01/31/2026
Early morning race day alarms hit a little different when you’re organizing the race. In my case, I wake up an hour early, apparently. The brain does what it wants sometimes. Which is a great reason to get in the pool and swim for an hour straight. The 1-Hour Swim Challenge has become a tradition at .life , our version of the 1-Hour Virtual Championship. This year, we had more registrants than ever, and hosted 3 continuous hours of swimming, every lane full, a huge slate of helpful volunteers, and a pile of motivated swimmers looking to see what they could do. The great thing about the 1-Hour is that it can be anything you want. A race, sure. A challenge, always. But are you here for distance, or to prove something? What do you want to learn? I saw friends prove to themselves that they are, in fact, “real swimmers.” I saw them achieve something they doubted for weeks. I saw them crack thresholds and exceed limits. I saw them show up despite it all, and execute their plan. I saw absolutely nobody quit, because quitting means you stop before you have to and you don’t give what you have. I saw a community rally together in hard times, and create something that answered them: “Be harder than the times. You can do great things.”
For my part, I tied my personal best for distance. But I swam more efficiently than I ever have, and more consistently than I ever have — my stroke count was steady and as low as it has ever been, my splits never tailed off, and my HR stayed right where I wanted it. Having real-time data in my HUD from was incredibly helpful. In swimming, efficiency is everything. The same overall distance with massively fewer strokes, lower HR and consistent splits? Big win.
My biggest win, though, was seeing this thing come together after weeks of preparation, and swimming alongside athletes I know have each been through their own journeys to arrive at this one single hour — and then watching them thrive.
As a coach, an organizer, a spectator, a friend…there is nothing better.
