Catherine Breed, 32, swam from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco in 13 hours, 54 minutes and 10 seconds, beating the previous all-time record by about four minutes. The route spans 30 miles through shark-infested, ice-cold waters and exceeds the English Channel distance. The swim is not yet certified by official record keepers. Breed reported intense mental difficulty, prolonged shivering from hour four onward, and moments when she nearly quit despite nearing the Golden Gate Bridge. She finished at race pace for the last hour and shared video of the swim on Instagram.
It's not just the fastest swim ever for a woman, but the fastest swim for any swimmer ever to complete the dangerous 30-mile trek from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco, though the record is not yet certified by official record keepers. It has been almost exactly ten years since the first time that a woman swam from the Farallon Islands to San Francisco, a 30-mile, shark-infested journey in ice cold waters that is an even longer trek than swimming the English Channel. Now, ten years later, a woman just broke the record for the fastest swim ever across that distance.
Breed's Instagram video above captures the trip (set to reggaeton music), which started late Monday night and concluded Tuesday once the sun was up. A swim measured in times I wanted to stop, times I said I was too cold, times we had to make adjustments, and ONE very critical point where I decided to just Fcking Fight, Breed posted. Of all the swims I have done this one was the mentally hardest despite almost perfect conditions. She looks a little sunburnt, or maybe jellyfish-bitten, in a follow-up video posted Tuesday, hours after she finished.
I shivered from Hour Four until when I finished, and swimming while shivering is really tough, Breed says. And she adds she nearly quit the whole thing, even when she could already see the Golden Gate Bridge. I went underwater, and I came up, and I let out this guttural scream, I was like Ahhh! Let's go to the bridge!' Breed said. And I turned on this gear I didn't know existed. I was swimming race pace for the last hour a
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