The Dash and Splash is in its 18th season and ticked over a major milestone at Macandrew Bay last evening.
It was the 100th event and organiser Mike Harris (below) has been there since the first event in 1998.
‘‘I think we started with about 35 individuals and about seven or eight teams ... and the record is 98 people, which we had at St Clair one year, but that is going back a few years,'' Harris said.‘‘Probably, on average, there is about 35-40 [people]. The interest is still there.
‘‘I'm keen to keep them going as long as we can because we do an open-water swimming series and that is probably more popular at the moment.''
Harris, who has a background in triathlon, saw a need for an event like Auckland's stroke and stride, which has been running ‘‘about 25 years'', and approached the management at Moana Pool in Dunedin with the idea.
He worked in partnership with Moana Pool until three years ago and now runs the event on his own.
The intention behind the Dash and Splash and the open-water swim series was to give multisport athletes an opportunity to go for longer training swims that simulate race conditions.
The races are timed and there is healthy competition. It is funded through entry fees, which Harris tries to keep ‘‘at the minimum''.‘‘I guess it runs on the smell of an oily rag, really.''Yesterday's Dash and Splash was a 750m swim and 5km run.
