Almost 300 human fish swam from I-90 to Madison Park on Saturday to compete in Seattle’s Fat Salmon, where the winning swimmers get – wait for it – wait for it – wait for it – a salmon!

The race stretches 3.2 miles along the shores from I-90 to Madison Park in water temperatures that range from 58 degrees to 72 degrees. That’s much colder than swimming pools, folks, and some of the competitors emerged from the drink as gray as the salmon they were hoping to win and shivering like a limb in a storm.

The downtown YMCA’s team (these were our peeps) killed it.

Rock star Melissa Chamberlin won first place in the three-mile non-wetsuit (yes, she won a salmon).

Eric Kelley won first place in his age group for the wet suit one-miler.

In their respective age groups for the wet-suit three-mile race, Tom Farrell and Robert Hartman both came in third, and Jack Timmons came in first. Wait. No. Sorry. Jack Timmons placed 11th place in his age group. That’s like winning first place twice!

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