Jim Dreyer

Endurance Athlete

Endurance athlete Jim Dreyer takes the saying “never give up” to the extreme. After five attempts to swim  across Lake Superior, in 2005 he achieved his goal, swimming 58.9 miles for nearly 60 continuous hours on a solo crossing through high waves and a thunderstorm, during which he pulled 250 pounds of supplies in a dinghy tied to his waist.

Jim is an athlete who truly challenges himself, designing each of his solo events to see how far the human body and mind can be pushed. He holds 16 world records for swimming across all five Great Lakes, including all of the distance records and the only applicable speed record for the three largest lakes.  Jim has set triathlon and duathlon world distance records on the two smaller lakes. What is the record? For the triathlon, a combination of up to 27 miles of running (much of it on beach sand), 56 miles of swimming and 130 miles of biking in a continuous event.

A lifelong athlete, Jim didn’t learn how to swim until he was 32 years old because of a near-drowning when he was a child. Just two years after his first swim lesson, he set a world record for distance during a mid-lake crossing of Lake Michigan: 65 miles (three times the width of the English Channel) in nearly 41 hours. That same year, a doctor told him he probably would never run another marathon because of severe arthritis in his knees. That was in 1997. Since then, Jim has set three world records in running events.

“I actually believe I’m as good a runner as a swimmer,” says Jim. “When my knees are good, I feel there’s nothing I can’t accomplish. So products such as Shaklee Joint Health Complex* and OmegaGuardTM are very important to me.  Jim uses OmegaGuard in conjunction with Joint Health Complex* every day to support joint health and cushioning.*

In addition, Jim counts on Shaklee NutriFeron® to help keep his immune system healthy. “I really tax my immune system,” says Jim. “I can go days without sleep while competing, and I stay well nonetheless. NutriFeron has provided a strong defense.” During training and while setting new world records, Jim depends on Performance® Maximum Endurance Sports Drink and Multi-Munch® Protein Boost Nutrition Energy Bars. “The most important thing about Performance is that it digests so well – critical for me because most of the time I’m digesting horizontally,” says Jim. “There are a lot of products I can’t take because they make me sick when I ingest them.   I expect that I’ll do well with Performance during my next running event since it works so well for me while swimming – and this time I’ll be drinking it like a regular person: vertically!” Jim enjoys Multi-Munch Bars because they taste great and provide him with an extra boost of protein and a balanced amount of calories, fat, carbohydrates, and electrolytes. 

Daily, Jim takes Shaklee FlavoMax™ Dietary Supplement, CarotoMax®, B-Complex, Vita-E Complex® and CorEnergy®. Also, he keeps VitalMag™ Dietary Supplement close at hand in his training bag. “I think there are three main facets needed to reach peak performance: training, sleep, and nutrition,” says Jim. “Nutrition is a huge part of the equation, and Shaklee is filling this role, which is critical to my success as an athlete.”

*This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

Achievements:

• The only athlete to hold world records on all five Great Lakes.
• Set a world distance record (58.9 miles) for self-sufficient continuous swim across Lake Superior. He is also the first athlete to swim across a Great Lake in a self-sufficient continuous event while pulling his own supplies.
• Swam the length of Lake Michigan – 422 miles in 30 days – while pulling the weight of his supplies in a kayak tied to his ankles, making him the first athlete to swim the length of a Great Lake.
• Set a second world distance record for duathlon, swimming 35.5 miles on Lake Superior after running 27 miles..
• Completed first double-digit mileage swim as part of "Ironman-distance plus" triathlon, setting a new solo triathlon world distance record. Ran 26.2 miles through beach sand, biked 130 miles, swam 55.9 miles.