Woman swims 4 times across the English Channel
Discussion
article said:
An American woman has become the first person to swim the English Channel four times non-stop.
Sarah Thomas, 37, began the epic challenge in the early hours of Sunday and finished after more than 54 hours.
Seriously? FOUR times non stop? Sarah Thomas, 37, began the epic challenge in the early hours of Sunday and finished after more than 54 hours.
I always wanted to swim the channel, just for pub boasting, but everyone will just say “yeah but that woman did it four times”
She’s basically selfish and ruining it for all us midlife crisis blokes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-4972485...
scrw. said:
I take it the tides caused her route, if so her last leg too a fair bit longer than the first 3! Wonder how many miles she actually covered?
Yep. Even the strongest swimmers can't hold station against the tide for long in the channel. Incredible feat of endurance just to keep together mentally for that long.
k! 
If you do a double crossing, presumably you still have to climb out at each end. Are there time limits before you have to get back in again?
There was that woman who kept trying to swim from Cuba to Florida. I think she failed about four times and even when she completed it, there was a lot of suspicion that she got in the boat and jumped out just off the Florida coast.
I think she was swimming for 50 odd hours also, but there was a lot of controversy about her times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Nyad?wprov=sft...
There was that woman who kept trying to swim from Cuba to Florida. I think she failed about four times and even when she completed it, there was a lot of suspicion that she got in the boat and jumped out just off the Florida coast.
I think she was swimming for 50 odd hours also, but there was a lot of controversy about her times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana_Nyad?wprov=sft...
TwigtheWonderkid said:
I'm toying with doing 22 miles at my pool, to see if I can swim the distance. 708 lengths! Not sure they're open long enough! 
The temperature is an issue for a lot of people. I think you are recommended to do a swim in Windermere first and that gives you realistic timing for the pilot boat to work on with tides etc. TwigtheWonderkid said:
I'm toying with doing 22 miles at my pool, to see if I can swim the distance. 708 lengths! Not sure they're open long enough!
Monumentally difficult just feeding the body to do it, and that is even with somewhere to grab onto and get food every 50m! You'd have to train a heck of a lot I reckon. Depending on swim speed, what 12-14 hours?
Temperature wise, how do channel swimmers not get terrible cramps etc?
Pretty impressive. I seem to remember reading an article a couple of months back about how women's bodies are better suited to these sorts of extreme endurance challenges. Not sure if that's correct or what the science is behind it, but anecdotally speaking, a woman I work with swam to the Isle of Wight a few years ago. "Only" about 3 miles, a fair few men in the group had to give up whereas all the women made it across.
Tides is absolutely the answer to the track. Same reason the Channel swim is normally completed in multiples of 6hrs. If you just missed the tide to hit the Cap (French side) then you effectively mark time until the tide turns.
You need an excellent experienced pilot to see you across to navigate it or you'll actually miss!
Stunning feat, I'm a keen swimmer and have a tiny idea of the enormity of this.
More people have stood on Everest than swum The Channel. Never mind 4 times.
You need an excellent experienced pilot to see you across to navigate it or you'll actually miss!
Stunning feat, I'm a keen swimmer and have a tiny idea of the enormity of this.
More people have stood on Everest than swum The Channel. Never mind 4 times.
scrw. said:
I take it the tides caused her route, if so her last leg too a fair bit longer than the first 3! Wonder how many miles she actually covered?
Come on. Its the 4th line in the article..."The swim was due to be about 80 miles but because of strong tides Ms Thomas ended up swimming closer to 130 miles."
Zetec-S said:
Pretty impressive. I seem to remember reading an article a couple of months back about how women's bodies are better suited to these sorts of extreme endurance challenges. Not sure if that's correct or what the science is behind it, but anecdotally speaking, a woman I work with swam to the Isle of Wight a few years ago. "Only" about 3 miles, a fair few men in the group had to give up whereas all the women made it across.
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