Colorado Man Wins Florida Keys Open Water Swim

A Colorado man garnered top overall honors Saturday at an open water swim in the Florida Keys designed to raise awareness of the need to preserve six aging lighthouses off the subtropical island chain.

Boulder’s Yoelvis Pedraza completed the 9-mile Swim for Alligator Lighthouse Saturday in 3 hours, 18 minutes and 3 seconds, besting his 2014 victory time by almost 17 minutes.

“I like to come to this swim, it’s such a long swim and it’s only once a year,” said Pedraza, who recently moved to Boulder from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ” What ‘makes’ the swim is to get to the lighthouse.

“Right underneath it, is just a gigantic diversity of life,” he said. “You see reef, you see fish, you see everything.”

Alison Hayden of Kinnelon, N.J., won the women’s title at 4:31:07.

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