Sarah Thomas To Inspire Others At END-WET
Courtesy of Don Henderson, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Don Henderson kicked off his tenure as the new race director of the END-WET event in North Dakota in a huge way.
While Henderson completed the 57.9 km END-WET swim down the Red River of the North in 2015 and 2016, and helped organize the race in 2017, 2018 and 2019, he pulled off a coup for the 2020 race.
“First joining us in 2015 as our Guest Swimmer, and then returning in 2016 to do END-WET twice – once the day before on her own for fun and then the race itself the next day as training swims, Sarah Thomas is the first repeat Guest Swimmer of the END-WET.
Sarah is an ultra-marathon swimmer who holds the current world record for the longest continuous, unassisted, non-wetsuit, swim done in current-neutral conditions. That record-breaking swim covered 104.6 miles over 67 hours and was completed in Lake Champlain in August 2017. Shortly after completing this swim, Sarah was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She was just 35 years old. While undergoing aggressive cancer treatment, including chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy, Sarah never gave up on her dream of doing a swim that most people thought was impossible.
One year after completing her cancer treatments, Sarah did just that- becoming the first person to complete a four-way crossing of the English Channel in 54 hours 10 minutes.
Sarah lives near Denver, Colorado, with her husband Ryan, their two beagles and their rescue mutt. She is a full-time healthcare recruiter. She also does keynote presentations for special events, where she shares her life lessons that help her complete marathon swims and that helped her beat cancer.
Sarah will give a talk to swimmers, volunteers and spectators on the Friday evening before the race.“
Thomas has been featured in Sports Illustrated, 5280 Magazine, Red Bull, The Guardian, Good Morning America 3, Good Morning Britain, and her upcoming documentary The Other Side.
Swimmer Psych Sheet:
1. Arlo Lorenz (43) Omaha, Nebraska
2. Bryan Hill (31) West Des Moines, Iowa
3. Luke Smetters (38) Monroe, Wisconsin
4. Linda Stewart (32) Fox Point, Wisconsin
5. Thomas Hintz (54) Marshall, Illinois
6. John Copeland (38) Morton Grove, Illinois
7. Daniel O’Kane (39) Saint Paul, Minnesota
8. Emily Stausbøll (21) København, Denmark
9. Abigail Bergman (23) Culver City, California
10. Anita Hartsock (46) Silver Spring, Maryland
11. Jamie Tout (67) Austin, Texas
12. Seth Baetzold (25) Osage, Iowa
13. Gene Kennedy (60) Charlotte, North Carolina
14. Sam McNair (57) Monteagle, Tennessee
15. Sophia Cordero (34) Wheat Ridge, Colorado
16. Sandra Frimerman-Bergquist (37) Excelsior, Minnesota
17. Rose Buchmann (25) Ithaca, New York
18. James Janik (44) Englewood, Colorado
19. Karah Nazor (43) Chattanooga, Tennessee
20. Amy Couture (44)
For more information on the event on June 20th, see here.
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