[Sound of swim strokes hitting the waves] [Rhythmic electronic music] KATIE PUMPHREY: If I would listen to all of the voices, real and in my head, I wouldn't have done half of the swims I've done.

I probably wouldn't be a full-time artist.

I see it, and you don't need to.

But I see where I'm going.

It's easy to just think it's all crazy.

But you'll see.

[Music intensifies] FEMALE NEWS BROADCASTER: A local Maryland swimmer is hoping to make history this month, with a 24-mile swim from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

FEMALE NEWS BROADCASTER: Her name is Katie Pumphrey, and she's doing this to celebrate the decades long cleanup efforts to make the Baltimore Harbor swimmable.

LEAH VELA: I personally would not do it because of the toxins and stuff that's in the water.

ASHLEY HENRIQUES: A lot of people have the sentiment of, I would only swim here if it was the last thing I was going to do.

KYWON MCCAIN: The harbor is dirty and people litter in it.

KELLY COYNE: I know some people think it's totally crazy, but you know, someone has to be first.

FEMALE NEWS BROADCASTER: Pumphrey will start to swim around 3 a.m.

at the Bay Bridge, and expects it will take 12 to 13 hours to reach the Inner Harbor.

CREW MEMBER: "Baltimore" on the count of 3.

1, 2, 3.

ALL: BALTIMORE!

KATIE: Aw, that was very good team, well done.

[Laughter] JOE MAHACH: So, when she hops in, she's going all the way to that corner.

She'll get clear, wave her hands, we'll toot the boat horn.

And that's the start.

[Talking in background] PERSON ON BOAT: See you in Baltimore!

[Laughter] KATIE: I'll see you in a minute.

[Water splashes] Woo!

[Crew cheers] KATIE: At the start of every swim, when I'm standing there on the beach, taking a few moments before I put my hands up and it officially starts, I always tell myself, "This is what you're doing today."

[Water lapping] KATIE: Even in the weeks leading up to it, when my anxiety was really up, I knew, once you get in the water, there's nothing else to do.

JOE MAHACH: Wait for it.

Go ahead.

[Horn blares] [Crew cheers] KATIE: No other planning that needs to happen.

Then you're, you're swimming.

This is what you're doing today.

You know I don't know what's going to happen in the next, several hours, but this is already a win.

[Footsteps] KATIE: When the Waterfront Partnership like announced, you know, a decade ago that they were working towards a swimmable Harbor.

It's easy to just say, "Well, that's never going to happen" or "You're crazy if you swim in there."

I think it's significantly harder to believe in progress.

[Soft waves] LEIGH AUTH: So where do we want to go?

KATIE: Um, over there?

CHELSEA ANSPACH: With the whole cityscape and the aquarium behind her.

But also, like, I also love, like, the Domino Sugar sign.

So maybe we could try to get both shots.

KATIE: What if I just swim that way?

CHELSEA: You just, you want to swim the whole Harbor?

[Laughs] LEIGH: Yeah, I'll make an announcement once, like you start getting in and stuff.

That way people don't get freaked out that we have somebody jumping off the boat and swimming.

I feel like somebody swimming in this harbor is never our favorite thing.

KATIE: It's new.

It's new.

It's coming for them though.

Yeah this swim kind of came to be when Waterfront announced Harbor Splash, which will be happening right before my swim.

Uh, and Harbor Splash, they're inviting, you know, a few hundred people to jump in the water and swim around, uh which will be a huge milestone.

So, the moment I saw, uh their post on Instagram, And they announced it, I think I emailed, Chelsea and Adam at Waterfront Partnership, I think I emailed them three minutes after I saw it.

Uh and that was in the fall.

So, since October, November, um I started kind of piecing together what this swim should be.

When I first emailed Waterfront Partnership, I think I said, you know, the Key Bridge, in.

So, about, you know, six miles or so.

And the more Joe and I talked about that, the more it felt like to really feel like it's an accomplishment to be the first person to do it, it needed to feel big.

CHELSEA: Okay.

KATIE: So, back it up on the map.

The more I walked it back, I got closer and closer to the Bay Bridge.

