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I think it's pretty safe to say that not all world records are really all that impressive. Knowing some guy can squirt milk from his eye 9.2 feet doesn't really make me feel better about the world we live in. But then there are guys like Jamie Patrick, people who know how to go for a world record with some class.
Patrick is daddy to 4-year-old Hadley Grace and a man who is passionate about swimming. And as he embarks on what he hopes will be the world-record breaking longest river swim without a wetsuit, he's combining his two great loves. Today he's setting off from the Shasta Lake, just south of the Oregon border, and he's headed for Sacramento, California in a meandering line down the river.
If he makes it, he'll have the record with 111 miles. And the kids who benefit from the Buena Vista Auxiliary's literacy program will have new books to keep them reading. Because Patrick could just swim for the heck of it, but he decided to turn his world record attempt into the Swim for Literacy, getting sponsors to help carry him the 30 to 34 hours it will take to swim the length of the Sacramento River and getting donations to give the Buena Vista program what it needs to hook kids on reading. Now that's the kind of world record I can get behind. It actually makes you feel good about the world, doesn't it?
Although I've got to say reading the details on his swim are making me feel anything but. The lack of a wetsuit means he's in 60-degree water with no protection. And to get this thing over and done with and actually get the record, Patrick won't be going to sleep tonight.
Better him than me. Better him than me! But if anyone can do it, the former High School All American who's completed a handful of Ironmans and become the first person to swim across Lake Tahoe twice (that's 44 miles straight) can do it. He better. Those kids are counting on him. And I am too.
Will you be tracking Jamie Patrick as he tries for a world record that's worth breaking? You can follow him live online this weekend!
Image via Jamie Patrick
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