Reminiscences of a Long Distance Swimmer: Extreme North Dakota Watersports Endurance Test (END-WET)- ‘The Longest Swim Race in North America’

Sunday 7 August 2022

Extreme North Dakota Watersports Endurance Test (END-WET)- ‘The Longest Swim Race in North America’ - A British first, 18th June 2022

According to https://endracing.com/end-wet, the Extreme North Dakota Watersports Endurance Test (END-WET) is a 36-mile down-river swim ultra-marathon where solo or relay swimmers will travel from rural ND into East Grand Forks, MN, on the mighty Red River of the North. It is termed ‘the longest swim race in North America’!

So another British first in the offing but not without its hazards just to make it to the start line!! Within 3 weeks of the swim all entrants received an email that the current river level was deemed too high (terrific to receive when thrown a lot of money at the expedition but luckily levels receded to be the 2nd fastest flow in history). For me the trip involved post-pandemic flight to Fargo (massive detour to avoid a storm) and transferring via Chicago (with slow baggage handlers) from London Heathrow (where the flight left 2 hours late but at least I got upgraded to 1st class!).

Even on the day of the race, en route to the start line a deer ran out in front of the car at 04:30 and I don’t know how I missed it. We were also having to set up kayaks and gear in a car park with lightning and thunder (which wasn’t forecast or part of the briefing).

Tom Linthicum (my Tahoe pilot on left below) generously made the journey from Sacramento to paddle for me and hang out for the weekend. Commensurate professional, legend and joy to be around. Given winds said it was the hardest paddle he had ever done!

Finally made it (err to the start)! Would have thought the name more appropriate for an end?

A very muddy river where the water temp remained around 72 Fahrenheit throughout (22c in British money)

Ominous dark skies which messed with us for the first 1/3rd:

As a prior-year finisher, Kate Howell, put it ‘all you see is brown, brown then green’!! I can’t recall seeing my hands other than feeding but blasting thru a mile each 15 mins is a proper novelty!

The Finish…what you might not to be able to appreciate if you weren’t there are the 42 mph winds, organisers worried bits of tree could injure people and just exiting the muddy water was tough given it was easily knee-high.

Lovely touch when organiser Don gave me my unique dog-tag finisher number (#160 in history to complete) with a time of 9hours 40mins - thrilled have have come in comfortably within the 10 hour mark and saved myself and my kayaker any further punishment! 10th out of 15 with winner Jamie Proffitt taking the gold at 8:32:00.

Part of the flood defences for the town - extreme snowstorms in the winter combined with deluge of rain in the spring creates a dangerous mixture of the town. Then there’s unpredictable heat and storms in the summer….no wonder North Dakota is sparsely inhabited!

Another stunning road where the sky goes on forever and there’s nothing to contend with other than unpredictable deer!

Downtown Grand Forks where we had a fab & cheap loft-style airBnB only 5 mins walk from the finishing line (we must have looked a proper state walking back)!