And the measurement from the Bay Bridge into Harbor Place and the Inner Harbor: 24 miles.

That feels very doable, in my wheelhouse of distance.

That also feels like, yeah.

That's going to make some noise.

[Katie squeals] CHELSEA: And you've never, like, jumped in here before, like on the DL.

KATIE: No, I follow the rules.

CHELSEA: I don't know!

KATIE: I follow directions.

LEIGH: Just know the wind is going to be pushing us that way.

KATIE: Lovely day for a swim.

[Laughs] CHELSEA: Oh, this is it!

KATIE: Oh, this is very exciting.

Sometimes I try to like when it's time to jump in.

I try to just jump right away.

CHELSEA: Yeah.

KATIE: But I'm going to take the moment.

CHELSEA: No, take in the moment.

[Splash] KATIE: Wooo.

All right.

LEIGH: She's faster than I thought.

[Laughs] [Sound of strokes hitting the water] KATIE: Ready?

CHELSEA: Yeah.

KATIE: I'm Katie Pumphrey, a marathon open water swimmer and artist from Baltimore, Maryland.

This coming June, I will be attempting a 24-mile swim from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to the now swimmable Baltimore Inner Harbor.

LEIGH: Hey, this is the Wheel Tender.

We have an open water swimmer about to cross your path uh by the Rusty Scupper.

Just giving you guys a heads up.

VOICE ON RADIO: Alright, appreciate it.

We'll keep an eye on you.

KATIE: What is that?

CHELSEA: Where?

KATIE: Is that just trash, or is that something weird?

Oh, it's just Styrofoam.

LEIGH: [Laughs] This is the most labor-intensive way to get all the trash out of the water.

FEMALE NEWS REPORTER: That breaking news that you started with Matt overnight in Baltimore, Maryland.

A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is collapsed.

You see what happened, down into the harbor.

That large boat collided with the bridge around 1:30 this morning.

That just sent the span rippling down into those freezing waters below.

Authorities are trying to rescue at least seven people who were doing overnight work on the bridge.

They're believed to have been tossed into the waves.

MALE NEWS REPORTER: This morning, with the sun rising, search teams continue looking for any survivors in the water as the Baltimore area reels from a major collapse.

[Somber music and waves] [Boat engine rattles] CAPTAIN TODD NICUSANTI: And too, with the bridge collapse.

And you're swimming past that is uh, quite an image where, it's like all right yes, we took a shot, but we're going to keep going.

KATIE: Yeah.

Even today, getting out here.

That's like very wild to go through there.

[Horn blares] CAPTAIN TODD: Maybe this is reaching, but uh, due to my lack of awareness, like how you deal with these things?

Beautiful day, things change out on the Bay like that.

Right?

A thunderstorm comes and it really starts cranking.

Are you just going to swim through it?

KATIE: If it's a storm that's going to roll through really fast uh... CAPTAIN TODD: Tough it out?

KATIE: I would want to swim through it.

JOE MAHACH: Should things go south or whatever.

Basically, the protocol is someone, probably me, dives in, grabs Katie and comes back.

Um and like, even if like, not like she's incapacitated.

But if we're ending the swim, I'm going to get in and immediately be like, cool.

You're at least disqualified.

So, we're not going to argue.

Get in the boat.

KATIE: Right.

JOE: And that'll be quick.

But we haven't had to do that yet.

I'm Katie's husband and I'm a high school math teacher.

And then on marathon swims, I'm like the crew chief: so, kind of managing things on the boat as well as Katie's safety.

[Smooching sound] JOE: Love you.

KATIE: You're very cool.

JOE: [Laughs] What a ridiculous sport.

KATIE: I know.

I really like it, you know?

KATIE: Okay.

JOE: Yeah.

[Water splashing and horn blaring] [Thunk] KATIE: My work is definitely very connected to swimming.

[Tapping] So, a lot of blue is definitely in my work.

[Sound of paint mixing] KATIE: A lot of sea monsters, a lot of sharks, alligators.

It is wildly helpful to be stubborn.

