Two pieces of good news and a 6 hour swim

This weekend was the last building part of training before I get to taper down my yardage in preparation for my swim. From Friday to Sunday, I spent a total of 13 hours swimming in the ocean; two 2hr swims on Friday, a 3hr on Saturday, and a 6 hour today (Sunday). This 6 hour swim was my longest ever to date and covered over 12 miles of Pacific Ocean. For this swim, I was joined by my training buddy Gino, my fellow Smith swimmer Eliza, and my crew captain Rebecca as our kayaker. Eliza was in town for some open water swimming to prepare for her P2P crossing in August.

Map of our 6 hour swim.

We met at the Marina del Rey jetty at 5 am and headed north to Santa Monica Pier. This first lap only took just under 2 hours and we arrived back at the marina jetty just before the 4 hour mark. In order to finish the 6 hours, we headed back north towards the Venice breakwater. Throughout this whole swim, I felt very strong and smooth, which was a nice surprise considering I have felt terrible all week. I am happy to report that my feeding plan worked well for the longer swim, so I will be using it for my crossing!

In other news, I heard back from the NCAA and have received clearance for my coach Kim to accompany me on my planned 2017 English Channel crossing and its 6 hour qualifying swim. This is very important because per NCAA rules, coaches are not allowed to interact with their swimmers outside of season and since my swim will be in the summer, we needed to get permission for Kim to come on my swim.

I am also very proud to announce that I have received the Dottie York Scholarship from the

My scholarship letter.

Catalina Channel Swimming Federation to help fund my upcoming crossing! I am so honored that the CCSF has recognized my hard work and shown so much faith in me.