Kris Rutford’s Marathon Swim Story

In this episode of Marathon Swim Stories we talked to long time marathon swimmer Kris Rutford about the process, being committing to your commitment, how the same swim can always be different, and much more!

In his own words: I have been swimming my entire life.  It is really the only sport I have ever participated in.   I swam for the University of Nebraska 1977-1981 as a sprinter.   After college I continued to swim just to stay in shape and then suggested to a friend that “anybody can swim the English Channel”.  Needless to say, he took that as a challenge and successfully completed the Channel in 1986 with me as his trainer.  We reversed roles and I completed the English Channel in 1988.  That was my first “marathon swim”.   Having met another swimmer in Dover who suggested I try the swim around Manhattan, I became curious and as luck would have it made my first trip to NY and swam around the island 3 weeks later.  So that is proof that there was some sort of marathon swimming community back in the 80s, it just happened by word of mouth – no internet, Facebook, Zoom or cell phones.  Now 32 years later I have completed the Manhattan swim 23 times, every one of them different.  In 1995 I was the first person to complete the Manhattan Island swim clockwise.  In 2016 I finally got to the west coast and did the Catalina Island swim to complete the Triple Crown some 28 years after the first 2 legs.   

In my day job I am a CPA employed as a tax accountant for a local public accounting firm.