Also, he is the 10k OW Olympic champion of 2008 (Beijing) and the 25k OW world champion of 2008.


And hypothermia. He has different wetsuits (but the thicker, the harder the swimming will be) and even a experimental wetsuit with wiring in the neopreen for heating.

Start is tomorrow (early) morning at 4:30 (+1 GMT).

Also special goggles for the night to keep awake. And monitoring his inner body temp to avoid hypothermia with a special pil.

This.
An incredibly experienced athlete doing a mammoth task to raise money for charity.
Incredibly well planned.
Remind you of another thread on St?

Maarten has set the world record for a 24 hour pool swim across a 50m pool, and also had an attempt where he came up just short. He's completed several "marathon" swims, 26.2 mikes in a pool, for chartities. He's an Olympic gold medalist in the 10km OWS, and has several world titles (and many appearances) in fina 25k OWS events. I'd say he's coming in as well-prepared as anyone, ever.

Aside from the risks of hypothermia and currents, OWS for long duration is probably much easier on the body than similar time spent running or even biking. In my own experience, I once swam a 12 mile race solo, nearing 5 hours. I hopped out of the water, heaved the guide kayak onto the roof, and drove home. I've also done century rides in training for IM, and nine marathons, and I felt better after 5 hours of swimming than I'd ever felt after 5 hours of cycling or 3 hours of running.

Maarten inspired a personal goal to try a 24 hour swim. I didn't get a chance this year to build the base, but I might try again later.

Ya, this guy is the real deal when it comes to marathon swimming. He has the unique blend of actually being super fast, and the mindset to be able to just keep going. Most endurance swimmers have some speed, but nothing like this dude. He is going to rewrite a lot of records before he retires, and set a bunch of brand new ones...

What Monty said. The speed at which Maarten finishes these epic swims is unreal. Lewis Pugh is a legend in his own right and wouldn't be caught dead in a wetsuit, but there's never been an ultra-endurance swimmer that can maintain speed like Maarten.

I'd be interested to know what precautions he's taking for bacteria. I'd have to imagine 200K of canal swimming would be torture on his insides. What's he going to do when he has to shit?

The idea was that people could swim together with Maarten and donate. However due to the high temperature last few weeks E. coli-bacteria is found and therefore it is strongly advised not to swim with Maarten. So Maarten will probably swim alone.

An extra zipper in his (prototype) wetsuit...

His wetsuits also have heating wires. Core temperature is measured with a temperature pill.

Instead of klunen (google that), he will be hoisted over two passages in a bag similar to which they transport dolphins.

There are a few things to comment on here.
"shitting while swimming"?? It took awhile for me to execute peeing while swimming w/o breaking stride. But #2 is a huge psychological no no I can't imagine!

Wires in a wetsuit, sounds sketchy but sure, someone's gotta try it and I have a friend with a condition that could really use this.

Being transported in a bag - like fish from the store? 8-O

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Have you never had to get out of the pool to go take a crap??? I have to do this maybe every 3 months or so. I could easily crap in the pool but they kind of frown on that. Of course, the "extra zipper" brings up the question of is he "going commando" under his wetsuit, without even a Speedo on??? So many complex issues here...

In any case, swimming 200,000 meters straight will be an incredible feat if he makes it. Makes the 10K swim sound like a mere warm-up. :)

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

Not that I can remember, but that wasn't what I was referring to. I thought the idea of the bag of water was to not stop swimming for any reason. So I figured that also meant not stopping to go use a toilet.

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To breathe, to feel, to know I'm alive.

Actually, the ultra long D swimmers typically stop every 20 min, or at most every 30, for a feeding. Acc to the OW rules, the swimmer can not touch the boat and his/her assistant must hold the feed bag or bottle out to the swimmer using a long pole-like contraption with something like a clothes pin or similar at the end to which the bag/bottle is attached. I'm not exactly sure how the rules are worded but my impression is that the helper and swimmer can not touch each other at all, which is obv why they use the pole. So, while stopped for a feeding, or between feedings, the swimmer could unzip his butt zipper and let the crap go, then quickly swim away. IOW, the swimmer can stop during a "continuous swim" but he/she must tread water while stopped with no touching of the boat (or the bottom of the ocean/lake, if water is that shallow) allowed. This is my understanding; a more knowledgeable OW may correct me if i'm off-base.

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

Hello Livio and All,

I just looked at live feed and he is still moving right along with a slow stroke rate.

Lots of observers on the sides of the swim route.

Where can we see distance traveled/remaining distance updates?

Please disregard .................... I just found it:

https://translate.google.com/...it-text=&act=url

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

3 cities and approx 85km to go.

Don't want to seem like a "hater" but, since he rested on the boat for 3 hrs, this is not a "continuous" swim any longer. Minor point perhaps as he has already swum a long, long, long way. :)

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

Depends how you define continuous. For me if those 3 hours are part of your race time it is continuous.

There is a link to a live feed somewhere right?

Even reading the planning on this one is astonishing....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFxjEl4gn5Y . There is a 360 degree on board. But we are getting into the night.

OK, i'll grant you that but i would not say it is "non-stop" (as your thread title says) since he did stop for 3 hrs. Of course, since he's wearing a wetsuit, he was violating the OW rules from the start. AFAIK, Sarah Thomas's swim of the 80-mi length of Lake Powell (Utah/Arizona in western U.S.) in 56 hr and 5 min in Oct 2016, sans wetsuit and with no stops other than treading water during feedings, still owns the WR for longest continuous, non-stop, non-wetsuit swim.

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

It was intended to be non stop but Maarten had a terrible night both physically as mental. Although not experienced in his training and other 24 hour races he had a lot of pain. I think he was close to stop early sunday morning.

Like Sarah Thomas these are very exceptional human achievements.

AFAIK, Sarah Thomas's swim of the 80-mi length of Lake Powell (Utah/Arizona in western U.S.) in 56 hr and 5 min in Oct 2016, sans wetsuit and with no stops other than treading water during feedings, still owns the WR for longest continuous, non-stop, non-wetsuit swim. //

You got to keep up man, that is not the WR anymore, not even close. Here is the new one;


https://www.ft.com/...e7-947e-f1ea5435bcc7


Just saw the link isn't working, cliff note version is she swam 104 miles last year, unassisted and marshaled...

 

OK, i'll grant you that but i would not say it is "non-stop" (as your thread title says) since he did stop for 3 hrs. Of course, since he's wearing a wetsuit, he was violating the OW rules from the start. AFAIK, Sarah Thomas's swim of the 80-mi length of Lake Powell (Utah/Arizona in western U.S.) in 56 hr and 5 min in Oct 2016, sans wetsuit and with no stops other than treading water during feedings, still owns the WR for longest continuous, non-stop, non-wetsuit swim.[/quote]
Sarah went on to swim 104 miles in 67 hours, last year. Amazing what is possible!

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong, i'm in total awe that he went as far as he did. I love swimming and have done several 10-12K swims but you won't find me trying 200K any time soon!!!

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

So she did this epic 104.6 mile swim last year in Aug 2017 but there was NO ST THREAD!?!?!? How i supposed to keep up if you guys don't keep me updated??? I only have the time to read ST, mainly b/c i get so engrossed in the various threads that i run out of my alloted free reading time. So, dammit, you guys have got to keep me updated!!! :):):):):)

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