Liane Llewellyn (29), Thomas Noblett (48, shown on left), Keith Bartolo (35), Michelle Lefton (24), Michelle Sharples (41) and Dee Llewellyn (33) set out their goal – 12 consecutive legs across Windermere and struggled to plan. Their spirits remained high throughout the approximately 77 hour journey.

As Thomas explained, “The team was selected based on their strong characters, good team-playing qualities and ability to withstand the cold.” And the six members certainly displayed those characteristics day and night and day and night during their 126-mile world record.

Vito Bialla of San Francisco whose Night Train Swimmers‘ record was broken smiled at the strength and resilience of his British counterparts. The respect and competitiveness between these groups of hardy swimmers is palpable.

“A hearty congratulations is in order for their incredible accomplishment dethroning the Night Train Swimmers exceeding our 118-mile swim Lake World record. Basking in glory for the next four months is something that is well deserved. We send our respect and congratulations across the great Atlantic and hope we meet you brave souls some day.”

As the Night Train Swimmers lifted the bar last night in Lake Powell, Thomas and crew set the bar again in what can only be described as miserably cold and difficult conditions.

As teams around the world gaze across different bodies of water around the world, we wonder how high this bar can be raised by motivated marathon swimmers.

Already the Ventura Deep Six has cracked the 200-mile mark swimming along the coastline of California. The Ventura Deep Six will be recognized at the United Nations on June 19th for their feat as the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year, but certainly in the dark, rainy, stormy days and nights this week in Windermere, Liane, Thomas, Keith, Michelle, Michelle and Dee were champions and warriors of the water.

Congratulations to them and their support crew for a job extraordinarily well-done.

Copyright © 2011 by Open Water Source