Olympic Marathon Swimming – How Hard is it to Swim a Marathon?
Can you swim for four hours straight? What about six o’clock? Ten o’clock? 20 hours? If you’re wondering why anyone would want to swim for so long, you’re not alone. But that’s the reality of marathon swimming, and racers around the world keep coming back for more.
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While the marathon is usually associated with running, marathon swimming is an increasingly popular way for the world’s craziest athletes to test their mental and physical endurance in some of the world’s most dangerous conditions. Is swimming a marathon harder than running? We will resolve the dispute once and for all!
What is a Olympic Marathon Swimming?
A Olympic marathon swimming is not a relaxing dip in the ocean. And it’s definitely not the same as running a marathon, especially when it comes to distance. Of course, some crazy people may try to swim the full 26.2 miles, but according to the rules of the Olympic Games, a marathon swim is any swim in open water (whether it’s a lake, river or ocean) longer than 10 kilometers or 6.2 miles. Marathon swimming can reach 30 miles. It just depends where you swim and how crazy you are!
The First Marathon Swimming
And long-distance swimmers have been going crazy for nearly 150 years… One of the first recorded marathon swims was in 1875, when Captain Matthew Web swam 33 kilometers across the English Channel in 21 hours and 40 minutes. Yes, that’s almost a whole day of continuous swimming.
It seems Captain Webb has started a trend. Since his first recorded swim, more than 4,000 people have swum the English Channel… and many more have tried – and failed – to complete the English Channel and other marathon swims.
Famous Marathon Swimming Races
These days, there are thousands of marathon swims around the world, but perhaps the most famous is the Triple Crown of open water swimming:
- 33.3 kilometers or 21 miles across the English Channel
- 32 kilometers or 20 miles across the Catalina Channel in California
- 45 kilometers or 28 miles around Manhattan Island in New York.
But these are not the only famous marathon swims. There’s also the Oceans Seven, a tough seven-heat competition that takes swimmers on a round-the-world trip around the world, from 44 kilometers or 27 miles across the Molokai Strait in Hawaii to the North Channel, which stretches 34 kilometers or 24 miles between Ireland and Scotland. Plus five more intense swims between them.
10 Reasons a Runner Couldn’t Swim a Marathon
It is clear that there are many parallels between marathon swimming and marathon running. They both require a lot of training and mental strength, as well as insane stamina. But a few key points make marathon swimming stand out as a clear winner.
1. Running & Swimming Technique are Very Different
First, running technique doesn’t translate well into swimming, and I’m willing to bet a pretty penny that most elite runners will have a hard time running 10K in decent time without any training.
With months of intense swimming training, a runner could probably do it, but running well doesn’t automatically mean he’ll be good at marathon swimming. Sure, their cardiovascular system is on par with what’s needed for a marathon swim, but they won’t have the specialized technique needed to swim efficiently for hours on end.
Swimming is a full body sport that works your muscles in a way that running just can’t match. And that’s partly why some runners use swimming as a cross-training or injury rehab that ultimately makes them better runners! It’s also worth saying that swimmers aren’t always great runners. If you want to do something well for a very long time, it will require special training. It’s impossible to bypass it!
2. Olympic Marathon Swimming is Lonely
Also, marathon swimming can be very lonely. Most of the time, swimmers do solo marathon swims and end up wading through the rough conditions all alone with their support team watching from a boat nearby. During marathons, it’s easier to surround yourself with people, since most of the time you’ll be racing in a large group.
3. The Training is Intense
And don’t even make me start training. To prepare for a long marathon swim, you will have to spend a lot of time in the water. Marathon swimmers who train alone end up spending hours looking at the black line on the bottom of the pool or using their days off to head to open water training grounds.
Depending on the duration of the race, swimmers can cover from 20 to 30,000 meters per week or more. And because swimming usually takes longer than running, marathon swimmers take longer to train than runners, although this isn’t always the case. And that doesn’t include out-of-water workouts like strength training, recovery stretches, and more.
