NEWPORT — On Monday, 70-year-old Dan Shub of Baltimore, MD, swam the 25-mile length of Lake Memphremagog, between Newport, Vermont, and Magog, Quebec, or, as it’s also known, “In Search of Memphre.”
He is the oldest person to complete this 25-mile swim.
He entered the water at 11:22 p.m. on Sunday, July 7, 2019, at the EastSide Restaurant in Newport, and exited at Park de Baie-du-Magog on July 8, at 8:33 p.m.
Shub also set the record for the longest time in the water to successfully complete the distance, at 21 hours and 11 minutes.
He is the 36th person to complete “the Search” since the swim was started in 2011 on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 by Elaine Kormbau Howley and Phil White, to promote a more open border by re-opening the lake to international swimming.
This year, Dan dedicated his swim to the Lost Children.
At a young age, Shub became a cancer survivor, which led him into an active lifestyle as a triathlete and long-distance open water swimmer.
He has participated in many swims in the Northeast Kingdom, including two 25 km Border Busters at Kingdom Swim and last year’s July Expeditionary Search, in which he was beaten back by high winds in his face, but only after he had completed 16 miles of very tough swimming.
He was among 5 others who failed to complete that day, while only 2 made it to the finish.
This year, he returned to finish business.
My son-in-law Jim Loreto, a British swimmer and a female swimmer completed the swim from Newport to Magog on 16 July, starting at 4;45 AM.