Word: brunstad
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...George Brunstad...
Swimming for 16 hours straight in freezing water, fighting a 2-m.p.h. current and dodging ships might not be everyone's fantasy. But surrounded by his family on his 69th birthday, upon being asked how he wanted to celebrate his 70th, George Brunstad heard the words "swim the English Channel" pop out of his mouth. At that point Brunstad, who happens to be actor Matt Damon's uncle, had been swimming competitively in Masters programs for 31 years, and he had won more than 100 Masters championships. As he recalls, "Everyone said, 'Yeah, you can do it! That...
...Neither Brunstad's work life nor his pre--Channel swimming retirement would have suited the lazy or faint of heart. In the Air Force, he flew B-52 bombers. The day he left the military, he began piloting for American Airlines, and upon his mandatory retirement at 60, he bought a Russian-designed, Chinese-built MiG-17 fighter, which he used to do tricks at air shows, zooming at speeds up to Mach 1.1 and pulling up to 9 Gs. ("Isn't that what every grandfather does?" Brunstad asks.) But his real passion all along was long-distance swimming, particularly...
...train for the Channel, Brunstad cut his swimming back from five to three days a week, stroking 4,000 m to 6,000 m in the pool on Monday and Wednesday, with his longest swim on Friday, which started out at 8,000 m and increased to 22,400 m, just shy of 14 miles. To train for the cold water, Brunstad took cold showers all winter and swam in Long Island Sound. When the sound got too warm, he rented a cottage in Brunswick, Maine, where he would swim in the open water for up to eight hours...
...Brunstad's 70th, the weather was too bad to attempt the swim, but three days later, slathered in lanolin and petroleum jelly, he slipped into the water at 9:13 a.m. at Abbot's Cliff, south of Dover, England, and emerged on Sangatte Beach, south of Calais, France, 15 hours and 59 minutes later. Every half hour along the way, he was thrown a nutrient drink. Every two hours, he took a swish of Tom's of Maine mouthwash to rinse the salt water out of his mouth. With the current, Brunstad estimates he swam a total of 32 miles...
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