A third-year student at Utah State University, Joelle Beard used music and sounds to help her across the English Channel, a feat she did in 12 hours 17 minutes in September this year.

She hummed classical musical to herself as motivation and entertainment during her swim and stopped every 30 minutes to the sound of a large horn from the Viking Princess piloted by Reg Brickell Jr.

“I tried to take the swim in sections,” explained Beard, the first women from the state of Utah to cross the English Channel. “It would be a lot harder if I thought of the overall thing, rather than just a little bit at a time. I would take each half hour and tell myself to just go until the horn blew again.”

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