I think being an artist is like getting really, really comfortable with negative feedback.

[Brush hitting canvas] KATIE: Right?

My college professors always told me to to stop painting with drips.

I was like, I love my drips.

I'm going to keep them going forever.

And I have.

[Chuckles] But I think there are certain things that that just feel right.

And you don't need to explain that to people.

[Birds chirping] [Upbeat electronic music] [Laughter] WOMAN: All the looks?

KATIE: You all look adorable though.

[Laughter] FEMALE VOICE: The Banner caught up with Katie at her last swim practice before her Bay to Baltimore swim.

[Notification chirps] [Splash] KATIE: So, when people ask me, how long did it take you to train for the Bay to Baltimore swim?

It's, it's like seven really hard months of focus towards it.

But that's after years of swimming in the sport.

So, growing up I just, loved swimming.

I joined my first swim team when I was five years old.

[Birds chirping] KATIE'S DAD: Go Katie!

KATIE: Some of our practices were split into the girls' team and the boys' team.

I would go to the girls' practice and then I would stay for the boys' practice.

Looking back, like I feel like, oh, I should have known.

Like, you are a distance swimmer.

You know, going through high school and starting to think about college.

It's this kind of big, big weighing question: do I want to swim in college?

And I'm really glad I made the choice I did, to study painting.

But so, I decided not to swim in college.

And I kind of like said goodbye to my swimming career.

I thought I had to choose.

I wish 17-year-old Katie would have known, like, that's a dumb idea.

You don't need to pick one thing.

We are complex humans.

But I was still swimming by myself and training by myself.

I started thinking about, what do I want to work towards?

I was looking for something that kind of scared me.

And I found the Chesapeake Bay swim, a 4.4 mile swim from Sandy Point State Park to the Eastern Shore, and that kind of lit a fire.

So that swim was just brutal.

It beat me up.

And I got out of the water, and I remember I said to my mom, "That was the hardest thing I've ever done.

I want to do it again."

KATIE: Yeah.

Everything's cranky.

MARY MILLER: Okay.

KATIE: Especially right shoulder, especially in here.

MARY: So, you want to start off kind of the norm.

And then we'll do a little bit more focused around the right shoulder.

Let's put you back together.

[Instruments pop] KATIE: Oy.

MARY: Just look at the nice traction you get in your low back though when you do this.

KATIE: I mean, it feels nice.

It also feels terrible.

I got a lot of nice messages, which has been cool.

MARY: Good.

KATIE: I mean, the trolls and all the mean messages are still rolling in, but they're getting funny again.

Like they were funny in the beginning.

Then they kind of got to me and then I did not enjoy that as much.

MARY: Right.

KATIE: Plus some of them were like mean.

MARY: Mean.

KATIE: But now they're kind of back to being funny again.

I was prepared for a lot of comments about my body.

But since we announced the swim and some of those messages are, like "Oh honey, who tricked you into doing this swim?"

[Notification chirps] KATIE: It makes me want to just scream from a rooftop.

That like, this is my idea!

[Chuckles] KATIE: Oh, ow [deleted].

Ouch!

[Laughs] KATIE: Hello.

Welcome.

Thanks so much for being here at the Bay to Baltimore crew, official crew meeting.

Um.

I'm Katie, your swimmer.

I know, first time meeting, hello.

CREW: Nice to meet you.

[Laughs] KATIE: Uh, Joe is obviously my husband.

Uh, number one.

Love him.

And uh, crew chief.

So, and Joe, will talk more about his role.

But basically, Joe is, Joe is the go-to person, uh calling all the shots.

Once I'm in the water, my job is swimming.

Everything else, uh comes from him.

JOE: Some of you have been on swims before.

You've seen it.

Um, but just to be clear.

So, we'll be adhering to Marathon Swimming Federation rules.

Once we sound that horn to start at 3 a.m., Katie's not touching any of us or any of our stuff uh until the end.

The exception being when we throw her water bottles and things like that.

KATIE: I am wildly lucky to have an amazing partner, uh that is also willing to stand on the side of a boat for hours and hours in all sorts of different places and bodies of water.

