To: North Star Reach · 1200 University Camp Drive · Pinckney, MI 48169
Amount: $1.00 · Date: 2026-06-17 · Vehicle: Swim to the Moon registration
Status: 501(c)(3) tax-deductible · No goods or services received in exchange
Their work: Since 2016, over 8,000 in-person and virtual camp experiences for kids with serious health challenges. northstarreach.org
This is the spine of why the swim isn't an athletic vanity project: the curator's training pays a child's camp. Companionship work (CLAUDE.md clause) extended into a lane — the hard-way swim is also a small dollar moving in the right direction, on the record, with the cause named and a real human reachable on the other end of it.
Receipt drafted from the official acknowledgment email (J.J. Lewis, CEO, North Star Reach). All numbers and dates are as the camp recorded them; verify totals with the camp directly. No fundraising goals invented; no future donations promised.