4. Unsettling Environment
Swimmers must do one thing that runners never do: look into the mysterious abyss without knowing what lies in the water below them. Eventually, they can swim through the night when pitch darkness gathers on all sides, and a minimal amount of light helps them move with the flow. And somehow they have to sail straight, without an official course. Runners have nothing to worry about!
5. Nasty Weather Conditions
The weather can also affect a marathon swim. Currents, wind, sun and waves often push swimmers over the edge. In the wrong conditions, a swimmer may end up swimming miles more than planned, or they may miss the finish line due to strong currents and have to fight their way back. Sometimes the currents are so strong that the swimmer ends up adding several hours to their race time, or they may have to give up after losing their battle with Mother Nature.
The likelihood of this happening in an organized marathon where the course never changes is very low. Swimmers also put themselves at risk of hypothermia as they spend hours in freezing water, many without a wetsuit.
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6. Wildlife Encounters
Plus, there’s the wildlife factor. Imagine being stung by a swarm of bees and you need to keep running. Crazy, right? Marathon swimmers often have to deal with the stings of jellyfish and other aquatic animals during their swims. Many swimmers push themselves through hundreds of jellyfish to complete their races. Perhaps the threat of a jellyfish sting will make you swim faster… who knows!
7. Extra Long Race Times
Speaking of speed, marathon swims usually take much longer than marathon runs. At the Olympics, a 10K marathon swim takes about two hours for the world’s fastest swimmers, which is about the same as a marathon run.
But what about the rest of us? On average, 10 km can take four to six hours, but longer runs, such as the 21-mile English Channel, take about 13 hours. And that’s just the average. Many swimmers finish much slower. By comparison, the average marathon time is about four and a half hours. Three times that, maybe add a few more hours, and that’s how long it would take to swim 26 miles.
8. Strict Rules
If we haven’t yet convinced you of the superiority of marathon swimming, let’s take a look at the rules. The official rules for marathon swimming are very strict. According to the rules of the Marathon Swimmers Federation, swimmers cannot wear wetsuits or use equipment that increases buoyancy while swimming. And when you have to swim in water that can be very cold, swimming without a wetsuit is extremely difficult.
What if you had to run a marathon in the winter in just shorts and a T-shirt? Basically, this is what marathon runners should be doing! This is a huge challenge both mentally and physically and can be deadly if the swimmer is not ready for it. The average water temperature in the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland is around 54 degrees Fahrenheit or 12 degrees Celsius. 21 miles is a long swim without a wetsuit!
Swimmers are also not allowed to make physical contact with anyone for the duration of the race. So nutrition and hydration can be a problem. Runners can stop at the first-aid post, catch their breath, maybe take a sip of water. It sounds so relaxing!
What about marathon runners? They have to stagnate and stay afloat while refueling, so it’s not really a vacation. Their support team hands the swimmer sports drinks, water, gels and other snacks and they quickly grab what they need and get back to swimming as quickly as possible.
9. Weight Loss During Races
Speaking of nutrition, many English Channel swimmers end up losing weight during a swim, and it’s not just water weight. The average swimmer can lose about four kilograms or nearly nine pounds of body weight while swimming. No, this is not weight loss from exercise. This happens during their crossing.
Marathon runners may lose some of their water weight during a race, but their losses won’t go to that extreme. In fact, many marathon swimmers actually put on weight and put on extra fat during training, both for extra warmth and weight loss in the middle of the race.
10. It Burns More Calories
One more thing, since we’re talking about losing weight. Let’s talk about burning calories. Marathon swimming burns far more calories than marathon running. Of course, calorie burn varies widely based on gender, age, body size, and other factors. But according to the American College of Sports Medicine, a 155-pound person will burn about 493 calories swimming slow freestyle for an hour. In contrast, Harvard Health Publishing reports that a 155-pound person burns approximately 288 calories per hour when running at a pace of 12 minutes.
The 12-minute mile is a 5-hour, 14-minute marathon finish that burns about 1,500 calories. However, our swimmer will burn 6,400 calories in a 13-hour crossing of the English Channel. A four-hour 10K swim will burn 1900 calories. Proof in numbers! Whether you think marathon swimming is harder than marathon running, we can all agree on one thing: marathon swimming is not for the faint of heart.
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