She Survived The World’s LONGEST SWIM

Sarah Thomas swam 104.6 miles, no stopping. Yes, you heard that right. That's like swimming across 1,840 football fields or doing the English Channel swim 5 times. On top of her incredible swimming feats, she's a cancer survivor. Sarah has paved the way in ultramarathon swimming and currently holds the world record for the longest unassisted open water swim. And the craziest thing about this, she does it while having a traditional full-time job. While she has crushed some of the longest swims in the world, Sarah's story is anything but linear. Sarah is a lifelong swimmer. She started swimming when she was just 10 years old and ended up walking on to the University of Connecticut swim team in college. And she was a pretty solid distance swimmer. But how did she go from swimming the thousand free to swimming 100 miles? It started with a 10k open water race in Colorado's Horsetooth Reservoir. Little did Sarah know that it was the start of something much bigger. In 2010, she completed her first ultramarathon swim crossing the 32.8 kilometer Catalina Channel in California in just over nine hours. In the years that passed, Sarah sought out swims that were longer, colder, and more challenging. After swimming 80 miles in Lake Powell, Sarah knew it was time to do it big. And in August 2017, Sarah swam 104 miles in Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont. This broke the world record for the longest unassisted open water swim and completing the first 100 mile plus swim in current neutral conditions. The swim took her a whopping 67 hours. Yes, that's almost three full days of swimming and she never touched land or stepped foot on a boat. Oh, and by the way, she wasn't even wearing a wetsuit. For a marathon swim to count, swimmers are only allowed the standard gear, which means a normal swimsuit, cap, goggles, and earplugs. And when you swim for multiple days without stopping, you push forward through sunrises, sunsets, the eerie peach black of night. Sarah has said that swimming in the middle of the night is tough. And can you blame her? It's cold, dark. It's hard to keep going. But as the sun rises, a new motivation comes to the surface. For this swim and all her long swims, Sarah brought a support crew of 12 people with her. This included paramedics, official swim observers, nutritional support kayakers, other pacing swimmers, and the crew that followed Sarah on four motorized boats watched her every stroke of the way. After battling wind and choppy water for over 104 miles, Sarah finished swimming Lake Champlain at 3.46 a.m. on August 10, 2017. Sure, she broke a world record, but there wasn't a crowd of screaming fans waiting for her to cross the finish line. Sarah slowly walked out of the water, getting her balance back after three days of swimming horizontally. After conquering Lake Champlain, Sarah was on top of the world. We are talking about Sarah Thomas. She officially completed a 100-mile swim across Lake Champlain. But just a few months after her record-breaking swim, she got terrible news. She had breast cancer. She was 35 years young. Sarah underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation, but through it all, she never gave up on her swimming dreams. Once she knew her treatment was working, she was able to focus on swimming again. She managed to swim three or four times per week during treatment. Swimming helped Sarah keep her mental health in check during such a difficult time in her life. After finishing her treatment, Sarah had exactly one year to get ready for the next challenge, the four-way English Channel swim. For the record, one English Channel crossing is 21 miles in perfect conditions. And that's more than enough for most swimmers to check the English Channel off their ultimate bucket list. But for Sarah, that wasn't enough. Sarah had done a single crossing of the English Channel in 2012. She knew what to expect. The killer currents, the waves, the cold temperature were sure to make an appearance during this swim and she knew she could handle it. So in September of 2019, she did the impossible. She swam the English Channel four times without stopping. And sure enough, the water conditions pushed her to her limits. Through all the twists and turns of the current, she swam about 81 miles in total. To fuel her body during the swim, she consumed a 90% liquid diet. Every 30 minutes, her support crew would throw her a bottle attached to a rope. They weren't allowed to touch her at all during the swim or it wouldn't be considered an official crossing. Sarah stopped, grabbed the bottle, drank about eight ounces of a carbohydrate and electrolyte mix, and around 30 miles in, Sarah started consuming caffeine for additional energy. She went on like this for 54 hours. After more than two days in the water, Sarah stumbled onto the beach. Her lips and throat were swollen from the salt water and it was nearly impossible to stand, but she had done it. After the English Channel four-way swim, Sarah took a break from that insane, record-breaking event. I mean, she still swam 45 kilometers in the Molokai Channel and another 40 kilometers across Monterey Bay in 2021. But for Sarah, that's small potatoes. In July 2022, she set yet another amazing record in the North Channel, but she hadn't planned to. Sarah signed up to swim the standard single crossing from Northern Ireland to Scotland. The weather was looking good and Sarah's support boat captain said they could make the double crossing happen if she was up for it. Now that you know Sarah, you know that she couldn't just do this one time, but to cross the North Channel multiple times. So she did it. Sarah started her swim in Scotland just after 6 The water was choppy, a brisk 54 degrees Fahrenheit or about 13 degrees Celsius. She swam through the night, running headfirst into dozens of main jellyfish, their painful stings marking every hour in the water. After making it to Northern Ireland in about 10 hours, Sarah wasn't sure if she wanted to continue for a second lap, but she knew she had more in the tank. So she turned around and started swimming back to Scotland. The sun had risen so she could dodge the worst of the jellyfish, but Sarah was cold, tired and fighting hard against the current. She was ready to give up, but for some reason she just couldn't get out of the water. She couldn't say it was time to quit. In the end, Sarah swam 69 kilometers or 43 miles in just under 22 hours. She powered through, marking herself in the history books as the first swimmer to cross the North Channel twice in just one swim. Sarah may not be the fastest swimmer in the pool or the lake, but she has what it takes to succeed in ultramarathon swimming, endurance and mental toughness. Training for long swims comes with lots of time face down in the water. According to Sarah, 98% of her training is done by herself. Yes, this can be isolating, but when you have your eyes set on a goal of completing a swim that no one has ever done, you stick with it. And Sarah has found what works for her. Typically, Sarah's base volume each week is around 60 kilometers. She can get up to 120,000 meters or 120 kilometers. To fit in all of that swimming, Sarah has to do two workouts per day plus a 10 to 12 hour open water swim on the weekend. And the craziest thing about this, she does it while having a traditional full-time job.