'Putting one arm in front of the other'
<p>Randy Hixon, top, provides kayak support as Elaine Howley, a Boston-based marathon swimmer, begins her solo swim, of more than 30 miles, of the full length of Lake Pend OreilleÕs Buttonhook Bay Wednesday near Farragut State Park. Howley is scheduled to finish the open water swim at the city beach in Sandpoint on Thursday afternoon.</p>
<p>Elaine Howley sets her watch from a steep embankment prior to setting off on a record-setting swim of Lake Pend Oreille.</p>
SANDPOINT - Elaine Howley hopes that later today she will be able to say she is the first person to swim the entire length of scenic Lake Pend Oreille.
Howley, a 36-year-old marathon swimmer from the Boston area, began her journey across the lake early Wednesday night, from Buttonhook Bay in Athol. She plans to end sometime between noon and 4 p.m. today on the white sands of Sandpoint City Beach.
Howley was under the assumption that the swim was 34 miles, as pitched to her by Sandpoint swimming enthusiast and Long Bridge Swim creator Eric Ridgway, who is no stranger to adventure swims in the crystalline waters of Lake Pend Oreille.
Then Howley saw the Wikipedia page for Lake Pend Oreille, with a statistic that differs from Google Earth's calculation of the lake's length.
"I had a minor panic attack about six weeks ago when I saw the lake listed as being 43 miles long," said Howley, a former Division 1 college swimmer and one of the top marathon swimmers in the U.S. "At the end of the day, it's going to be what it's going to be. I'll just keep putting one arm in front of the other until we run out of water."
Howley's longest swim to date is 38 miles, during a 24-hour swim in Lake Cochituate in Massachusetts. Her other accomplishments include setting a record by crossing the Boston Harbor (16 miles) in just more than seven hours, completing a solo circumnavigation of Manhattan Island (28.5 miles) and a 1-mile swim in the frigid 41-degree waters of the Boston Harbor - without a wet suit.
Howley graduated from Georgetown University in 2000, and when she isn't shredding the water, she is the associate editor for U.S. Masters Swimming. A gifted writer, she has had several award-winning stories published in a variety of media.
Howley was invited to Sandpoint by Ridgway, who was part of a team of 10 swimmers which circumnavigated the 84 miles of Lake Pend Oreille in 2011. Ridgway has long held that the deep and expansive lake is perfect for open-water swims, and is excited to see the latest adventure swim taking shape.
"I'm betting on her success because she knows how to have fun, not take herself too seriously, and she has done one hell of a lot of training," said Ridgway. "She's got to have a lot of stubbornness inside of her or there is no way that she could have completed a 1-mile swim in 41-degree water."
Howley is accompanied by Ridgway; her husband, Mark Howley; sports nutritionist Sunny Blende; and kayaker Randy Hixon on the journey. Howley hopes to finish between 17 and 20 hours, but wind and chop could stretch it out closer to 24 hours.
Ridgway is well-acquainted with wild swims, starting the popular 1.76-mile Long Bridge Swim more than two decades ago and taking part in a host of adventure swims on his hometown lake.
He'll be with a swimming kindred spirit in Howley, and doesn't doubt for a second that she'll finish the swim, whether it's 34 miles or 43 miles.
"Swimmers often get a little brain damage, and they just keep swimming until they hit some kind of a shoreline," said Ridgway. "She'll fit right in with the other swimming nuts in North Idaho."