Ramsey mom, and Ridgewood teen celebrate finishing 17.5-mile swim
Sunday August 18, 2013, 10:42 PM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
SANDY HOOK – When they walked from the sea into the surf here Sunday, Charlotte Samuels and Lynn Ascione were both one step closer to where they want to be one day: swimming the English Channel.
The two Bergen County swimmers, who didn’t know each other before Sunday, were among nearly two-dozen swimmers from around the globe who competed in the Ederle Swim, an annual 17.5-mile long-distance, open-water event sponsored by New York City Swim. In fact, Samuels is apparently one of the youngest to ever finish it.
The 15-year-old Ridgewood High School student, and Ascione, a 46-year-old stay-at-home Ramsey mother, are very different. But they share a passion for the adventure, discipline, exposure to nature and mental serenity that open-water swimming brings them. They are aiming to swim the English Channel, and the Ederle Swim is considered a prelude to that 21-mile-long feat.
Samuels finished Sunday’s swim at 1:23 p.m., in 5 hours and 38 minutes, when she walked onto a nearly deserted beach at Sandy Hook. The swim began at Battery Park in downtown Manhattan, and Samuels said those final strokes to the shore in Jersey were really tough ones.
“It felt like forever,” said Samuels, who was wearing bright royal blue nail polish on her fingers and toes, her long dark hair tied back.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/ramsey/Bergen_mom_teen_celebrate_finishing_17_5-mile_swim.html#sthash.rTim2coC.dpuf
