Last summer, Miranda Wingfield completed the “Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming” – finishing the English Channel, Catalina Channel and 20 Bridges Swim to accomplish the feat.

Wingfield, who graduated from Northampton High School in 2013, has added another long swim to her already impressive resume. On Monday, Wingfield completed her first “Lake Monster” swim along Lake Memphremagog, as she started in Newport, Vt. and just under 13 hours later finished in Magog, Canada. The swim totaled 25 miles and was her second-longest swim ever, however it felt much longer than the 28 1/2 miles she did in Manhattan (20 Bridges Swim).

“Manhattan was totally current-assisted, so it didn’t feel the same as this one,” Wingfield said. “Every swim had different challenges, but I would say length-wise, I could tell that this one was longer.”

She started in the pitch black at 12:21 a.m. and finished just after 1 p.m., and she stopped every half hour to tread water while people in the boat alongside her tossed her bottled water and energy gels to keep her hydrated.

Wingfield said her mental toughness is tested for the entirety of these long swims. The beginning is easier to handle, but as the hours tick by and fatigue starts to set in, every mile feels longer than the one before it. Lake Memphremagog’s breathtaking views and a stunning sunrise at about 5 a.m. helped push Wingfield through to the finish.

Nearly 13 hours is a long time to swim alone with your thoughts, and that’s exactly why Wingfield tries her best not to think at all.

“This swim was incredibly beautiful,” she said. “So I try not to think at all and just take in everything from a different vantage point. Obviously I can’t really see much at night, so I try to zone in on swimming. But when the sun rose, I saw the most beautiful sunrise, and you can see the mountains and rolling hills all the way through. It was just incredibly beautiful. At that point, I’m like six hours in, I’m starting to get tired and whatnot. So I just say to myself, ‘It’s a beautiful place, and I’m very lucky to do this.’”

When Wingfield completed the swim, a flow of emotion overcame her – just as it did when she finished the other three. All the countless hours of preparation and training paid off.

Because she’s been able to overcome mental and physical obstacles along the way, it only helps her when facing life’s adversities.

“It just feels really good,” Wingfield said. “I feel really happy and proud of myself, and just to know that I can continue to do hard things, it’s a big mental shift from the way that I am in my day-to-day life. Doing anything for 12-and-a-half hours straight is hard. You’re going to hit some walls, but you have to figure out how to, mentally, get over those walls. To know that your body and brain can do that, afterward it just feels really good. And it helps motivate me in other aspects of my life.”

Wingfield works as a physical therapist and lives in Medford. Her entire family (parents and siblings) live in Florence and are some of her biggest supporters.

There aren’t any more swims on Wingfield’s docket for the rest of 2025, however she knows there will be more to come in the near future. Her biggest goal is to compete the Loch Ness swim, another leg in the Triple Crown of Lake Monster Swims. That swim, which is approximately 22.5 miles, takes place in Scotland. If she successfully finishes that, it will leave her with just Lake Tahoe in California/Nevada left to complete her second triple crown.

Wingfield is on her way to becoming an open water swimming legend.

“When I did the English Channel, I thought that was going to be my one and done, my goodbye to swimming,” Wingfield said. “And then I moved to Boston in 2020 and became involved in this huge community of open water swimmers. They made me really fall in love with it, and it just makes you want to do more.”