What if the three days before the Olympic open water marathon swim of 10 kilometers you had to swim 15.2, 14.4 and a whopping 27.3 kilometers on three other bodies of water?
That’s what Chattanooga resident Jamie Ann Phillips did last week in Arizona – and she did it faster than anyone else in the four-lake race, male or female. In fact, she did it in the fastest time in five years.
Jamie Ann Phillips has a big smile after her Canyon Lake finish on her way to victory in the four-day SCAR Swim Challenge in Arizona. (Contributed photo: Stephen Rouch)The 32-year-old Papercut Interactive operations director won the annual SCAR Swim Challenge – named for the first letters of the lakes involved: Saguaro, Canyon, Apache and Roosevelt – in 15 hours, 15 minutes, 20.6 seconds. The overall runner-up and male winner was 59-year-old Stefan Reinke of Honolulu in 15:37.47.3, and the 34th and final four-leg finisher needed nearly 26 hours.
“What Jamie Ann did was a pretty awesome achievement. That’s a big race,” said McCallie School aquatics director Stan Corcoran, an open-water guru with the Chattanooga River Rats. “That third day is 17 miles.”
The previous best time since Grace van der Byl’s record 13:07:16 in 2013 was Stephen Rouch’s 15:45:31.11 in 2016. He also won last year but in 16:48:49.3.