This is amazing!

Cool stuff.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

That's 131.6km, for the metrically inclined.

I get tired just biking that far.

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'It never gets easier, you just get crazier.'

Very impressive. Is there much of a current there to help her out?

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Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Read an update a short while ago that she had a fairly stiff head wind that started this morning.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Meh.

It's not like it's 82 miles.

There are negligible currents in Lake Powell. She is swimming every mile (or km), actually probably more, because the stated distance is shortest swimmable path.

She's got about 3 miles to go.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Unbelievable swim, she will be a worthy world record holder. I don't think people appreciate what it takes to swim for that many hours and that many miles, unassisted, no wetsuits or gadgets, just you, your kayak and crew, and the occasional sardine they throw out to you to eat!!!

GO SARAH!!

IS she done? Tracker looks like it hit the shore!!

She's done. Finished about 30 minutes ago. 56 hours 5 minutes.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

Tim - Can you tell us something about her training for this epic feat??? How many meters per week, etc??? Did she train mainly in the pool???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Big wow and I'd also be interested if you know anything about how she structured her training for it.

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Yanti Ardie of Y Tri Multisport & Majick Juice for lasting critter defense & skin soothing
~ World Open Water Swimming Association Coach & Official
~ IRONMAN Certified Coach (Founding Member)
~ Triathlon Australia Professional Development Coach
~ 3 by the Sea: my Journey from death to ...

Wow. Just wow. 56hrs of swimming... Hopefully there will be a writeup somewhere or some video even? What were the conditions like?

http://marathonswimmers.org/...368/4ENAFSCY57V7.jpg

more details here:
http://marathonswimmers.org/...ona/p1#Comment_22563

I don't know what she did specifically for the race. I don't coach her. I've trained people for Tampa Bay Marathon swim, END-WET, but nothing where you are in the water for 56 hours.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

I'm sure she'll post her log books for the swim and those will contain the conditions during the whole race. You can use the marathon swimming federation link that was posted.

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http://www.magnoliamasters.com
http://www.snappingtortuga.com
http://www.swimeasyspeed.com

In that first linked picture, she is so greased up that it looks like she's wearing a white wetsuit!!! Acc to her 4 Oct post pre-swim, water temp is 70-72* F and air in the 60s day and down into the 40s at night. Wow, 56 hrs of gradually getting colder and colder, not to mention your body getting more and more tired. Will be very interesting to see how many cal/hr she took in. I would guess she was burning 800-ish cal/hr so I'd guesstimate that she'd need to take in at least 400-ish/hr.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Amazing. I don't think I could stay awake for 56 hours, much less swim that whole time.

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___________________________________________________
Taco cat spelled backwards is....taco cat.

Amazing.

A bit off topic but it seems to me Lake Powell would be the ultimate venue for a swim run event.

For 56 hours could she really run a 400 cal/hr deficit? That would be a 22,400 calorie deficit over the whole swim! I understand she will probably be burning a lot of fat but.... I would think she would need to be much closer to taking in what she is burning.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
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It's zinc oxide for sun protection.

Check out the picture of Kim Chambers half way down this article!
http://www.nytimes.com/...to-tiburon.html?_r=0

I just don't think her bodily system could handle 600-700 cal/hr, but this is just IMO. Also, 22,400 cal is *only* 6.4 lbs of fat lost in 56 hrs. Looking at the article linked by Kay Serrar, Kim Chambers lost 15 lbs in about 25 hrs; if we guesstimate that she lost 9 lbs of water and 6 lbs fat, this would be about 21,000 cal over 25 hrs or about 840 cal/hr. In this swim, temps were again 70-ish so I'd bet she using an extra 200 or so cal just to stay warm. In any case, both Kim and Sarah were obv burning a sh*t ton of calories!!!

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Ah yes, zinc oxide, how could I have forgotten, used to wear it on my nose a good bit. Thanks for that link, great story on that swim attempt. And, as far as I could tell she is an AOS, no less. :)))))

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Did you see the back handed complement from the gal that holds/held the current world record? She gives her some props, the goes on to explain that she did hers in the ocean, and that she got the ocean WR, and we will see what the powers to be award Sarah.

Personally I think she is right, ocean and fresh water swims should be two different categories and have their own records. Completely different animals when swimming in salty, fish infested waters. The common denominators of course is the time spent swimming, staying awake, and fueling. But that is where it all stops, I don't think you could ever find any ocean to be that calm for that long, and of course having salt in your mouth for that long is a whole different event..