[Surf rock music plays] CHELSEA: I'm getting better at this.

Okay, there you go.

Hi, how are you?

ADAM LINDQUIST: The harbor still has bad days, and there's still more work to be done.

And we don't expect everyone to change their minds overnight.

But today, I urge us all to reconsider our relationship with the Baltimore Harbor and acknowledge that things have changed.

And today, with ultramarathon swimmer Katie Pumphrey, [Applause] who's about to swim from the Bay Bridge to Harbor Place on Tuesday.

With all of that, today, I would like to introduce you to your new fishable and swimmable Baltimore Harbor.

[Applause & cheering] MAYOR BRANDON M. SCOTT: Because so many people believe this was possible, but so many people believe this wasn't possible.

And I'm going to be honest, if you were to ask me, would I be at 40 years old, swimming in a harbor when I was 20?

I'm like, yeah, I got a stadium I can sell you, too.

Right?

But we have to talk about what happens here in Baltimore consistently.

Uh people say that we can't, and we say we're going to show you, not only can we do it, we can do it better than anyone else.

It's hot, so I'm going to sit down and shut up so that we can jump in the water.

SWIMMERS: Two, one!

[Splashing swimmers in harbor] [Sound of swim strokes against the waves] JOE: Woo hoo!

Nice.

CAPTAIN TODD: Incredible.

JOE: All right.

All righty.

KATIE: Alright I felt like, kind of okay for, like, three minutes in there.

JOE: Yeah.

KATIE: So, I feel much better here.

JOE: Yeah, well, we'll get into a groove here in a second.

KATIE: So, with most swims, it's usually 3 to 4 people in my crew.

But with the Bay to Baltimore swim, a lot of people are in this crew.

[Whipping of flags in the wind] There's two boats, and Captain Todd, is on the primary boat.

Captain Allen is on the secondary boat.

Caroline Block is my primary observer.

I will have three kayakers: uh Chris and Sean, my brothers, and also my niece, Nayev.

[Water sounds] KATIE: You know, this is the first swim that's at home that I've ever done.

And, it's important to bring along people and, you know, my partners that are spreading that message.

Everything that this swim means.

[Swim strokes] KATIE: As the sun started to come up, all these colors just started coming into play.

Um, this painting I've been working on came in my head.

And as these colors came up, I just started yelling out like, periwinkle, creamsicle orange, cotton candy pink.

Like all these colors I'm seeing in the sunrise.

And these strips of light come up.

But to problem-solve this giant painting during this giant swim, it just felt like the most "me" I have ever felt in my whole life.

[Swim stroke against the waves] KATIE: I have two support swimmers, Meaghan Carpenter and Sarah Eikrem.

So both Meaghan and Sarah are my training buddies.

Um, we swim together throughout the week.

Periodically, one of them will be able to get in, uh swim next to me and either keep me on pace or help speed me up.

JOE: Ready?

Go.

KATIE: Rock on.

CREW: Yeah, Katie!

[Cheers] KATIE: Typically, they'll wear fins also to conserve their energy um and really push me if I need to.

There are some rules around support swimmers.

They're not allowed to get in uh until after two hours.

And then they one of them can be in for an hour at a time.

Um, which I've never used a support swimmer quite as much as I'm planning for this.

I'm really anticipating the swim to be pretty rough.

So having, having that help is going to be huge.

JOE: Yep, yep.

I'll pivot so Katie's behind me here.

So, every half hour, uh Katie pauses, gets something to drink, and then um carries on.

And so we just kind of repeat that every half hour.

So, we'll go here for another- I got my watch here, another, about 15 minutes, and then we give Katie a signal and she'll do five minutes hard, uh a little bit quicker, and then she'll do that feed again.

And we'll just keep repeating that until we get to the Inner Harbor.

[Water lapping] SARAH EIKRAM: And just like I got in, I was like, okay, we're just going to kind of cruise along.

I have a rep though, I'm a bit of a slowpoke.

And then I was like, oh [deleted].

I've got to turn on the gas a lot.

CAPTAIN TODD: We stop and she's not even breathing hard.

