Two-timing Success For Brad Lundblad

Two-timing Success For Brad Lundblad

Steven Munatones 05/14/2015 Open Water Swimming No Comment
Courtesy of Brad Lundblad at S.C.A.R. Swim Challenge, Arizona.

Brad Lundblad swam and completed the 41.7 miles (66.9 km) S.C.A.R. Swim Challenge* for the second consecutive year earlier this month.

He shares his thoughts of the event. “I did better on my first two swims than last year and better than expected on Apache considering the conditions. It was my hardest open water swim to date.

I was disappointed in my [10 km] Roosevelt swim [on Day 4] as I finished almost dead last. My body gave out from the taxing [Day 3 17-mile] Apache swim. I finished 20th overall. The Lyme disease took it’s toll on me. I feel I could be close to top 5 were it not for this Lyme disease, but that is not the way life works. All in all it was a great experience again.”

Lundblad is more than appreciative of the event founder and double-served as a volunteers. “Kent Nicholas [shown below] has created a really great event that is so unique. I helped out much more this year than last. In addition to camping out the night before with the kayaks on Saguaro, I also helped drive one of the trucks to help move the kayaks. That was a lot of fun and added to the experience.”

But the event took an obvious toll. “Apache really is a taxing swim. I was cursing myself on the back end of this swim because it was so hard on me physically. I thought I just can’t put myself though this with Lyme. I can cruise the first two legs no problem, but progressing through this event, Apache is always the real challenge that knocks a lot of swimmers out of completing the whole thing. I feel that doing a one-off swim like the Catalina Channel would be easier than doing all of S.C.A.R.”

So he is thinking about combining his love of competing with his camaraderie with and for the other swimmers. “Looking ahead to next year my goal is to swim the first two legs and probably kayak Apache and then maybe swim or crew Roosevelt.

There is something very satisfying about completing SCAR two times. I might be a little different than most swimmers in that I don’t train for this event other than swimming my masters workouts 5-6 days a week. Having completed it last year was huge in terms of the mental challenge. When I wanted to quit on Day 3 because it was so rough, I knew in the back of my mind that wasn’t an option and having completed it once, I knew somewhat where I was on the course which really helped in staying to finish it.

*Total time of 20 hours 55 minutes with Saguaro in 3 hours 53 minutes + Canyon 3 hours 53 minutes + Apache 9 hours 8 minutes + Roosevelt 4 hours 0 minutes.



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