EITM: Katie Pumphrey 5/29/24

swimkatie.com

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, Hi, Katie. Pronounceyour last name for me. Pumphrey,
Katie, Pumphrey with a peep,Katie Pumphrey, Katie. I'm very excited
to talk to you. I justlearned a lot of things about you.
That's great. Yeah, thanks forhaving me. Oh totally, Katie.
By the way, do I wantto make sure I have this right?

(00:20):
You are going to swim twenty fourmiles from the Chesapeake Bay to the Inner
Harbor in Baltimore. Yeah, theswim. It's twenty four miles from the
Chesea State Bridge to the far partof the Inner Harbor. So I'll finish
right at the pavilion at Harbor Place. And you know it late June.
And do you know why this is, Diane, Because they said the harbor

(00:44):
is clean enough to swim in.So Katie's going to swim from the Bay
Bridge. How long is that twentyfour miles? Right? Yeah? I
anticipated taking around twelve hours, butyou never know what's weather. So we'll,
you know, hopefully get there whenI get there. Oh Jesus Christ,
Now you are a but you you'rea what do I call you?
A distant swimmer? A marathon swimmer? I don't know what I don't know

(01:04):
what the what the right term issure all of the above. I'm an
ultra marathon open water swimmer, soI say a lot of my swims are
channel swims that tend to be overtwenty miles or so. But I enjoy
open water at all distances. Sowhat I'm really excited about this one?
So is a channel swim. Iread something about you where it was the

(01:26):
English Channel or something with the EnglishChannel that you've that you've gone swimming in
twice. Yeah, I've done theEnglish Channel twice, once in twenty fifteen
and one in twenty twenty two,and I'm booked for a third swim in
twenty twenty five. Is that anykind of record? Not yet. No.
But it's a really rich history ofthe sport in English Channel, and

(01:49):
I just really love that body ofwater, so I always like returning to
it. What is the like ifyou swim the English Channel? How far?
How far? Is that? TheEnglish Channel is twenty one miles in
a straight line as it crow flies, But to successfully swim it, most
swims are more like an s shape. Right. Both of my swims were
thirty six to thirty seven miles.Oh my god, and then what is

(02:13):
the and then you also you swamaround the island of Manhattan. I did,
Yeah, how far is that?So that's just over twenty eight miles
and typically you plan that to becurrent assisted, so that for that's when
the organization that ran it, theydid a great job and we had a
nice kind of current push the wholeway, So that that one was for

(02:36):
me. It was just over eighthours and in longer miles. In those
eight hours, what if you canlist for me what infections and diseases did
you get? I felt great afterthat swim. It was a beautiful view
of New York and uh, itwas. It was a really great day.
So it was it's a wild swim, but really fun is the and

(02:57):
so the the and you're from Baltimoreand so once they announced that the Harbor
you can swim in it, youdecided, you know what, this will
be pretty cool? Is it is? Is the is the bay bridge to
the Inner Harbor? Has that I'massuming that's been done before. No,
this is the first swim of itskind, So I'm really excited. Is
that because you couldn't swim in theInner Harbor And that's why nobody's ever done

(03:19):
it. Yeah, it's part ofit. I think, you know,
It's like safety is a huge dealand water quality is a big part of
my sport. And so once waterfrom Partnership announced their upcoming event of Harbor
Splash on June twenty third, Ireached out to them about partnering for this
event and you know, how canwe share this news and celebrate Baltimore as

(03:44):
much as possible? Hey, whatis the when you said safety and listen,
I don't know how safe or unsafeit is to swim the English Channel.
I would not swim around Manhattan,But like, what is the from
a safety standpoint, like other thanjust being in the water, what is
what is so unsafe about the BayBridge to the Inner Harbor. Well,

(04:05):
I'm planning a very safe swim withI have two boat supports and a crew.
I mean the big part about thebiggest part about open water swimming is
you know, you never want todo it alone. So you're doing this
with a support crew and a lotof notice out to mariners. So I've
been in communication with the US CoastGuard Sector of Maryland and so they know

(04:25):
that we'll be in the water,and they've been talking with me about that
swim and my crew is you know, we're ready to go and making sure
it's as safe as possible with boattraffic, with weather conditions, and hopefully
it'll be a great day. Igot you. Oh so I get you.
So when you said safety, justlet other people know you're doing it,
I was thinking, like it's unsafebecause of something underwater or like,

(04:49):
I mean, listen, what doI know? Like people always talk about
like there's dolphins in the bay andstuff, So I was just thinking of
it, like from that standpoint,Yeah, there are dolphins. They were
actually just spotted out the mouth ofthe Tapska. That's pretty exciting. But
safety, yeah, on that,I mean, there's lots of things in
the water, right there's it's it'syou know, the fish that live there.

