Today, I am setting out with a few old friends to set a world record.  No, we’re not going to run 100 meters faster than anyone has before.  No, we’re not going to circumnavigate the globe using only flatulence as propellant.

We are going to establish the world record for the time it takes to jump into all of the five Great Lakes.  This bar has never been set before, but we anticipate being able to do it in just under 12 hours total.  Here are the rules of our attempt:

1. You must JUMP into each Great Lake.  No toe-tapping – you must either jump off of a pier or some other structure or run completely into each lake.  Full submersion is required.
2. Clock starts when you are on land on the shore of the first lake, just prior to your jump, and stops when you are submerged into the fifth lake.
3. Hydrologically speaking, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron are the same lake.  For purposes of this record, they are considered to be divided by the Mackinac Bridge.  If you choose to jump into Michigan and Huron at or near the Mackinac Bridge, you must jump / run into the lake on one side of the bridge, then return back out to land and jump / run into the other.  Jumping / running into one and swimming over to the other side of the bridge is not allowed.
4. Lake Superior is anything west of the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie.
5. Lake Ontario is anything east of the Burlington Bay Skyway – west of that is considered Burlington Bay.
6. Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are divided by Niagara Falls.  If you jump into Lake Erie and are then carried over Niagara Falls, for purposes of this record, that does count as jumping into Lake Ontario.

This will actually be the second world record for my companions on this trip, they previously set the record for traversing all 88 counties of the state of Ohio in under 24 hours.  You can read more about this attempt here.

Just so this doesn’t come across sounding too incredibly serious, it’s not.  Yes, we are technically setting a world record, I suppose, but we’re also getting a weekend-long road trip to spend some time together.  Either way, it’s going to be awesome.

See you at ThatConference on Monday!