Louise Darlington’s Marathon Swim Story
In this, our second episode of what was then called: Virtual Swim Practice, from waaaay back in April 2020, a small group of us gathered to talk about how we missed swimming.
This was in the early days of the pandemic, but Louise’s message of grieving, handling hard situations, getting community, setting goals, and the essence of these times: training your brain for the marathon that maybe swimming for some, but is life for so many of us these days, rings just as true today.
A well travelled ice and marathon swimmer, the founder of the Penn Heron Open Water Swimming Club gives me goose bumps in retelling of her swim around the Statue of Liberty, and explains how she pursued coaching to support her husbands desire to join the open water scene – if that isn’t ever romantic!
We also build a reading list for you! I hope you enjoy this episode!
In her own words:
Louise lives in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania – the heart of Central Pennsylvania. Since her first official open water swim around the Statue of Liberty in 2013, she has continued to add to both her list of relay and solo open water swims; having completed the Triple Crown as a relay swimmer, the North Channel and the first (and only) circumnavigation of Santa Cruz Island as a member of the relay team Selkie and the Sirens. She routinely visits Japan for swims and to summit Mt. Fuji. She is also an experienced cold water and ice swimmer having competed at the Memphremagog Ice Swimming Festival in Vermont each year since 2015. Louise is also a level 3 US Masters Swimming coach and is a certified Adult Learn to Swim (ALTS) instructor, as well as a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, teaching at the Pennsylvania State University. In addition to her swimming and coaching, Louise is the Assistant Director for Library Public Services at Harrisburg Area Community College. In August 2018, Louise founded the Penn Heron Open Water Swimming Club, one of the first nationally recognized open water clubs under US Masters Swimming. The goals of the Penn Heron Club are to build the community of open water swimming while promoting safety and training standards for open water and cold water and ice swimmers in Central Pennsylvania. In addition to open water, Louise also actively coaches triathletes as well and novice open water swimmers. You can find out more about Louise Darlington Coaching and Penn Heron Open Water Swimming at the following links or by following links or by contacting Louise at: lhyderdarlington@gmail.com Louise Darlington Coaching on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LouiseDarlingtonCoaching/