DONNA McGovern (nee Procter) was only 21 when she set an Across The Lake Swim record in 1991.
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Her time of 39 minutes and two seconds remains, 21 years later, as the fastest swim by a woman in the 3.8-kilometre event.
"It makes me feel pretty good, that all my training was worth it," she said.
"I would have swum 80 kilometres every week and the most I swam in one week was 125 kilometres when I was in training.
"I know I was swimming the best I had ever swum in my life for distance freestyle and if someone beats it [my record] I wish them all the best.
"It would be great - fantastic."
The Swansea-Belmont Surf Life Saving Club's Across The Lake Swim has been a fixture on the open water swimming calendar for 52 years.
It was 1960 when a group of club members including Cliff Marsh, John Regan, Bill Cambridge, Jim Corkett, Kevin Aspley, John Davies, Ray Breckenbridge, Peter Lee and a young girl named Anne crossed Lake Macquarie.
The competitive nature of the event started in 1961 and since then it has grown into the longest-running open-water swim in the country, with competitors of all ages seeking to swim the 3.8km from Coal Point to Belmont 16 Footers Sailing Club.
Merewether-raised McGovern started swimming at the age of 10 at Arnold's Swim Centre in The Junction, specialising in long-distance freestyle.
She entered her first Across The Lake Swim at age 14, the same year she made the Australian team for long-distance swimming in the 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle.
"I could swim the distance so I knew a little under four kilometres would not be a problem," she said.
"The prizes were a bit of an incentive, there weren't any in still water."
She came third and entered again before her swimming prowess earned her a spot at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra in 1987.
The 400m individual medley became her focus and for five years to 1991 she was ranked in the top 10 in the world for the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyle as well as the 400m individual medley.
She had already set the Commonwealth record in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay at the 1985 Pan Pacific Championships in Japan and in 1988 set the Commonwealth record for the 400m IM at the Olympic Games trials in Sydney.
McGovern qualified for the finals in the 400 metre medley at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.
She returned to Newcastle in 1991 and decided to enter the Across The Lake Swim, this time with younger brother Heath Procter paddling alongside to help her stay to her course.
"That year was the best I'd ever swum in distance freestyle," she said.
"I had always been a still-water swimmer and open-water swimming had just started to come about - it was only in the last Olympics [2008] that it's become an Olympic event."
McGovern knew she would be swimming against Olympian Glen Housman, who had previously broken the world record for the 1500m freestyle.
"My goal was to get as close as I possibly could," she said.
"When I came in 12 seconds behind Glen I couldn't believe it."
Housman's record of 38 minutes and 50 seconds and McGovern's of 39 minutes and 2 seconds still stand as the fastest two swims in the event history.
McGovern said this was an honour, considering modern-day swimmers train smarter not harder, with more emphasis on physiology as opposed to counting kilometres.
"I certainly trained really hard and the work that I put in still cuts it."
McGovern made the Australian team for the 1991 Pan Pacific Championships and was working towards the 1992 Olympic Games when she was diagnosed with glandular fever.
She started work as a swimming coach, first at Arnold's Swim Centre and then for five years in Mingara on the Central Coast, where she trained Ky Hurst to win a silver medal at the 1998 World Championships in Perth in the 5km open-water swimming event.
She worked as a head coach and aquatics manager at the Forum at the University of Newcastle for six years.
Now 42, McGovern and husband Brett are parents to Ben, four, and Tom, 11 months.
They are licensees at Bar 121 in Lambton and Donna is the Newcastle City Council swimming centre co-ordinator.
She won't rule out a return to the water.
She swam 2km at a Hamilton Island open-water event in November, where she won her age group and finished 10th among the 300 women competitors.
"I've spent so many years in the pool and as a coach that I'm quite happy not to be on the pool deck for a while," she said.
"If the kids ever want to swim I'll have trouble, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
