Lura Wilhelm is a 42-year-old art teacher in Redding. She’s working on completing what’s called the Triple Crown of open water swimming. That includes the English Channel, which is about 20 miles between England and France, the Catalina Channel, which is 20 miles between Santa Catalina Island and California, and the swim around Manhattan, which is 28.5 miles. Wilhelm has completed the first two, and she plans to do the Manhattan swim next summer. JPR’s Jane Vaughan recently spoke with her about her marathon swims.
Jane Vaughan: First, why did you decide that you wanted to do this?
Lura Wilhelm: I first decided to swim the English Channel five years ago, and I was training for it. I was supposed to swim it in 2020, wasn't able to do it that time, but I was able to get a spot in 2023. One of the reasons why I wanted to swim this swim was because I wanted to really challenge myself. I thought it would be a very difficult swim to do and something that I could work towards. Got to have big goals in life.
JV: So just to give a sense of how long these swims really are, your Catalina swim took 11 hours and 16 minutes, and your English Channel swim took 12 hours and nine minutes. And you can't stop and get into a boat or hang onto a kayak and rest. What was running through your mind for that long? What kept you going?
LW: That's a hard one. Because when you're in the water for that long of a time, your brain and your thoughts go in so many different ways. For the English Channel, fortunately, unfortunately, I had a lot of jellyfish. So I was really, really cold. It was 58 degrees. And every time I hit a jellyfish, I would heat up. And so I was looking at them, thinking they were beautiful, but I didn't want to get stung. But then I was okay with getting stung because it kept me warm. Yeah, it's hard. You think about life, and you think about, you know, what am I doing in the middle of the ocean? Why am I doing this? It's really, it's a pretty cool experience. Time and space seem to disappear after, I'll say, hour six. And then you just get into the zone where you just keep going, and then you finish. And when you finish you go, 'Oh, that wasn't long.'
JV: You mentioned jellyfish. And I understand there's a lot to potentially deal with during these swims. There's jellyfish and strong currents and sharks and cold water. You're swimming at night. Can you tell me a story about what you encountered in terms of those things?
LW: So I had bioluminescent bubbles on the Catalina Channel. And as I was swimming, I had a dolphin go in front of me. It was really, really fast. I didn't know that it was a dolphin. And the reason why I could see it was because it was lit up with the bioluminescent material. And then when it passed, I was really scared, but then I could hear underneath the water, and it was doing the little dolphin laugh. So I knew what it was. I was okay, at that point. But I heard that dolphin for a while underneath the water. And it was dark, you couldn't see that dolphin, but it was hanging out with me for quite a long time.
JV: That's really cool. What was your favorite part of this process?
LW: During this process, I was able to meet so many different swimmers that are long-distance swimmers, marathon swimmers. And so meeting them and getting inspiration from them, that's been pretty fun. And then training, I like to train. Once you get into the zone, you can just keep going. I'm an introvert. And so being in my classroom, I have to be extroverted all day, and it takes a lot out of me. And so being in this space, in a pool, or in a lake, or in just water for that amount of time really helps me decompress and makes me feel whole again before I start the next day.
JV: That makes sense. Do you have a plan of when you plan to do the swim around Manhattan?
LW: I was looking at the schedule that they have. Yeah, I think July. I'm hoping.
