Would you swim 10 miles?
Reflections from the time a friend and I swam 10 miles and how the power of the mind got us through it.
It’s an ongoing mystery to me as to why as people we often self-inflict struggle. Challenges. Pain. As if we didn’t have enough of it already in the world. But we love it. We love the resistance, we love the journey to face these challenges. I’m not speaking of the hardships that naturally find us, I’m speaking of the ones we choose. In this case, the journey of swimming 10 miles in a lake.
Whether it’s a marathon or an Ironman in Antarctica, a 1,000-bike race, or a 10-mile swim, humans choose to go through these extreme lengths. Is it curiosity? Is it ego? Is it to feel alive? Or maybe it’s our primal instinct to feel suffering in ways we don’t get to in our otherwise “comforable” modern lives, so we seek it out on our own.
Perhaps athletic endeavors satisfy this craving by testing the body and the mind.
“Our struggles are man against man, man against himself, man against the environment.” —Sam Elliot, 1883 film
“Man against himself” is a struggle with your inner fire. “Man against the environment” is a struggle with the surroundings that are outside your control. But when we can’t control something, our focus shifts to what we can control— ourselves.
Deep down we know our biggest growth as humans come from when we face challenges. Perhaps engrained in the human psyche is the addiction of finding a goal and chasing after it, knowing there will be pain along the way. But this pain serves a purpose.
Wanna swim 10 miles?
In late 2020, I got a short text from my friend Corey, “Wanna swim 10 miles?” Then came the link to a swim race in Vermont at Lake Memphremegogg (yes it sounds like a lake monster).
I said I’d think about it overnight and get back to him in the morning. But I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t think of any real reasons not to do the swim, other than self-doubt and not wanting to go through the pain of swimming 10 miles. But those demons are meant to be faced. I pulled my phone out, signed up for the race, and went to bed.
On our first training swim, I’m pretty sure we both looked at each other and laughed at the ridiculousness of the 10-mile swim goal. At the time it felt insurmountable. But slowly week by week we built up our endurance.
We swam all winter at Barton Springs in Austin, Texas. Even if it was 35º outside, we’d still go. We swam at pools and practiced drills. We swam at Lake Travis to practice our long swims with our kayakers.
Our longest swim before the race was 7 miles. To me, that was the tipping point where our body knew it could do 10 miles, but our minds didn’t.
That’s when I knew the biggest obstacle during the 10-mile swim wouldn’t be the body, but rather the mind.
There comes a time when you’ve done all you could to physically prepare for something. The mind is often the limiting factor, but it’s one you can strengthen.
These are 5 things I learned from the journey to swimming 10 miles:
Be present. When you’re in the middle of a swim (or other sport), no moment exists beyond the one you are living. There’s no regretting the past or anxiety about the future. All that matters is the moment right now.
Remain calm. It’s easy to panic in the water. Especially in open water where you can’t see the bottom, you’re nowhere near the shore, there’s current, and the water is choppy. It’s common to expend energy fighting the water, but you need to bend with it. In Dune, Frank Herbert writes that the willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows— a wall against the wind. So keep your calm, keep your strength, but be willing to bend with the friction around you.
The shadow is proportionate to the dream. Stephen Pressfield has a concept called “the resistance,” Meaning the shadow is proportionate to the dream. The more resistance you feel with something, the more certain you can be that there’s a big dream there, but the harder it is to tackle. The idea of a 10-mile swim is daunting. You naturally want to resist it. It’s a beast to train for and tackle. But that only means there’s bigger pull to do it.
10,000 hour rule versus Range. I love the water and have been swimming since I was 5. A mix of competitive pool swimming and triathlon. That puts me at close 22 years of experience as a swimmer. You could say I fit the 10,000 hour rule category of being skilled at swimming (not Olympic level by any means, but just skilled at it). On the other hand, my friend Corey was a newer swimmer. He had gotten into swimming while training for an Ironman just two years prior. You could say he is not an expert swimmer, but he proves the concept from David Epstein’s Range— it’s not necessary to start on a specialized path early in life to be successful. We oftentimes let challenges and opportunities pass because we simply don't consider ourselves a [swimmer, runner, cyclist, artist, singer, etc.] Corey showed me that the only person who can limit you is yourself. If you go about life with curiosity and determination, you will go far.
There’s always an ace up your sleeve. When it comes to athletic endeavors, there comes a point when the body breaks down and the mind takes over. I saw this within myself during the 10-mile swim, during a 70.3 Ironman, and during a marathon. I’ve seen friends experience this while running ultras and 100 milers. It’s what the Project Iceman Film is about. When we think our body has given everything it has, we must remember there’s always an ace up our sleeve— the mind.
When we think our body has given everything it has, we must remember there’s always an ace up our sleeve— the mind.
The more I think about why people do seemingly crazy athletic feats the more I wonder if these physical challenges are practice for life’s tough moments. It’s by stepping out of our comfort zones that we witness both life’s hardest moments and celebrate some of life’s greatest joys.
(The end! But keep scrolling for fun facts from the swim)
Fun facts from the swim:
It took me 5 hours and 42 minutes to finish.
I was the youngest person on the roster of 80+ people. Most of them in their 50’s and 60’s had faster finishing times than me. One of the reasons I love swimming is it’s an age-friendly sport because it’s so low impact.
My sister steered the support kayak the entire time. Kayakers were not allowed to exit the boat and I was not allowed to touch it. She threw my water bottle and food at me whenever I needed to refuel. I felt like an ocean critter treading water waiting to be fed.
A requisite for being able to participate in the 10-mile swim was being able to prove you could swim 7 miles a month before race day.
The swim route was supposed to traverse into Canada (the lake is half USA, half Canada). But due to COVID, the Canadian border was still closed. They modified the route so we swam “on” the border but without crossing it. Canadian patrol boats were out there ensuring we didn’t cross over.
The In the Heights soundtrack was stuck in my head so for the 6 hours and 40 min that’s what I was humming underwater.
A top highlight was Corey stumbling out of the water at the finish and the first word that came out of his mouth was “Piragua!” Also from In the Heights.
Around mile 6 of the swim, I stopped stroking and had to float on my back for a little while because I had a laughter attack. I was laughing so hard at the ridiculousness of this swim and in awe that we were doing it!
The cap and goggles tan lines after the swim made me look like a raccoon for over a month.
PS: It’s Your World🌎 is a free weekly newsletter. If you’d like to create reciprocity for my work, I invite you to become a paid subscriber. Your support means so much.
Please feel free to share parts of this newsletter that connect with you on social media or send to someone you think would enjoy reading.