Cook Strait swimmer from Te Awamutu inspired by father and family

Cook Strait swimmer Mark Lenaarts gives the thumbs up without breaking rythm as he nears the South Island. Photo / Supplied

After four and a half years of training for five or six days per week, Mark Lenaarts finally achieved his goal of swimming Cook Strait – a homage to his childhood, playing with his brother and sister at the Te Awamutu Swimming Baths his late father Cor ran for over 20 years.

Mark had other motivation as well.

“I want to inspire our three lovely kiddies and my awesome wife Michelle with a little family story of enjoying doing cool stuff and I want to give this epic challenge a crack and see if I can make it,” he said.

Even as he was writing his goals, Mark admits he had tears in his eyes – a reflection of how big this challenge is and how much it meant to him.

But the bottom line is how much it would have meant to his dad: “He would have loved this.

“My father taught swimming to thousands of Te Awamutu kids for over 20 years at the Te Awamutu pools and that is basically where I grew up playing,” he says.

“He also shared with us the story about Sally McKimm, a teenager he helped train for the Cook Strait in the 70s.

Cor Lenaarts was the inspiration for his son Mark to take up endurance swimming. Photo / Supplied

“She would’ve been the first female to achieve this, but made it to within a mile of the finish, before the tide turned and pushed her backwards for several hours before she got pulled out.

“This swim was a lovely way of rounding out that family story for my late Dad who passed away almost 10 years ago. He would’ve totally loved this and been so excited.

“When I used to race as a young kid he would call out enthusiastically from the side of the pool ‘Go Mark’ in his booming, rich Dutch voice.

“I said this to myself as I went along on the swim to give myself some encouragement.”

Mark has been training for the last three years, with the goal of swimming the strait over the last two summers, but the swim was called off three times due to changing weather overnight.

“This has been super tough to cope with and keep hanging in there,” says Mark.

“Each year I have been given a five- to seven-day tide slot for my potential swim.

“Each time it hasn’t worked out. I would also be given a backup date with other swimmers, but they never worked out either.”

Mark has been on call across 20 tide slots and 100 days for three summers.

“Last Thursday I got my day. And boy it was a good one.”

It was calm, misty and rainy, with pretty flat seas and favourable tides.

“I kind of think that maybe I was gifted this after all of the delays and hardship I had faced.”

Mark completed the swim in 7h 15m.

He estimated he has swum between 4000-5000 kilometres training four days per week in the pool and two days in the ocean for the past four and a half years - all for one swim of 27.6km.

He started in the winter of 2019 and hated it.

He was petrified about getting hypothermia or having a heart attack. He would shake for five minutes after each swim –joking that it made it hard to get the coffee down to warm up.

Over time he got accustomed to the cold and was able to do longer training swims and build up to two or three hours in the water.

He also credits his amazing support from a number of people.

“My wife Michelle has been through the wringer so many times and it has been tough on her and our children Toby, 11, Simone, 8, and Lachie, 6.

“My swim coaches and swim buddies have been incredible with loads of chats, plenty of support and great company and banter during all the hours and days of training.

“I also felt huge support from my brother Grant and sister Kim who were cheering me on and crying with joy as I progressed across the strait.”

On the day, Mark left the wharf at Mana and cruised two hours to the start, where he got greased up.

He was heading off with American Zach Margolis, who is attempting to do the Ocean’s Seven - the seven hardest ocean swims in the world.

Swim Tracker screenshot showing the progress of Mark Lenaarts (blue) and American Zach Margolis. Hundreds of people, including Mark's mum Alwyn in Te Awamutu, 'watched' the swim on the app.

Cook Strait is second-hardest behind the North Channel from Ireland to Scotland.

Mark says the first three hours were a massive mental struggle.

“Michelle rescued me by calling out loudly from the big boat - ‘Think about why you are doing this, think about our kids, think about all the training you have done. You can do this.’”

“A message from Philip Rush on the small IRB boat also helped an hour later – he told me to stop slapping the water with my right hand and enter the water better.

“I did this for the next 90 minutes, so was practising a form of mindfulness and concentration.

“Next thing we were only an hour from the end and the South Island finally revealed itself out of the mist and the rain that had been with us the whole way.”

Near the finish is a wall of freezing water that took his breath away and tightened his chest.

Mark says he backed off a little and got back into a good steady rhythm.

“Safety was my first priority. I wanted to get home in one piece to be with my lovely family.”

The finish was to simply touch a rocky outcrop then swim straight back to the IRB.

It was turbulent like a washing machine so Marked ducked under, touched the rock and got out to keep safe.

He said the magical euphoria came when he got to the boat, got dragged on board, got a towel wrapped around him and looked at his wife in amazement.

“I did it.

“After a delicious dose of celebratory scorched almonds I called my brother and sister in Brisbane and called my mum Alwyn in Te Awamutu.

“I was so emotional it wasn’t much of a chat, but it was a special moment.”

Mark managed a few hours of sleep, but woke with the achievement running through his head.

“I watched some of the amazing videos taken during the day and read through the amazing messages so many people had sent through.

“It was incredible and a little overwhelming.”

Mark says he isn’t really a model of nutrition when it comes to his training diet – icecream, salt and vinegar chips, scorched almonds and pastries and coffees at cafes after swims.

Mark Lenaarts celebrates his Cook Strait crossing with a box of scorched almonds. Photo / Supplied

On the swim he had sports nutrition drinks and gels every half an hour- and for the last 90 minutes Coke for an extra boost.

A bonus for completing the swim is a free lifetime Interisland Ferry pass – something he is keen to make good use of.

Mark says the training and swim have taught him some major life lessons.

He calls it “Mark’s Resilience Project”.

“I have learned so much about myself.

“I can handle a lot more than I ever thought possible.

“I don’t get as stressed at work about major things – I see these as a problem to figure out and I can do this much more calmly now. I have a different perspective.

“And gratitude got me out of a great big hole during my challenge, and is good to keep using.”

The negative has been the load carried by Michelle.

“It was not what she signed up to and it has been incredibly challenging at times,” says Mark.

“She has been amazing at looking after me, looking after our three awesome children and keeping us all going when I have been away, and when I have been there with very low energy after lots of training.

“I am really looking forward to giving her some time and being more present with her and our family over Christmas and our summer holiday.”

Statistics:

Mark is the 140th person to swim Cook Strait since the first in the 1960s.

Mark has the 23rd-fastest crossing.

Mark is 10th-fastest North-South swimmer, the route used by 80 per cent of swimmers.