Speaking of epic accomplishments

[mrs.jacinthe]

My friend John is currently doing an English Channel crossing (tracker found here: www.channelswimmingassociation.com/pilots/connemara at the bottom of the page).  

This is not overly astonishing, lots of people do channel crossings, right?  Right.

But do lots of people do English Channel crossings entirely butterfly?  And in search of a world record crossing time?  Yeah, that's my friend John.  Going for a world record time in 100% butterfly channel crossing.  He's currently about 10 hours in.  Time to beat is 14 hours 18 minutes, set in 2002 by a woman.

ETA: I keep thinking about this and my mind is BLOWN.  EC is 21 miles, and most people swim longer because of the currents (take a look at that tracker!).  I get tired after about 21 yards of fly.  LOL

ETA2: Here's a video, about 9 hours in.  Damn.  www.facebook.com/132029483530840/videos/1855117961221975/

[cinco]

OMG! That is crazy! Best of luck to him.

[labbie]

Woah, amazing!
I can literally do about 5 strokes of butterfly :-\

[emilyj]

HOLE. LEE. SHIT.

I bow to him. That's incredible.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Jun 25, 2018 14:32:51 GMT -5 emilyj said:

HOLE. LEE. SHIT.

I bow to him. That's incredible.

The best thing about John is that he is simply one of the nicest, most supportive, most humble people I know, besides being an absolute beast of an athlete.  Endurance swimmers really are the nicest people.

[bostonmichelle]

He's amazing and incredible! I can barely do 25 yards of butterfly.

[wawa]

Butterfly is where I stopped progressing in swim lessons as a kid. I could not figure it out to save my life.

He may as well be flying across the channel by flapping his arms for all I can visualize this accomplishment personally. Amazing.

[mrs.jacinthe]

UPDATE: Reviewing the tracker map, it looks like they missed the easy landing point (probably due to tides) and therefore probably missed the world record, unless he finds some crazy current in the next 40 minutes or so. He's at 29 miles-ish at this point, so he's gotta be exhausted.

[hurricanedrunk]

That sucks on your update that he will probably miss the world record, still truly epic and amazing accomplishment.

[mrs.jacinthe]

UPDATE 2: Looks like they pulled him. Not sure if it just wasn't his day or a medical issue; I'm waiting to hear details. But MAN. What an effort!

[shauni27]

mrs.jacinthe, wow, that is amazing. Please keep us updated.

I literally cannot imagine.

[mrs.jacinthe]

Ok, here's the FINAL update:

He completed 33 MILES and about 14.5 hours of swimming. He had a problem with his body rejecting feeds (read: puking) starting at 3 hours, so he did 10 hours with incomplete nutrition, causing less power per stroke. As a result, he wasn't where he needed to be when the tide turned and was getting pushed into the shipping lanes, hence the pull. Apparently he made a hard push right at the end, but had 90 minutes of swimming left and not enough energy left to fight the tide. He says he's counting this as a training swim and will work to re-configure his feeds and make another try at it.

[emilyj]

Damn. That is just amazing. I am in awe that he did this. I'm more in awe he's going to do it again.

[sweetptater]

Um, that is incredible.

[mrshandy]

That is so crazy. I'm sorry he missed the world record. But what a feat. Holy moly.

[labbie]

He's amazing. Just, wow.

[shauni27]

holy shit at that update. That is really amazing (and sadist, lol)