Melodee Nugent

Melodee Nugent is a long distance swimmer and a member of Wisconsin Masters. She started swimming in an age-group club at the age of 7, and swam all through high school, but took a break during college. She restarted swimming as a Masters swimmer 19 years ago. When she’s not swimming, she’s working as a medical research statistician, taking care of her three kids, and doing “mom stuff.”

Her day begins in the pool at 4 a.m., where she swims 4 to 5 miles a day and five to seven days per week depending on what she is training for. She swims alone and generally starts with about 2,000 yards warm-up (including kicking and drills) followed by descending sets and sets with descending rest intervals. She swims a few pool meets and enters the postal championships and other fitness challenges.

Nugent's greatest love is open water swimming. She has done 2.4-mile swims, 5-mile swims, a relay across lake Michigan, and a 27-mile swim in the Red River from Grand Forks, N.D., to Oslo, Minn. That particular swim took 9 hours and 23 minutes, and she had an escort boat providing her with nutritional drinks. She has many, many more open water swims to her credit.

Nugent joined Nike Go the Distance because she has always tracked her distance, and seeing yardage on paper and in result form has motivated her to swim more. She also reports that the “goodies” from Nike are nice to have. Her love of swimming is apparent as her Road ID (an identification bracelet worn by many athletes) reads “Keep on Swimming.”