PHOTOS: Nick Pelletier completes Okanagan Lake mega-swim!

Just after 4:30 Friday morning, a swimmer came ashore at Okanagan Lake Beach in Penticton, not far from the SS Sicamous.

That alone isn’t unusual. Penticton is home to a lot of absurdly early-morning swimmers.

But this one was different. Nick Pelletier, an ultra-endurance athlete from Kelowna, had just swum in from Vernon. Actually, a few kilometers north of Vernon, at the very northerly tip of Okanagan Lake.

That's right. One hundred and six kilometers though the longest lake in the region, as the fish swims.

The trek began Tuesday at 5 am and Pelletier had been in the lake ever since, doing what very few people in the entire world could even dream of doing.

The heady goal at the start of the mega-swim was to break the Okanagan Lake top-to-bottom swim record set in 2016 by American Adam Ellenstein. But that wasn't all. Pelletier also wanted to raise bucks for the Canadian Mental Health Association.

A chance at the record faded early when injuries flared up and Pelletier's speed decreased. The target was 40 hours, 57 minutes, and 11 seconds. Pelletier ultimately did the deed in approximately 72 hours.

Several dozen noisy people, mostly friends and family but also a few random supporters who felt they had to be there, crowded the shoreline as Pelletier and his support boats approached in the early morning darkness.

Beyond the folks on the beach, an ambulance and crew and an RCMP SUV, lights flashing like a beacon, awaited on Lakeshore Drive.

The main support boat came ashore first, then a kayak. A second kayak remained a few hundred meters out, with the still-swimming Pelletier alongside.

The volume reached fever pitch as he hit shallow water and finally clambered to his feet just a few meters from the beach, coated in a chafe-reducing white-ish mixture of diaper rash cream and Vaseline.

As if saying it was no big deal, he performed a couple of push-ups before standing up completely. And the crowd went crazy again.

He stumbled a bit as could be expected as he exited the water but otherwise seemed in remarkable condition for someone who just did what he did. He then chatted with the crowd, shook up and sprayed a bottle of champagne, and then sat down on one of his team's kayaks to talk with us.

Pelletier explained that his love for endurance sports is part necessity, part familial.

"I played collegiate baseball but had a bunch of concussion issues I couldn't get over," he said. "But I wanted to keep competing so I got involved with triathlons. My dad does triathlons too.

"And then I did a bike trip across America because my dad did one as well. And I started seeing this ultra stuff helping across every aspect of my life. And I tried more and more things, usually using those three disciplines -- running, cycling and swimming."

This was the third time Pelletier has attempted swimming the length of Okanagan Lake, but the first that hasn’t ended prematurely due to injury.

But that doesn’t mean he was immune this time. Pelletier called a shoulder issue he encountered just a few kilometers in "debilitating."

"It derailed my chances at the record," he said. "I started getting weaker and weaker. I had what I'm calling a T Rex claw. I couldn't pull through a high catch like you normally would. I had to push it into the water, pull up, and pull back to the left.

"And this other arm started giving out about three-quarters of the way in. But I figured out this T Rex stroke that helped me finish. I even did the backstroke for a few kilometers"

Pelletier freely admitted his latest endurance escapade was his most difficult, referencing not just the three non-stop days of continuous physical labor but also the sensory deprivation that comes from swimming, often in the dark, while wearing goggles and earplugs.

"I've cycled across Mexico, cycled across America, done ultra-runs and ultra-paddles and this was by far the toughest," he said.

"In ultra, it exposes the little things that might not be an issue over short lengths but over the period of hours and hours get identified and exposed. You do go to some dark places.

"Like in normal life you live between a scale where a four is a bad day and a seven is good. Out here you start off on a total high, a ten out of ten, and you go through some one out of ten times too."

But he may be most proud of the money his Herculean efforts have raised for the CMHA. As we write this, the total stands at an impressive $29,327 and climbing.

"I feel like I've been through a lot of personal mental issues that I may or may not be wanting to talk about," he said. "I feel like there's a stigma around it and I don’t think there should be. And I feel people can benefit from these services."

As for the months and years ahead, Pelletier claims he has "a long list of things" he wants to do.

"I just want to let my body heal first," he said. "I have some things going on that I don’t talk about much. A fracture in my leg, a fracture in my foot. Just some stuff I need to get healed.

"And I'm going to take some time to enjoy this with my crew, friends and family."

To help out with Nick Pelletier's CMHA fundraising efforts, head here and click on "Donate."