Liz Rosen’s Marathon Swim Story
Today I had the pleasure of chatting with marathon swim director, and marathon swimmer herself, Liz Rosen.
She hadn’t thought much about swimming in the wild until Seattle summer’s when her masters team evacuated the pool to go swim in the open water that abounds. She immediately became hooked and it wasn’t long before she started winter swimming because the summer wasn’t enough.
We laugh in this episode about Liz’s recurring theme of doing something because you don’t feel like you have any other options, but we also discuss some very important topics, how to advocate for yourself, and how to have a plan – because you should always have a plan.
I hope you enjoy this episode!
In her own words: 51 yrs old. Life-long swimmer, with some significant breaks to be a diver (springboard, not scuba) and ski bum. Still pondering what I’d like to do for a living. In the meantime I work for a project management software company and have done about 10 years of project managing open water swims – both in Seattle. Currently I live in North Carolina and recently nabbed a cast iron bathtub for my back yard because I was yearning for more cold water fixes.
Race Director “career”:
- Fat Salmon Open Water Swim (2006 – 2014)
- Mercer Island Marathon Swim (2017 – 2019)
OWS “career”:
- First marathon swim: 2008
- Official marathon swim events: <10
- Unofficial marathon swims & 10K pool swims: lots
- Other OWS races: too many to count
- USMS National Champion: 1 (because there were so few people in attendance, not because I was fast)
- SwimTrek trips: 6
- Winter swimming: started in 2017
- Time per day I think about where to swim next: 100+