57,000 Strokes Later, First Woman Swims Non-stop Around Isle of Wight

Faline · #1 ● 09-22-2013, 03:12 PM

Anna Wardley completed the 56 mile challenge in 26 hours, 33 minutes and 28 seconds – more than three hours ahead of schedule.

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The 37-year-old, from Gosport, had started from Ryde Pier on Friday morning and swam through the night.
She stopped only for a maximum of two minute spells to take on food at half-hour intervals, provided by her support team, accompanying her in motor boats and kayaks.
She needed food that would glide down her throat easily so her meals included Percy Pig sweets, jam doughnuts, rice pudding and a Spanish omelette.
At one point during the swim, she was pushed back more than a mile by the tide, so had to move in towards the shore, where the current was weaker.

When she returned to Ryde Pier on Saturday, there were cheering crowds waiting for her.
After completing the swim, she said: “I’m absolutely thrilled and it’s a dream come true. I’ve trained for two years for this and I knew I could do it.
"I even managed to beat the time set by one of the previous three swimmers who have completed the swim so that’s brilliant too.
"I want to thank all my supporters – especially those on the isle of Wight who came out to cheer me on. It really did help me.
“Those last few miles were seriously hard but knowing I had raised £50,000 for charity kept me going.
“There was no way I was going back by boat before I’d finished.”
Her swim is calculated to have taken 57,120 strokes at an average of 56 per minute, with Miss Wardley burning up 15,300 calories – the number an average man would burn in six days.
Only three swimmers have completed the circumnavigation feat, with the last successful attempt in 1984.
Miss Wardley, a PR consultant, carried out the swim under the rules of the British Long Distance Swimming Association wearing just a standard swimming costume, goggles and a swimming cap.
It marks the culmination of the a two-year, five island swim challenge she had set herself.
She has already swum around Portsea, in Hampshire (13 miles), Jersey (41 miles) and Dragonera (six miles) off the coast of Spain.
However, she abandoned her 30-mile swim around Tiree, an island in the Hebrides, in August, as she struggled with sea conditions and jellyfish. She has not ruled out making another attempt.
Miss Wardley has also swum across the English Channel, the Gibraltar Straits, the Hellespont, between Europe to Asia and two lengths of Windermere in the Lake District.
She has raised £50,000 pounds for the Samaritans, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust and Sail Africa.