I could barely contain my excitement when talking to today’s guest, a professional marathon swimmer, Sandra Frimerman-Bergquist. As we discuss in the episode, Sandra has been knocking her swimming dreams out of the park the last few years, participating in the FINA Marathon and Ultramarathon Swim Series, setting the record for the St Lucia channel, swimming the Traversee du Lac […]
After a foot injury halted his ultra marathon running career, Darren Miller read Swimming to Antarctica, and was inspired by Lynne Cox. He immediately set his sights on the English Channel. Within 3 years, in August 2013, Darren was the fourth person and the second American to complete the Oceans Seven – completing each of the grueling channel swims in […]
Marathon Swim Stories has been a gift to me in so many ways, and how about this one, meeting a kindred spirit halfway around the world in Northern Ireland! Michelle Macy recommended that I find out Maureen McCoy’s story, and I’m so glad that we connected. Maureen literally wrote the book on wild swimming in Ireland – https://wildswim.wordpress.com/! And her love […]
An amazing story teller with many a story to tell, I could talk to Naji all day! But we finally cut ourselves off after just under an hour. A late onset swimmer, Naji was 43 when he learned to swim and wants nothing to do with pool swimming. “Out there” he says, referring to the Pacific ocean as the place […]
I can almost remember the first time that Jia joined us at Marathon Swim Stories way back in the early days of the pandemic – gosh, what was that, 3 months ago? She’s been a constant on our calls, and today I finally got to hear her story! Jia is a an award winner and product of the New York […]
If you’ve done the Catalina Channel, you’ve likely heard of, met, or had our guest, Dan Simonelli, as you kayaker! In 2015, Dan received the MSF Streeter Award for Service to Marathon Swimming, and in fact has supported over 200 marathon swims as either coach, crew chief, support crew, or kayaker. A testament to his own marathon swimming pursuits, in […]
We had a wonderful opportunity to chat with 16 year old phenom Vera Rivard, just days after her successful circumnavigation of Manhattan. Vera has already completed the 25 mile In Search of Memphre in 2018 and is crossing her fingers that she can make good on her English Channel window in August despite the pandemic of 2020. Vera describes a […]
I had to prod International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Honoree, Liz Fry, several times before she finally agreed to be our guest on Marathon Swim Stories. What a treat it was to hear her tell tales from her nearly 2 decade long career. The oldest person to complete the Oceans Seven, and the only person to ever double all […]
In this episode of Marathon Swim Stories, Elaine Howley interviewed me! It’s easy to see why I prefer to be the interviewer as listen to myself struggle to find words and endure the play by play of my swimming history, and while the fear of messing up my kids is real, it isn’t as paralyzing as it sounds when you […]
Prior to the 4th of July weekend, I spent my Friday afternoon chatting with Marathon Swimmers Federation 2019 Barra Award nominee, John Batchelder. We relaxed into the interview just like John relaxes into his distance butterfly and touched on swimming for weight loss, how John became “butterfly man”, being motivated by others and finding ways to reciprocate that support. In […]