I have been looking around at a lot of different distance open water swimming sites lately and then looking at the times. It seems to me that the times are way to fast. Then again I'm not an open water swimmer, though that will change this year. I'm still confused by the times and speed I seem to be seeing. Here are just a couple of examples:
Little Red Lighthouse swim, best time: 1:07 for a 7.8 mile swim!
Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, best time 5:45 for a 28 mile swim. Heck you have to finish in 10 hours.
And then from here: 47-year old Slovenian ...He also broke the world record for non-stop swimming when he covered 313 miles of the Danube in just 84 hours in 2001. That's an average of 3.7 miles an hour.
I can see that the tides and water flow would help, but still I have seen a lot of averages of 3-4+ miles an hour. Those would be close to 1500 WR times in a pool. How can people sustain such speeds for so long? What am I missing here because I'd like to be able to do those kinds of speed.
And one more point, regarding these amazingly fast times. If you look at the athletes who hold these records, they are world class distance and marathon swimmers. Shelley Taylor Smith who holds the Manhattan Island Swim record of 05:45:25, is arguably the best female marathon swimmer since Penny Dean.
Also when I swam the race in 1999, we had the best race conditions ever, but that shouldn’t detract from Tobie Smith’s 06:32:41. Tobie was an NCAA distance champion in the 1650, World University Games 1500 M champion, and a frequent member of the USA-Swimming National team.
For those who have never experienced the wonder of current assisted swimming, it is difficult to describe the incredible feeling you get while swimming past the UN, under the Brooklyn Bridge, and past Yankee Stadium, The Empire State Building, and the World Trade Centers at 2 to 3 times your normal race pace.
And one more point, regarding these amazingly fast times. If you look at the athletes who hold these records, they are world class distance and marathon swimmers. Shelley Taylor Smith who holds the Manhattan Island Swim record of 05:45:25, is arguably the best female marathon swimmer since Penny Dean.
Also when I swam the race in 1999, we had the best race conditions ever, but that shouldn’t detract from Tobie Smith’s 06:32:41. Tobie was an NCAA distance champion in the 1650, World University Games 1500 M champion, and a frequent member of the USA-Swimming National team.
For those who have never experienced the wonder of current assisted swimming, it is difficult to describe the incredible feeling you get while swimming past the UN, under the Brooklyn Bridge, and past Yankee Stadium, The Empire State Building, and the World Trade Centers at 2 to 3 times your normal race pace.