(05:09):
That's their living room. So I'mjust hoping to swim by and pass
through. But with safety, Imean we're you know, you're always making
sure you're swimming outside of heavy rain. So when we say you want to
make sure that swims are on drydays, that goes for all swimmers at
you know, all beaches around Marylandfollow the same rules that you tried to

(05:30):
never swim within forty eight hours afterheavy rain, so you're avoiding any runoff.
And that goes for everywhere, Soeven Ocean City, you shouldn't swim
after a heavy rain. So thewindow for my swim, it's a four
day window and we'll be picking theday I swim based on the best weather
conditions and of that conditions to makeit a successful swim. Hey Katie,

(05:51):
how did you like did you growup? I'm assuming yes that you don't
just stumble in this. Did yougrow up like just loving to swim?
Yes? I did. Yeah.I started on a summer swim team when
I was five and kept swimming yearround. I didn't swim in college.
I decided to go to art school, so I went to the Mault and
Suit College of Art. The studyingpainting instead of swimming collegiately was great for

(06:15):
me, but I kept swimming bymyself, and that's actually how I got
into open water. I signed upfor the Chestea Faybridge Swim, which is
four point four miles across from sayPoint State Park to the other side.
Do you swim right between the Faybridgespans? And that swim's actually coming up
about six hundred swimmers, we'll participate. So that was my first swim in
twenty ten, and I really fellin love with the sport. So it's
been a big love affair ever since. Hey do you swim every day?

(06:42):
I talked about. I mean,rest days are important. I try to
take time off, but right nowI'm definitely swimming a lot. I'm kind
of in the height of my trainingright now. But can you swim in
a pool to train for this ordo you have to go do like open
water swimming. I tried to getan open water whenever I can, but
most of my training is in thepool, especially because it's it's that safety
element again. So it's you know, I'm never going out and open water
by myself, so I'm always makingsure I have boat support, people watching

(07:06):
me, watching for boats. SoI love swimming and open water, but
it takes a little more coordination whereit's you know, I can go to
the pool by myself and get mytraining in. By the most of my
training in the pool. I waslooking at a like, I'm I have
the website open right now and Iknow that people can donate, which is
awesome. I think that's great.Swimktie dot com swimkdie dot com is the

(07:28):
is the website absolutely, And there'sthere's a great picture of you in open
water and you're you're swimming and there'slike boats and stuff in the background and
stuff. Why do I look atthat and go like, how dirty was
that water? Are you talking aboutphotos of me swimming in the harbor?
Yeah? Yeah, so that wasactually three weeks ago. Uh, And

(07:48):
we with Waterfront Partnership and Clearwatermills.They have two boats out with me.
And it was a great day.I mean I think the again, we
swam outside of any heavy rain.It was a drag a and you know,
I will say that the water feltgreat and it tasted like any other

(08:09):
river I've ever been in. Awesome. That's always a big question swimmers asked
me, is what the water tasteslike? So can't help with get water
in your mouth? And and it, yeah, tasted like a river.
And that was three weeks ago.I am feeling great. I didn't grow
any limbs or turned into mutant.I am very excited about this one.
Okay, I would not expect thatyou would grow limbs or turn into a

(08:33):
diarrhea all that others. That's whatI would think, Uh, I feel
great. Wait hold on, yes, Katie, how does the tragedy of
the key Bridge collapse change your plansor affect what's going to happen next month?
Yeah, that's a great question.So originally this swimsman in the work
kind of been planning really since lastfall. So originally my swim window was

(08:56):
early to mid May, and withthe Key Bridge and in communication with the
Coast Guard, we pushed that backagainst safety the huge, huge component there,
So I mean the I mean unifiedcommand and the coost Guard did everyone
working to clear that space has donesuch an amazing job, and now voters

(09:20):
are passing through, more ships arepassing through, and so hopefully by by
the end of June, uh,my swim through that area will be very
safe. That'll be weird though,And that's part of my ten percent of
the donations made to my go fundme through my website, ten percent will
be donated to the Maryland to BaltimoreSong Keybridge Fund that was established by the

