Sound Shore

As if swimming 28.5 miles around Manhattan Island isn’t grueling enough, Tobey-Anne Saracino will now try to do it faster than anyone else.

“Usually the goal is to finish and now we stepped it up a notch,” said the Edgemont High School physical education teacher and swim coach. “It’s going to be swimming as hard as you can, for as long as you can.”

Saracino is one of four swimmers invited by NYC Swim to chase male and female records on Sept. 10, the second time she will be swimming around the island this year.

The amateur athlete will have the company of Olympians Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria, and Mark Warkentin of California.  A second amateur swimmer, Australian Rondi Davies, will also join the group.

The world record of 5 hours and 45 minutes is  held by Shelley Taylor-Smith of Australia. Marcia Cleveland of Greenwich, Conn. holds the American women’s record of 5 hours and 57 minutes. Saracino is aiming for either of them.

To make sure ongoing vertigo and sea sickness problems don’t hamper her effort, Saracino will try a new medication that will be patched to her arm.

The current around Manhattan switches directions about every six hours, she said, so she is preparing to have to swim the last stretch against it.

To get tough, her 35-mile-a week workouts now include swimming against the current while towing a kayak filled with stuff.

“I can say it wasn’t easy and it hurt,” she said, laughing. “It was definitely tough. I was wiped out by the end.”

But whether or not she breaks a record, Saracino said she wants to inspire the teens she coaches and teaches.

“I think what they can take away from this is that as they move forward with life, they will be faced with challenges,” she said. “Walking away is not the answer. If you lose, you will definitely learn from thatm and it will help you moving forward.”

The 35-year-old  has already conquered the English Channel and has her sights set on swimming Catalina Island in California next year. If she’s successful, she will  be one of just a few dozen people in the world to complete the “Triple Crown” of open-water swimming: The English Channel, Manhattan Island and Catalina Island.

(Photo by Xavier Mascareñas / The Journal News )

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