It promises to be the biggest “run” on Sister Lakes since the 1964 monster.

Of course, a triathlon also involves swimming and biking.

Plenty of all three, in fact — a 1,000-meter swim starting by Driftwood on Round Lake and a 23-mile bike ride around Indian Lake on top of a 10K like Steve’s Run in Dowagiac.

Mary Kinney, chair of the Sister Lakes Corridor Improvement Authority, confirmed Tuesday that her organization signed a five-year contract with a Gaylord company for event management Saturday, July 23, starting at 8 a.m. and concluding by 3 p.m.

The fundraising triathlon will unfold across two counties, Cass and Van Buren, but will be centered around Lions Park off 95th Avenue.

Staging can accommodate some 400 participants, plus family and friends who follow them here.

Sister Lakes Lions Club will provide lunch — perhaps burgers and fresh fruit.

Kinney credited a Magician Lake triathlete who read about the CIA’s plans last year with suggesting it investigate sponsoring such an event to raise funds from entrance fees and corporate sponsorships.

Registration information is already available online at www.3disciplines.com, the racing company’s Web site she said receives a half-million hits annually.

She said event managers were “totally amazed at the beauty of this area. The Gaylord people really love the terrain” winding around lakes. hills, orchards and vineyards.

“We’re hoping to pull people from South Bend, Chicago and Kalamazoo” with an event that could benefit the region in the staycation era of rising pump prices.

If seven months of training still leave you short of tackling the full “Olympic” enchilada, there is a lesser “sprint” option, which is a half-triathlon — 500-meter swim, 20K bike ride and 5K run.

To make the triathlon even more “user friendly” and to entice more athletes, Kinney said, “I could swim and have others do the biking and running.”

If even that level of involvement sounds dauntting, “We need cheerleaders, too,” said Kinney.

She witnessed women 18 to 75 of all sizes Race for the Cure in Portage and came away convinced, “I could do this.”

Kinney said South Shore Health and Racquet Club in St. Joseph is already on board as a corporate sponsor.

Another committed sponsor is Cardinal Fitness, with 70 Chicagoland outlets.

CIA’s plans for grant funding have thus far been stymied, though they’re optimistic that might change with a new governor, Republican Rick Snyder, installed in Lansing.

The expectation in inking a five-year deal is to break even in 2011 and make $25,000 by year three.

Once the event is established, “the second year we can do it up right” with a concerted festival atmosphere.

“I think we can do better than that with corporate sponsors,” Kinney said in a phone interview Tuesday.

“We’ve just begun. This could be a good boost for everyone in the area, including neighboring communities like Dowagiac — not just Sister Lakes.

“I’ve heard gas prices will be $4 by summer. We hope to remind St. Joseph that Sister Lakes is really not that far away. I’m looking forward to it already.”

Her colleague on the CIA board, Tom Neary of Big Crooked Lake, agreed.

“It really looks like it’s going to be a terrific event for us,” said Neary, who raised his family around Sister Lakes since 1968, retired there in 2000 and rebuilt their summer cottage in 2003.

Learning about the previously unknown world of triathlons — “it’s so interesting,” he said — Neary has been brought up to speed by his daughter, a triathlete of recent vintage who lives in Denver, Colo.

“She’s fired up to come to Michigan to participate,” he said.

“It’s quite amazing” how young urban professionals from their 30s to 50s have taken to regimens which might start at 5:30 a.m. with swimming.

He said South Shore has a couple of staffers who competed in Hawaii.

Web sites geared to the fast-growing pursuit can point competitors to a triathlon somewhere every weekend so they can plan this year’s travel around them.

Neary’s daughter advises him the three keys to attract competitors are the course, the T-shirt and the snack or meal afterward.

“It’s just taken off,” Neary is finding. “It blows my mind,” adding that this group constitutes a distinct community of its own.

“They run in groups, like wolf packs” with a “weekend warrior mentality. It’s a whole new world to me,” but then Neary hopes to show visitors a whole new world, too.

“We want to open their eyes to the fruit belt,” if they aren’t already familiar with it and hope they’ll visit again when they’re in less of a hurry.

“If you’re interested,” he said Tuesday night, “now is the time to get started.”