There are marathon swims done in the ocean (by Susie Maroney and Diana Nyad) and rivers (going downstream) that were long – really long.

The longest five non-stop lake swims include:

1. Abdel-Latiff Abo-Heif of Egypt, voted the greatest marathon swimmer of the 20th century, completed a 60-mile professional solo lake race across Lake Michigan on August 23-24, 1963 during the Jim Moran’s Lake Michigan Swim Challenge from Chicago, Illinois to Benton Harbor-St. Joseph, Michigan. Abo-Heif finished in 34 hours and 38 minutes.

2. Ted Erikson, an inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, finished the same 60-mile swim in 37 hours and 31 minutes.

3. Yuko Matsuzaki, a former professional marathon swimmer from Japan, completed a 51.5-mile (83K) solo swim in 33 hours and 25 minutes in Lake Cane in Orlando, Florida on September 13th, 2008. Yuko’s swim can be seen here. Her hands and feet are shown above as an example of Third Spacing