ALL HAIL ultra adventure swimmer Jamie Patrick who will attempt the first ever circumnavigation swim around the 68-mile shoreline of Lake Tahoe this weekend. He's doing it to push himself to his own personal limits, and as a major fundraiser for the Sierra Club Water Sentinels program. We couldn't be more proud to have Jamie representing clean water and our important work to protect it. He's an amazing and inspiring individual.
He'll swim away from Commons Beach in Tahoe City at 6 a.m.on Friday and estimates the nonstop swim will take 40-45 hours. You can follow the event live online at http://www.jamiepatrick.com/#!home/mainPage where you can track his progress, read live blog posts from the crew, write comments and see video of Jamie in action.
Please help spread the word via Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Following are two articles, from Scrapbook, and from yesterday's San Jose Mercury News:
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June 06, 2012
http://sierraclub.typepad.com/scrapbook/2012/06/endurance-athlete-to-attempt-non-stop-swim-around-lake-tahoe.html
Endurance Athlete to Attempt First-Ever Non-Stop Swim Around Lake Tahoe
Saying Jamie Patrick likes to swim is a little like saying Popeye likes spinach. The San Leandro, Ca., native began swimming at the age of seven and, as he puts it, "I haven't stopped since. Swimming and water are my passion—they've given me so much in life."
An all-American swimmer in high school, Patrick earned a full swimming scholarship to attend the University of Hawaii, and two years after graduating he clocked the 11th-fastest time ever recorded in the English Channel Relay Swim.
By day, Patrick is Sales Manager for Patrick & Co., the oldest office supply company in San Francisco, founded by his great-grandfather in 1873. When he's not in the office—where he is striving, among other things, to green the family business—he's usually with his wife Terry and 6-year-old daughter Grace. But he has also found the time to complete more than 100 triathlons, 15 Ironman competitions, three marathons, and he was named 2011 World Open Water Male Swimmer of the Year.
Patrick has by now swum all over the world, including in New Zealand, Brazil, Italy, Austria, Bermuda, Belize, Mexico, the Caribbean islands, Hawaii, and Tahiti. Closer to home, he recently completed a double crossing of Lake Tahoe—a 44-mile swim that took 25 hours of continuous swimming—and a 111-mile swim down the Sacramento River in northern California, below, that took 31 hours.
"I obviously had to stay up all night to complete those swims," he says, "but there comes a point where I get into a rhythm and push through the pain and the swimming actually gets easier. And there are times when it just gets magical and you really feel you become one with your environment. During the night I spent on the Sacramento, there were river otters swimming all around me, and egrets that seemed to be following me downriver in the moonlight.
"I'm not out primarily to set records," Patrick says, "I'm out for personal journeys." He has also decided to combine his extreme swimming with advocacy for causes he believes in.
His Sacramento River swim attracted more than 40,000 online viewers who followed the swim live through Patrick's website, and the event raised awareness and roughly $25,000 for an elementary school literacy program in Contra Costa County, where Patrick and his family live.
Now Patrick has his sights set on something even more ambitious: a non-stop swim of the 69-mile circumference of Lake Tahoe, a feat that he anticipates will take about 40 hours. To Patrick's knowledge, the undertaking he is calling the Tahoe 360 has never before been attempted, let alone completed.
"I think Tahoe is the most beautiful lake in the world," he says. "So when I was thinking about what cause I could raise money for with the Tahoe 360, clean water was a natural. And when I thought about who does work for clean water, the first thing that popped into my mind was the Sierra Club."
Hopping online, Patrick surfed to the Sierra Club's website and quickly found the Water Sentinels program. "I immediately knew this was the program I wanted to support," he says. "Not only do the Water Sentinels do cleanups, water-quality monitoring, and advocate for clean water, they get kids involved and get people outdoors. If people get out and do their own adventures, they'll be moved to protect the environment."
The Tahoe 360 will commence on August 31 at Tahoe City, on the northwest corner of the lake, and end at the same spot on September 2. Patrick plans to swim about 100 yards from shore, and he'll have a crew of between 15 and 20 people in support—some on the water and some on land—to take care of logistics like navigation, cooking, communication, on-water support, and medical assistance if necessary.
"All water-based support will be human-powered except one boat in case I need medical help," Patrick says. "Land-based support vehicles will all be hybrid or run on alternative fuels, and the University of Nevada at Reno has an electric bus that I hope to use. The crew will be responsible for picking up trash along the route, and all the crew's gear will be made of 100 percent post-consumer waste. We're doing our best to offset or reverse the carbon impacts of the event."
