Swimmer completes 50K Ottawa River marathon

Sarah Dobbin didn't give it a second thought before jumping feet-first into the Ottawa River early Thursday morning, confident in her ability to swim 50 kilometres by day's end.

The fact that she'd never swum that far before — even in training — was no deterrent. 

"I've always said I could swim all day, so I'm going to try," the 50-year-old told CBC before plunging into the water behind Parliament Hill. 

Fifteen hours later, she had succeeded. Dobbin swam downstream, ending her journey in Wendover, Ont., just past Rockland, where she was greeted with applause by fans who followed her on social media and through an online tracker. 

She swam at a pace of about 3 km/h, stopping every 35 minutes to refuel with food and replenish her electrolytes. 

"I feel exhausted but elated," she said with a triumphant smile after emerging from the water and walking ashore unassisted.

Minutes before she arrived, friends and family members urged the crowd to keep a healthy distance from Dobbin and to refrain from helping her out of the water.

It's one of the rules set out by the Marathon Swimmers Federation (MSF), which Dobbin was following in an effort to make this the first officially documented swim of its kind in the Ottawa River. 

Dobbin was also not allowed to touch the boat that followed alongside as she swam, and could not wear a wetsuit.

"It's really interesting to carve out these new routes because when you think about something like the English Channel, for example, it took one person to do it and then it became an iconic swim after that," she said. "Maybe this will turn into one of the world's iconic swims someday."

Dobbin's mother Kathy was there to meet her when she finished. 

"She's trained and worked very hard for it," she