(09:41):
Baltimore Community Foundation. So we're definitelyreally trying to celebrate this moment for Baltimore,
but also yeah, absolutely taking tooaccount how our community has been impacted.
Dude, will that be Will thatbe weird to swim through that area
though? Yeah, I think that'lldefinitely have some feelings. I mean,

(10:01):
you know, that's been a hugelandmark of my city for decades and I
can see it from my neighborhood.So the last several weeks has been definitely
a different landscape. So I ammat. I've been thinking about for I
mean, I've lived in Baltimore fortwenty years and I've been thinking about this
kind of swim for years, andI was really obviously looking forward to swimming

(10:24):
through that swimming under that bridge.So I'm sure, Hey, can I
I think all of us will havea lot of thoughts, but hopefully it'll
be a good day. Still,Hey, can I can I switch gears
with you for a second? Iknow you said that you didn't swim collegiately
because you went to art school.Dude, the stuff on your Instagram is

(10:45):
beautiful. So the pool floating sculptures, they're so cool. Thank you.
Thanks. Yeah, a lot ofmy paintings and sculpture definitely tie into my
swimming experiences. So I've been pullingfrom swimming more with new work and trying
to bring in some of that whimsy, but also you know it's the way
in their matchinageing place. So that'swith out water swimming, and it's really

(11:05):
really great to share it. IfI am a well two things Number one,
if I am a Sondheim finalist,what does that mean? Yeah,
the hero of the Sunheim semi finalist. So the Sunheim is a local area
award. You know, hundreds ofartists in the area apply I was.

(11:26):
I was lucky this year to beone of the semi finalists. Oh,
good for you. And it lookslike the stuff again, I'm looking at
it on Instagram, but it lookslike the stuff that you paint is like
really big. Yeah, most ofit's very large scale. I like,
I love the experience of standing infront of a big painting and it kind
of swallows you up the no.Well, I mean that's awesome, but

(11:46):
it like it looks like it's thesize of a wall. Yeah. I
think a lot of my work isin it's four four feet to ten feet
somewhere in that range. I definitelyhave smaller work as well, but most
of my work is large scale.That's awesome though, good for you,
Good for you, all right,So get me back to the get me
back to the swim. People obviouslycan donate for the for the swim,

(12:07):
and I guess we won't know untilwe get a little closer to the date,
the exact day that you're that you'regoing. Yeah, so that four
day window will narrow it down asyou get closer, and I'll put that
lots of notice and there'll be alink that you can live track it and
follow the swim. And then wewere inviting everyone and anyone to come to

(12:28):
the finish and celebrate this huge milestonefor Baltimore and hopefully a successful swim.
And did I read you start atlike like one or two or three in
the morning something like that on thatday you're going to go early. Yeah,
our tentative plan is about three am. So I'll jump in, swim
into the beach at Sandy Point,kind of wave them beyond the water.
So I follow Marathon Swimmers Federation ruleswhich you so you start beyond the water,

(12:52):
finish beyond the water, or touchyou know when you can't go any
further. And through the whole swim, I can't touch anyone or any thing.
It's a regular swimsuit cap and goggles, so that three am Star is
really that space on the tide andand hopefully the best success to get in
without ending up on a treadmill asthe current is headed out. I gotcha,

(13:13):
I gotcha, and you can't touchanything. Well, there goes my
idea to have you call me whileyou were actually swim and so I'll put
that on hold. Well, theycan hold out a phone. I'm sure
I can. I can yet.Oh dude, that would be awesome.
That would be so Katie. Howdid the swim turn into a disaster?
Oh? I just wanted to calla stupid radio show just to get that
done. Well, listen, willyou? You'll let us know exactly when

(13:35):
the date is and we'll make surethat we get all the info out.
Yeah. Absolutely, And keep joinmy mailing list on swimtd dot com.
Follow on social media my Instagram atKatie Pumphrey Art. And also go ahead
and follow mister trash Wheel so he'llbe following. He'll be joining me in
the last mile, he'll be joiningthe fleet and we'll go into the finish
with me. So if you're unfamiliarwith mister trash Wheel, he's a Baltimore

(13:58):
legend. That's awesome. Good foryou. Hey Katie, thanks for taking
the time. I appreciate it absolutely. Yeah, thanks for talking with me.
This is great.