An attempt at a world-first swimming record took place in Barrie on Sunday as Collingwood native Cindy Guyon braved the frigid waters of Kempenfelt Bay.
Guyon, 52, was attempting to be the first in Canada to butterfly-swim one “ice mile” under the conditions set out by the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), and possibly the first woman in the world to accomplish the feat. Only one man has ever completed it.
According to Guyon, Amy Ross was one of the first Canadian women to complete the ice-mile attempt under IISA regulations, but not while using the butterfly technique.
Only 12 people in Canada have completed the ice mile in any form, along with 569 people worldwide.
Guyon is also raising money for breast cancer research as part of her efforts.
“There's a number of regulations to ensure that anybody attempting this is fully prepared to do it,” Guyon said on the beach just prior to her entering the water.
“It is not a competition, so at any time, and I feel I've done this enough now that I know when my body says, oh, this is no good, then I will exit the water before completing the full mile, which is OK. Then I'll try again in the spring,” she added.
The signs of things starting to go awry during a swim is when her body’s core starts to feel warm, “and I start thinking, hey, this is not so bad. This is really good. That's when I know that, yeah, it's time (to stop and get out of the water).”
Even at the beginning of a swim, the physical experience isn’t that great, either.
“Right off the top when I get in the water, my arms and my legs, especially my feet and my hands, are in pain. It hurts,” Guyon explained. “And then I can feel my arms and my legs kind of tingle, and then probably about 400 metres into it, they'll start to go numb.
“As long as I can feel that lively cold then I am good to go.”
With a throng of supporters cheering her on, Guyon walked out into the water and began her swim. She kept up a good pace, but sadly, after an astonishing 47 minutes in the 2-degree Celsius water, she ended her attempt at history.
Due to the cold, Guyon fell just short of her goal, missing it by just 200 metres. She managed 1,420 metres before stopping.
Guyon struggled to get to shore, and when she was pulled from the water by her friends and family, she could not stand under her own power. She was quickly hustled off to a nearby warming tent to recuperate.
“I almost did it, but I’m looking forward to trying it again in the spring when the sun is shining and the water is between four and five degrees, which is what I had originally anticipated,” she said a few hours after her swim.
What is going through her mind after 30 minutes tick by and the swimming gets tough?
“My mind wanders, so I really try and concentrate on swimming in a straight line, and I’m also trying to pay attention to my body, to figure out if I should get out, which I should have done a little earlier,” Guyon said.
She said her arms were not getting out of the water as much while she was swimming, which her team took as a sign of distress, so they pulled the plug on the attempt.
“I was on autopilot at that point,” Guyon added. “I wasn’t going to be calling anything, and probably would have just kept going, so it was a good call on their part.
“I’m not disappointed."
To aid in warming herself up, her team towelled her off in a heated tent nearby and gave her warm fluids to drink, along with hot packs and hand-warmers. She immediately climbed onto a rowing machine in the tent and rowed for 30 minutes, which helped keep her blood circulating and at the right temperature.
After she left the beach, she was placed in a warm bath to complete her recuperation.
Guyon said she accomplished more on this day than she expected and is looking forward to training throughout the rest of the winter before taking another stab at the ice-mile record in a return to Centennial Beach.
“The support system that I had was absolutely amazing,” she said of her friends and family on hand Sunday.
Guyon is also using her event and attention to raise money for breast cancer research, which can be found here.
The video below shows the immense effort put forth by Guyon in her record attempt.
