SANDPOINT - A record number of swimmers will take the plunge into Lake Pend Oreille today for the 16th annual Long Bridge Swim, with as many as 800 swimmers expected to complete the 1.76 mile swim across the lake.

One of those is 35-year-old Jan Whitcomb from Coeur d'Alene, who has family in Sandpoint and decided to attempt the swim for the first time.

Despite having multiple sclerosis, she swims a mile every other day and hopes to conquer the Long Bridge Swim in the allotted time, a remarkable feat considering she can only use her arms.

"I've got some buoyancy in the middle region and my legs just kind of float along," described Whitcomb, who hasn't let the disease slow her down. "I've always been athletic, and four years ago did a triathlon with my sister."

Race director, inventor and driving force Eric Ridgway says all participants must be checked in and ready at SHS by 7:30 a.m., with the race slated to start at 9 a.m. Once all of the pre-race formalities are over, the fun that defines the event begins.

"It's the most splashingly, I know it's not a word but I like to use it, fun event in the Pacific Northwest, with the friendliest volunteers," describes Ridgway, who loves the joy the event brings to many of the swimmers. "If they complete the swim, it's a degree of pride that will make them glow for months to come."

As always, the race will run the gamut of swimmers, from elite college swimmers leaving a wake to those using floaties and fins just trying to finish. And as always, there are the unique stories that are one of the hallmarks of the unique event.

Sister Madonna Buder, an 80-year-old nun coming over from Spokane to take part in her eighth Long Bridge Swim, is hoping to become the first female octogenarian to complete the swim.

On the other end of the spectrum is 8-year-old Sandpoint swimmer Chandler Sanborn, who's hoping to beat her finish time from last year, when she finished the race as a 7-year-old.

"She's hoping to do a better time, and I'm sure she will," said Ridgway, emphasizing that anyone under 8 has to have pre-race authorization from him to compete. "Her mom Courtney and sister Logan are all swimming."

People come from all over the U.S. for the swim, perhaps none traveling farther than 26-year-old Krystal Arnoldsen, a former Sandpoint resident coming all the way from Florida for the race.

One swimmer to keep an eye on is 14-year-old Bryce Kananowicz of Liberty Lake, Wash., who finished fifth in the Long Bridge Swim last year and returns another year wiser, faster and stronger.

"He's the director's pick for first out of the water," predicts Ridgway, noting the youth swimmer won the recent Steve Omi Swim in Coeur d'Alene. "He's a really nice kid. I'd love to see a 14-year-old kid clean up the whole pack."

Last year a record 724 swimmers finished the race, eclipsing the previous mark yet again. Not everyone who registers finishes, one of the reasons that hundreds of volunteers are on hand to provide safety and boats for tired swimmers to climb aboard if need be.

Alas, it's the hundreds of volunteers that help make the race what it is, from the Coast Guard, to bridge spotters, to boats, to kayaks and even the people making ice cream cones to hand out to the finishers at Dog Beach.

"Literally several hundred community members volunteer time to make it possible," said Ridgway, a former college swimmer in his own right. "A huge thank you to all of the volunteers and local businesses. Without them sacrificing their time, the swimmers couldn't have this much fun."