I will be waiting along with the other record holder to see what they do, what does everyone else think?

Ya, it seems to me that the fresh and salt water swims should be diff categories for record setting purposes. The thing that gets me is not only swimming for 56 hrs but also in 70* water for 56 hrs. I get cold after a 2-hr swim in 74* water in the pool so, even with lots of grease and some acclimation, i can't see myself lasting more than 6 hrs in 70* water. I do fine in the heat but cold tends to bother me. Of course, if marathon swimming would just allow neutral buoyancy wetsuits, I'd be OK but they will never allow that. Oh well, I'll stick to warm water swims like the 12.5 mi swim around Key West in June with 80-ish water. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Hi! I just stumbled on this site and saw the questions about my calorie intake! Thought I'd answer! :-)

I use a product called CarboPro - it's straight maltodextrin. I consume just a hair over 200 calories/hr, with a little protein and electrolytes in 16 ounces of water. I stop every 30 minutes for a feed. So, 100 calories, 8 ounces of water everytime.

After 30 hours on this swim, I was feeling a little hungry, so we tried some carrots and some cookies. But, what did the trick was some warm rissotto. I had about 8 bites over the last 20 hours or so. Seemed to sit nicely in my stomach after all the sweet flavored things and liquid.

I did use an electrolyte supplement with caffeine on the second night- Nuun energy. It seemed to give me the extra boost I needed after 36 hours awake....

Hope that helps!

Hi!

I started ramping up training for this in March. I spent quite a few weeks at 50k/week, then to 60k. My max was 93k in a week, about 3 weeks out. I had about 4 weeks total right around 80k. I had a few "recovery" weeks in there and hit a lull at the end of June, where I was just off for about 3 weeks. It freaked me out, but I was able to get back up in yardage.

I was in the pool 2-4 times/week and open water 4 times/week.

I have a full time job, so I was forced to 2-3 hour swims during the week and longer swims on the weekend. I probably hit about 30 hours of swimming or more in my biggest weeks.

So. Much. Swimming. :-)

No kidding! I have nothing to add other than props on an amazing accomplishment!

There was some comment on here about calorie deficit, did you track any change in weight from start to finish or ballpark your caloric deficit?

I can't even begin to express my admiration for you--an incredible feat, to be sure, but what impresses me most is the week-in week-out day-after-day training while working.

My biggest congrats, and many thanks for the personal response.

- from a would-be long-distance swimmer and definitely your top fan in Asia!

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Yanti Ardie of Y Tri Multisport & Majick Juice for lasting critter defense & skin soothing
~ World Open Water Swimming Association Coach & Official
~ IRONMAN Certified Coach (Founding Member)
~ Triathlon Australia Professional Development Coach
~ 3 by the Sea: my Journey from death to ...

I didn't have a scale handy on either end to weigh myself, so I can't make a guess there. Probably lost a pound or two, but I wouldn't think much more than that.

Wow, that is amazing!!! How much weight did you lose during the swim??? I would guess that you were on at least a 600 cal/hr deficit, so 600*56 = 33,600 cal/3500 cal/lb = 9.6 lb plus maybe 2 or 3 lb water so I'd guess around 12-13 lbs. Am I anywhere close???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I didn't have a scale, so not sure. Highly doubt it was more than 5 pounds. Swimmers usually do have a little more fat to burn through than the average triathlete/runner, though.

I'm trying to find a start and finish picture for you- maybe you can decide what you think? :-)

Let's see if I can make this work:

Start: (https://www.facebook.com/...p;type=3&theater)
Finish: (https://www.facebook.com/...p;type=3&theater)

Way to go Sarah, you have a lot of fans here on this site. Even though it is triathlon centric, we discuss and follow just about all endurance sports, one of the very few sites that do. A lot of us here can "really" appreciate what you have done in this swim, I can't tell you how many nights I have spent on a boat watching people like you try and do the impossible, and then do it!!!

Thanks! I was surprised to see this thread here- but I was happy for all the cheering and support I could get! Not many people really get it- so it's nice to find a few out there who do! Seemed like at least a few of you knew a lot about marathon swimming, which was awesome. And thanks for watching people swimming- we all need lots of people like you! I hope to spend more time on boats myself next summer.

Well, kind of hard to say just from the pictures but let me ask you this: were you not absolutely freezing after 56 hrs in 70* water??? Shoot, I'm pretty cold after a 2-hr pool swim in 74* water so can't imagine 56 hrs at 70*!!! Also, when you do relatively short swims of 2-3 hrs, do you take in any calories or do you just swim???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."