Since Penny Palfrey has set foot in the Cayman Islands, it has been a whirlwind of activities. She has met dignitaries, plotted her most ambitious marathon swim of her career, given media interviews and continued her taper.
This morning, she swam 5 miles from Cayman Brac to Little Cayman Island as the first leg of her Bridging The Cayman Island. Swimming at a brisk 82 strokes per minutes, she was sandwiched between her kayakers, Jeff Kozlovich of Honolulu and Richard Clifford of New York, and 2 Department of Environment escort boats.
Up and down the 1-2 foot surface chop, Penny used her open water swimming experience to body surf down the face of the larger surface chop. Despite swimming conservatively, she broke the existing record of 1:53:34…by a mere 6 seconds.
Cutting it close, Penny came out of the beautifully blue warm ocean smiling…and strategizing for her 68-mile swim later this week.
“I just had a great swim with lots of support. I want to thank Mr. Flowers. It was a little bumpy and I finished by crossing over a turtle over the beautiful coral reef near the finish.”
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.