I didn’t see a thread on this, but I just caught wind of Sarah Thomas in progress in pursuit of a 104 mile OWS.
Tracker: https://track.rs/ssthomas/
I think this link will take you to her Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SarahThomasMarathonSwimmer/posts/1547621055302810
That’s pretty hard core.
I didn’t see a thread on this, but I just caught wind of Sarah Thomas in progress in pursuit of a 104 mile OWS.
Tracker: https://track.rs/ssthomas/
I think this link will take you to her Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/...ZWtRkqTiGuadfvXMpaQA
https://www.facebook.com/...sts/1547621055302810
That’s pretty hard core.
Thanks for posting. From the links and Google, I see that she is swimming down Lake Champlain, mainly in NY State. Acc to Wiki, water temps in July/Avg are around 70F which would be perfect for Ms. Thomas, who hates water above 72-ish. No wetsuit of course, as in standard for many OW swimmers, although FINA now requires them at temps below 68. Ms. Thomas hosted an “ask me anything” thread on ST after her last uber swim, which IIRC was 80 miles in Lake Powell in Oct '16.
That would crush the old world record if she makes it. Seems like she pays attention to the requirements for breaking records, so assume she has that in mind here and minding her P’s and Q’s…And very smart doing these swims in fresh water too, eliminates so many negative variables from the ocean.
Thanks for the link, will follow her along her journey.
Is there an estimate on the time this will take?
I don’t know… after 24 hours she has gone 42 miles. So, maybe 55 hours? By Wednesday evening (ET)?
I wonder if it would be legal to have a kayak a good distance in front, so no drafting, towing a florescent fishing line so she could just swim and not worry about her direction of travel. She could just see the line below her.
I would like to know what grease she puts on too. That helps slide through the water besides offering protection, no?
Damn. That’s nuts.
This may be a stupid question, and the answer is probably obvious… but how does she sight at night? A lead vessel?
wow.
That would crush the old world record if she makes it. Seems like she pays attention to the requirements for breaking records, so assume she has that in mind here and minding her P’s and Q’s…And very smart doing these swims in fresh water too, eliminates so many negative variables from the ocean.
Thanks for the link, will follow her along her journey.
Yeah, Lake Champlain can get some rough chop, but at least there won’t be jellyfish to worry about.
I wonder if it would be legal to have a kayak a good distance in front, so no drafting, towing a florescent fishing line so she could just swim and not worry about her direction of travel. She could just see the line below her.
While that is common practice in some locations, maybe the Solomon Islands marathon swims? That isn’t the normal accepted practice in marathon swimming in the U.S., South America, or Europe. If she were to do that, it wouldn’t be well received by the marathon swimming community. And up till now she has been very well regarded - so I would be pretty shocked if she did that for one of her swims.
Some will certainly note that Diana Nyad used the setup you mentioned in her Cuba swim, she isn’t necessarily well thought of, or in some cases believed, in the marathon swim community.
I would like to know what grease she puts on too. That helps slide through the water besides offering protection, no?
An undetectable and imperceptible amount. Grease is for chafing and some think it helps for heat, though it almost certainly doesn’t. The difference in drag between a shaven, ungreased swimmer and a shaven greased swimmer is negligible.
The grease is probably channel grease, a mixture of roughly one half lanolin and one half vaseline with some other things occasionally mixed in. Zinc oxide is a common additive for sun protection.
At what point do you begin having issues with your skin; and what are they, after prolonged exposure to water?
At what point do you begin having issues with your skin; and what are they, after prolonged exposure to water?
Please don’t interpret my comment to mean that I have experience in long distance swimming. I have never swam anything close to what she is doing. It is just that when I read about people who do those swims, the jellyfish seem to cause a lot of problems, and jellyfish kind of freak me out. Even if the don’t sting, they are just gross.
wow.
So now we know that it isn’t you. But I bet you could do it with all your swimming bad-assery. ;-p
At what point do you begin having issues with your skin; and what are they, after prolonged exposure to water?
I wonder the same thing. It seems like your skin would just start falling off! I spend 2 hours in the ocean and my skin gets weird. Especially the inside of my mouth. I guess she’s not in salt water so maybe that helps?
Yeah, Lake Champlain can get some rough chop, but at least there won’t be jellyfish to worry about. //
Ya jellies are one of the problems that occur in ocean swimming, especially since most people pick times and places where the water is quite warm. But the number one problem is something that most would not even think about, it is the salt. After a day plus in saltwater your tongue starts to swell and your mouth gets wonky. Part of our standard procedures in the ocean is to do a mouth rinse every hour or so. Even with that by the end the tongue is so big it gets in the way of breathing and eating. Pretty shitty to call a swim when the rest of the body is working but you cannot eat anymore!!! The other issues are of course weather seems to be more unpredictable in the ocean along with currents. And of course the creatures, but that is just a fear to overcome, not an actual thing in the majority of cases.
And kayakers are allowed to follow along to the side of the swimmers and to feed them without any holding on or touching. So besides the support boat it is the kayaker’s job to keep the swimmer on course, but from the side only…
She was at the Portland Bridge Swim - an 11 mile “sprint” for her. She placed second overall in 4:05, 30 minutes faster than me. That’s about a 1:13/100 yard pace! Current wasn’t a huge factor. She’s a beast!!
Damn. That’s nuts.
This may be a stupid question, and the answer is probably obvious… but how does she sight at night? A lead vessel?
You can put glowsticks on the kayak and then swim well off to the side of it. Give the Kayak the bearing and then the swimmer just stays X feet off to the side. We did this swimming across Tahoe starting at 4 am and it worked great. Told the kayak to paddle pretty much due north and I just tracked off the side of the kayak.
Interesting to see the new wetsuit rule. I’m glad for it. As a triathlete, we try to keep our weight down and then suffer in the long cold water swims. But dedicated channel swimmers just fatten up and are essentially wearing a wetsuit anyway. I never liked being penalized for eating healthy and keeping weight down. I’m not quite sure I believe that new rule is real though until I see it in print… “no wetsuits, no matter what” is pretty entrenched in their culture.
Damn. That’s nuts.
This may be a stupid question, and the answer is probably obvious… but how does she sight at night? A lead vessel?
You can put glowsticks on the kayak and then swim well off to the side of it. Give the Kayak the bearing and then the swimmer just stays X feet off to the side. We did this swimming across Tahoe starting at 4 am and it worked great. Told the kayak to paddle pretty much due north and I just tracked off the side of the kayak.
Interesting to see the new wetsuit rule. I’m glad for it. As a triathlete, we try to keep our weight down and then suffer in the long cold water swims. But dedicated channel swimmers just fatten up and are essentially wearing a wetsuit anyway. I never liked being penalized for eating healthy and keeping weight down. I’m not quite sure I believe that new rule is real though until I see it in print… “no wetsuits, no matter what” is pretty entrenched in their culture.
Thanks.
She was at the Portland Bridge Swim - an 11 mile “sprint” for her. She placed second overall in 4:05, 30 minutes faster than me. That’s about a 1:13/100 yard pace!
Wow. Unreal.
I remember seeing pictures of Diana Nyad’s mouth after the Cuba swim. It looked so painful. There have also been some horrific tales of what happens to sailor’s skin after a couple days of waiting for rescue after a ship sinks. I haven’t heard much about the long term effects of fresh water, but even that has to get bad.