Swimmer from Delmont seeks to break world record for longest swim by practicing in a frigid lake
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Darren Miller hopes to swim the Catalina Channel in California. -
Kathy Olek, left, bundles up as Darren Miller towels off after swimming in Keystone Lake at Keystone State Park in Westmoreland County. Darren is attempting to swim the "Ocean's Seven," and raise money for the cardiothoracic unit at UPMC Children's Hosptial of Pittsburgh.
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The temperature was a hair above 40 degrees late in March when Darren Miller, wearing only a Speedo and a smile, plunged into the frigid waters of Keystone Lake in Westmoreland County.
Mr. Miller, 27, of Delmont, swam for only a few minutes, partly because he was posing for news cameras, partly because he'd be endangering his life if he swam for much longer.
"Anything over 20-30 minutes, you can get hypothermia," he said.
During a typical workout when temperatures are warmer, Mr. Miller will swim the one kilometer length of Keystone Lake dozens of times.
"I'll swim for an hour and a half to two hours on weekdays, from six to eight hours on weekends," he said.
Swimming for hours is nothing new to Mr. Miller, who was on the swim teams at Franklin Regional High School and for two years at Penn State University. He swam for 24 hours straight in the pool of the Murrysville Swim Club last June. In July, he'll try to break the world record for the longest swim, 104 kilometers (65 miles). It'll take him 48 to 55 hours, Mr. Miller thinks.
"Monotony is something I'm used to," he said.
Last August, Mr. Miller, a private client group manager for PNC bank, became the 817th person to swim the English Channel between Dover in England and Cap Gris Nez (a headland halfway between Calais and Boulogne) in France. The distance is 21 miles. It took Mr. Miller 12 hours and 4 minutes to swim it.
Preparing for swims like that is why Mr. Miller swims outside in winter weather, takes cold showers every morning, and keeps the temperature in his home at a chilly 58 degrees -- the same temperature as it was when he made his Channel swim.
Hypothermia -- a condition in which the body's core temperature drops below the temperature required for normal metabolism, about 95 degrees -- is the biggest danger open-ocean swimmers face. Prolonged exposure to cold depletes body heat. If the body is unable to replace that heat, hypothermia sets in.
"Everything starts going numb," Mr. Miller told WTAE-TV after his swim in the English Channel. "The biggest thing is the shoulders. You start pulling muscles in your legs. My forearms completely locked up."
For triathletes, the ultimate challenge is the Ironman in Hawaii, a 2.4-mile ocean swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run.
First Published April 18, 2011 12:00 am
