COEUR d'ALENE - The joke is, even if you can barely swim, the current in the river will push you to the end of the course.

Of course, even if that's the case, once out of the water you still have to bike and run and nothing but good old fashioned training can help you then.

But about that swim.

"Even if you're not a strong swimmer, you'll still make it," said Isaac Mann, Race the River Triathlon race director. "Because you'll just float."

The sixth annual sprint triathlon set for Sunday, July 28 has a few changes this year.

Namely, the not-quite-12-mile bike course is a two-lap course that leaves its traditional home, the Riverstone complex, for the North Idaho College campus and scenic Dike road along the shores of the Spokane River and Lake Coeur d'Alene.

The two-lap course runs along Northwest Boulevard, and should ease congestion. It's just under 12 miles because they had to surrender some distance to make the laps fit.

What's a two-lap course mean for racers?

"We should have a lot happier bike ride," Mann said.

Sprint triathlons are, as the name says, an all out hustle once the gun goes off. Think of Ironman, and then think of the opposite and you have Race The River.

In fact, Mann and a group of friends were training for Ironman about six years ago when they realized they should organize a race for the more casual athlete.

"We thought, 'You know, we really should do an entry-level sport,'" Mann said of the realization they came to one day during one of their many, long training days. "Race the River is designed for people who are new to the sport, or who have a hobby level interest in the sport who don't want to train for Ironman."

The 3.1-mile run is the third and final leg. It goes around Riverstone, the race sponsor with 360 Fitness, just as it did in years past. Also unchanged is the swim. Swimmers get in the Spokane River and swim, or drift, parallel Bellerive Lane.

"I tell people, don't worry about it you'll make - you'll float," Mann said.

Registration is $80. Pros start at 6:59 a.m. Info: wwwracetheriver.com