Robert Palmese, 25, of California crossed the 26-mile Catalina Channel on July 23rd, 2015 in a time of 12 hours, 21 minutes and forty-two seconds. And now, a year after, he will be attempting the Catalina Channel Triple Crossing, which according to the Catalina Channel Federation will make him the first known person to attempt the feat.
Palmese is new to major open water swimming, but says has a passion for it. One of his concerns is the boredom factor. He explained in an interview with SwimSwam that he expects to be extremely bored but that “this adds to the challenge.” While trying to be positive about the 36-hour swim, he shares, “I have done much reading about long swims beyond 12 hours and hallucinations are common among swimmers going beyond 24 hours, as rare as it is. I expect to hallucinate and honestly I am stoked about it. Should provide for some good entertainment!”
As most questions would appear obvious, one that I had for him was how he prepares for such a lengthy swim nutritionally. He explained how he eats normally leading up to the race, and that during the race every 30 minutes he’s allowed to be fed. He drinks a carb-based powder called Perpeteum made by Hammer Nutrition. He is allowed to drink 6-8 oz. of this on the “feeding break.” After the marathon swim is over, he will “be eating In-N-Out with a large chocolate shake and some Haribo Gummy Bears for dessert.”
Besides the nutrition, Palmese also mentioned how he will physically train in the months leading up. He said that “by the end of May I will be training exclusively in the Pacific Ocean. I will swim about 15-20 miles a week on my off weeks.” He also said in the summer he has scheduled “long swims” that range from four 6-hour swims in a week to four 8-hour swims in 5 days.
A big factor in acclimating to the distance will be the water temperature. He currently is swimming in San Diego, but he will start to swim in San Francisco because as he explains, “the water temperature is significantly lower and identical to the Catalina Channel.”
Palmese has also said the mental aspect of marathon swimming is the most difficult obstacle. He shared that “expecting to finish in approximately 9-10 hours, and then once hitting that mark looking up and being 3 hours from any shoreline creates extreme boredom.” However he explains “my motivation and choice for a swim like this is the chance to challenge myself again beyond the point of something I have already achieved. I like to think this is the essence of human existence. If we, as a race, continued to do the same thing over and over again we (wouldn’t) be where we are today!”
Palmese will complete the first triple cross attempt in history on August 11th, 2016. You can read more on him and his journey from our previous post or from his personal website.
The Catalina Channel is 20.1 miles across and the escort boats typically cross in a straight line
The water temperature in San Francisco is identical to the Catalina Channel?
“I expect to hallucinate and honestly I am stoked about it. Should provide for some good entertainment!”–
Dude better have a doc and nurse in the support boats or a disaster plan in place for evacuation. It may be good entertainment but hallucinations in that context is sometimes delirium that could signal a life-threatening metabolic disturbance. Usually not, but it’s not all fun and games, either.
His enthusiasm and his goal, of course, are fantastic, but it would be great if the author explained a bit more about ultra long distance swimming. It is not so much that he is “allowed” the drinks but he can feed whenever he wants to. He practices his routine in training swims and will be prepared to change that timing mid-swim if he starts throwing up or suddenly hates his usual drink (my longest swim is 22 hours and believe me there are some feeds I will never try again).
The very cool thing about the Catalina (and other sanctioned Long Distance events) swim that the author does not note is that the swimmer can only wear one cap,… Read more »
Did he swim at all in high school/college? Am curious if he has any pool times
Search USMS:
http://www.usms.org/search.php?q=robert+palmese#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=robert%20palmese&gsc.page=1
I would also add that for a swim like this, pool times won’t make that much difference. Swimming for ~36 hours is as much or more a mental feat as it is a physical one. A 12 hour catalina channel swim isn’t exceptionally fast (records range from 7:15:55 to 8:05 44, depending on which direction and whether it’s a male or a female, Peggy Lee Dean is the fastest overall, swimming from the mainland to Catalina), but being successful in a swim like this is much more dependent on keeping a level head for the duration of a very long swim.