SARAH: She's just good at this.

She's not good, she's just excellent at this.

It's a whole- whole different level.

[Swim strokes against the waves] [Pensive music plays] KATIE: No matter where I'm swimming, if there's a bridge, I typically swim backstroke under it.

I love looking up, seeing the span.

The sun kind of dips behind it.

[Boat motor rattles] [Pensive music continues] The moment I turned over and started swimming backstroke, it was the impact of the Key Bridge collapse on our community, the way that this impacted the swim and this message and the doubt that was there, are we going to do it?

Are we not?

Everything, all of those feelings just kind of hit me all at once.

It felt like I got hit in the face with a bag of flour.

It was just like, poof.

I took a few like deep breaths to calm myself down, and the sun kind of popped back up.

[Flag whipping] And it felt so heavy.

But I also knew I just, you know, you got to turn over and keep going.

JOE: Hey, this is uh, Katie Pumphrey's Bay to Baltimore swim.

Just checking in.

Hey, so we have, we have cleared the Key Bridge and we are going to stay on this side of the channel, uh all the way to Fort McHenry and head into the Inner Harbor.

[Swim strokes against the waves] WOMAN: Yeah, exactly.

KATIE: One of the toughest parts of the swim was just after the Key Bridge and working towards Fort McHenry.

The tide had switched and was starting to go out.

I was then just pushing against a wicked, wicked current going out.

That was particularly challenging because it was as I was getting the most fatigued.

[Strong strokes] KATIE: My body was just screaming at me.

And counting to four sometimes is a way to get me like, keep moving your arms.

[Distorted water sounds and intriguing music] KATIE: It was also the first time I heard a temperature reading, which I bet Joe didn't want me to hear that.

Uh, but I heard 82.3 and I was like, that's right.

That is hot water.

The sun was also like really starting to be overhead.

And I knew it was about to get really hard.

JOE: Um, this whole thing is definitely like, you know, pushing the limits of what people can do, what the human body can do.

KATIE: Uh, you know, the thing that kind of pulled me out of that treadmill was seeing a pirate ship come into view.

And when do you hear an athlete talk about a pirate ship being helpful?

[Crew on pirate ship cheers] KATIE: It was just the biggest pick me up.

[Notification chirps] KATIE: When Waterfront Partnership and I first met and they mentioned that Mister Trash Wheel might be able to join.

And I was like, oh my God, Mister Trash Wheel!

Which just--what an icon, you know.

When Mister Trash Wheel came into view, that was like, "Okay, we're getting close."

CREW: You're crushing it!

Yeah Katie!

JOE: Hey, so you're going to go around the Constellation tall ship, and you're going to go in just to the touch.

We'll sound the horn.

You come back the boat.

Okay?

That's probably about as close as we can get, too.

All right, let's go.

CAPTAIN TODD: I'm Italian, and I might cry.

[Hopeful electronic music] KATIE: Kayakers joined and paddleboarders and, you know all the while there's like news cameras above head the entire swim.

And, then we made our way past Harbor Point and started to kind of round that curve.

And it looked like it was fuzzy.

But I realized that fuzz.

Oh, that's oh, it's people.

And not only had, was I about to finish and become the first person to do this swim ever, but we had like crossed all these barriers to make this swim happen in the first place.

[Crowd cheering] CAPTAIN TODD: Tell me when to blow the horn, Joe.

JOE: Yup, I'll raise my hands.

Hey!

She can't hear me.

[Hopeful music continues] [Cheering] [Crowd chants Katie!]

[Triumphant music] [Cheering and Applause KATIE: When I get to hug him after a swim.

It's not just celebrating that I finished.

It's all of that training.

It's, you know, the sacrifice.

It's the -- it's everything.

CREW: Baltimore!

[Crowd cheers] FEMALE REPORTER: What does it feel like to do something that no one has ever done before?

KATIE: Pretty amazing.

[Laughs] I've been dreaming about this swim for a long time.

Uh to be the first person to ever do it, to champion women's sports, and to champion this amazing city feels... unbelievable.

[Upbeat music] [Water sounds]