Patrick plans to adorn the support vehicles with Sierra Club banners, use the Water Sentinels logo on his wetsuit and other equipment, and all support crew will wear Water Sentinels t-shirts and caps, which will be available to members of the public at a Sierra Club booth in Tahoe City, as well as from the support vehicles as they circle the lake.
Food for the event will be organic and locally-sourced to the greatest extent possible, and Patrick will not get out of the water or stop swimming even to eat—he plans to stop and tread water every 20 minutes or so while a support boat pulls up alongside and he takes in a combination of solid food and liquid to keep him going.
As with the Sacramento River swim, viewers will be able to follow the Tahoe 360 through a live portal on Patrick's personal website and his Facebook site and make donations directly to the Water Sentinels program while they watch. Patrick stresses that every penny raised by the Tahoe 360 will go to the Water Sentinels program.
Between now and August 31, you can follow Patrick's blog as he trains and prepares for the Tahoe 360.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21429969/lafayette-swimmer-jamie-patrick-make-68-mile-trip
Lafayette swimmer Jamie Patrick to make 68-mile trip around Lake Tahoe Friday and Saturday
By Lou Fancher
Correspondent
Posted: 08/29/2012 05:52:03 PM PDT
Updated: 08/29/2012 07:00:13 PM PDT
To kick off his Labor Day weekend, Lafayette's Jamie Patrick is taking a 360-degree spin around Lake Tahoe, in Lake Tahoe.
Last year, the now-41-year old athlete swept down the Sacramento River on a 111-mile swimming trek. The year before, it was back-and-forth-and-back across Tahoe. And recently, he swam from Spain to Africa, then came home to spend 12-hour overnights, training in Lafayette's Springbrook pool.
You could call him fond of water.
Which is why he's pairing up with the Sierra Club's Water Sentinel Program.
"In the previous swims, I raised money for Buena Vista, a local literacy program," Patrick said. "For this swim, I wanted to do something for water. It's so right up my alley; they help people get out, enjoy water, and want to take care of it."
A graduate of Miramonte High School and an All-American swimmer while at the University of Hawaii, Patrick has an athletic resume as long as his wingspan.
"I do these things to go beyond what I've done before," he says, shrugging off more complicated reasoning.
He and his 15-person crew have already raised $2,000 in four days since the campaign began. One hundred percent of the donations will go to the Sierra Club.
To make it easy to support his cause, he's partnered with Metabender, an athletic tracking company, to develop a portal through which people can follow his swim in real time GPS, with stats, crew updates, videos and a comment option.
"For my Sac River swim, there were 40,000 people watching me. We're expecting about 50-80,000 between when I start, at 6 a.m. Aug. 31 and finish, sometime on Sunday," he says,
The 68-mile swim, traveling the circumference of the lake and staying no more than 75 meters from the shore, will take him about 40-45 hours.
He'll wear a wetsuit, meaning the swim doesn't qualify as a marathon event -- a point he emphasizes repeatedly during an interview one week before pushing off in the 65-degree chop.
"I've pretty much got my nutrition dialed in. l need 425 calories per hour and the wet suit will keep me buoyant while I feed," he says. "The plan is to be patient. I don't want to go out looking like Michael Phelps, cause when you're four hours in and realize that's only 1/10th of what you'll be doing, that's overwhelming."
To keep his mind buff, Patrick has been working with trainer and fellow open water swimmer Jen Schumaker.
"She helps me overcome the dark places I can go when I swim. Physically, I know it's going to be extreme. When you start to feel good, which comes in waves, you tell your body to go faster, produce too much lactic acid and ... well, then you're gonna' blow," he finishes.
With Outside TV, CBS, and a pair of independent filmmakers following him, Patrick says the pressure to stay balanced will be huge.
The physical training to prepare has been no less challenging. His longest week was 110,000 yards, or about 56 miles worth of lap time. He spends five to six hours in the pool on weekends, and during the week still manages to work as the sales manager for Patrick & Co., the office supply company his great-grandfather began in 1873.
Record setting appears to run in the family, and although he claims it is not his goal, Patrick is thrilled to set an example for the next generation.
"To have my daughter see me start and work hard is a motivation for me," he says.
And post-swim, with the help of an occasional Jelly Belly jelly bean (the one exception to his processed-foods-free diet), Patrick will recover as he always has.
"I'll take a little time out of the water. But then, my juices will get flowing ... "
He won't divulge the next watery wonder, but promises that it will be performed in a familiar land: "Just past discomfort, in a totally new place. That's where I want to be."
Follow the swim
To keep tabs on Jamie Patrick's planned swim around 68-mile swim Friday and Saturday around the circumference of Lake Tahoe, go online to
www.theTahoe360.com
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