• Home
  • Posts
  • Marcia Cleveland – True Grit Marathon Hall of Fame Swimmer

Marcia Cleveland – True Grit Marathon Hall of Fame Swimmer

2-mc-robert-on-beach

By Anne Semmes

In these prime July swimming days, with the annual Swim Across America Fairfield County event coming up next weekend on our Greenwich/Stamford border, it’s timely to remember that July 29 day, 27 years ago when Greenwich’s own Marcia Cleveland swam successfully across the English Channel – 20.8 miles in nine hours 44 minutes, in 60-degree water temperature.

In that year of 1994, Marcia was 30 years old, married, living in New York City, with her parents in Riverside. But in a call to Marcia now based with family in Winnetka, Illinois, she credits the pivotal swim training she did off Greenwich Point in the two years preceding that Channel swim for having,

“completely made the difference.”

Picture Marcia in swimsuit, cap, and goggles, skin covered with a layer of Vaseline, stepping into the surf in the fall with waters anywhere from 58 to 55 degrees.

“There wasn’t anyone standing around making either of us do this (Marcia swims often with a training partner for safety): it was something from within, the desire and the drive to succeed, knowing this was one of the steppingstones in the process.”

This quote comes from Marcia’s book, “Dover Solo,” sadly missing from Greenwich Library, that splendidly spells out her preparing for and experiencing that

Marcia Cleveland training partner Robert Makatura heading into 55 degree waters off Greenwich Point in 1992. Contributed photo.

Channel swim, making her the 445th person then to do so. But Marcia wasn’t alone on the Greenwich Point beach. She recalls one Halloween making that longest two-hour swim in 55-degrees, with her observing husband Mark Green, “on the shore freezing to death in his ski jacket.” Mark was with her every stroke in that nine plus hour Channel swim aboard an escort boat.

“I just worked really hard at Greenwich Point and it’s a nice course. I did five and six hour swims there. And it just really made the difference, physically as well as psychologically for me. I swam through eight foot waves. I swam through jellyfish. I didn’t enjoy it, but it really made the difference for me getting to the level I was able to get to.”

In those near freezing autumnal waters, Marcia first experienced mild hypothermia, a condition that can bring an end to a swimmer. “When I got out of the water, my teeth chattered and I shook uncontrollably for hours,” she writes. Her fingers and hands would cramp “so badly” (known as “Channel Cramp”) they would be useless for quite a while.” Twenty minutes in a 116-degree shower was needed to straighten them out.

“She kept jumping in the pool with her clothes on,” is how Marcia’s mother, Carolyn Cleveland traces Marcia’s urge for swimming beginning age one and a half. Lessons soon followed. By age three she was jumping off the diving board, swimming unassisted to the side. Her mother, with other children, took time to swim laps with Marcia in an indoor pool. “I was simply where I wanted to be,” she writes.

Marcia Cleveland swimming along English Channel traffic headed for France in 1994. Contributed photo.

By age eight she was on the Sharks Swim Team, then on the varsity swim team at Greenwich High School (GHS), achieving All-American status. “She rarely missed a workout,” recalls her GHS coach Mark Newcombe, “and although she trained seriously, her rapport with her teammates was solid and was recognized at Greenwich High as a co-captain her Senior year.” Her modus operandi became, “Being motivated towards something I personally consider achievable gets my engine revving.”

After Yale, she worked in advertising in New York City where she met husband-to-be-Mark (a jogger) who passed the “Pre-Marital Swim Test.” “He knew it was something that made me happy and content and he never felt threatened by it,” she writes. So, married in 1990, Marcia kept swimming, joining the Master team in Manhattan, becoming a part of the U.S. Masters Swimming organization. By August of 1991 she was ready to make her first marathon swim – around Manhattan Island, 28 1/2 miles, “and that’s a lot of currents,” she says, and mind you, a longer swim than the 20-plus mile Channel swim.

As the first female to take the challenge, she found in her seven and a half hour swim the Manhattan waterways surprisingly clean. “If you go to Long Island Sound and you see how the tide changes every six hours and it whisks the top layer of water off, swimming in the top three feet in the water is totally fine. The most I ever hit was a plastic bag.” But five years on she would better her Manhattan Island marathon swim to five hours and 57 minutes, setting a record for Ame

Marcia Cleveland swimming past the World Trade Towers in the Manhattan Island Marathon in 1991.Contributed photo.

rican women.

So, what is it about marathon water swimming that really grabs you, Marcia?

“I like the planning and preparing for something, and then accomplishing something that’s pretty hard. It takes a lot of grit and determination to do that. There’s a

lot of unknowns that come in the way of every single swim. So, you learn a lot. I’ve met so many great people. But I think it’s the accomplishments of doing something and putting a plan together and making it work.”

So, it’s July 29, 1994 at 4 a.m. beneath the white cliffs of Dover, and Marcia is about to jump into the pitch black water from the escort boat. “I kicked off my shoes, kissed Mark goodbye, and walked to the back of the boat. I felt as if I was about to walk the plank…I was shaking from fear…Those first two hours were the most challenging part of the swim…84 strokes per minute swimming at 2.2 miles per hour…a pain in my left shoulder six hours into the swim getting progressively worse … The phrase most clearly defining my mindset was, ‘YES YOU CAN!’”

But when Marcia is asked what she is most proud of, besides being elected to the International Marathon Swimmers Hall of Fame, its having swum the 21-plus mile North Channel between Ireland and Scotland, in July of 2018, at age 54. “It was so incredibly hard. And I just kept going; I was feeling the effects of hypothermia and I didn’t even know to the extent that I was. There were jellyfish, everywhere and the water was 53 degrees. I gave it everything I had. and I still had about four hours [of 9 hours, 26 minutes] to swim…So the fact that I finished is just pretty amazing.”

Victorious Marcia Cleveland and husband Mark Reed headed for Dover, England aboard the escort boat soon after her arrival in Cap Gris Nez, France. Contributed photo.

So, that’s a 24 year jump from the English Channel challenge to the North Channel, with some impressive swims in between, plus raising two children. Did she imagine her 50’s would be so spectacular? “I never would have expected that in my 50’s, flashing my AARP card. But there’s definitely a group of us…just being supportive of each other… who just continue to see how far we can go.”

The Swim Across America Fairfield County event did not exist in Marcia’s early swim years. But in August of 2017, she became the first solo finisher in the 17-mile Swim Across the Sound marathon from Port Jefferson, L.I. to Bridgeport. “It’s a really great race, because they raise money for the living expenses of people who are living with cancer…It was a very difficult day, and they postponed the start of the swim two hours which affected the tides.” After nine hours of hard swimming with 46 minutes to go, Marcia was still not seeing the coast of Connecticut. “So, I just kept my head down and kept going. I just thought there’s people there who are getting radiation and chemotherapy today, and they can’t give up today or tomorrow or the next day, so I can’t give up now.”

Related Posts
Loading...