This is an amazing story. Jeff Pokonosky is the owner of Jake, a 65 pound Golden Retriever. Jeff and Jake are swimming partners, and apparently Jake Is One Heck Of A Swimmer. The two entered the South End Rowing Club’s 10th annual Alcatraz Invitational, a 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shoreline. According to this story on Yahoo, “The 65-pound golden retriever is the first canine known to have made the crossing. He was the only dog among more than 500 swimmers who lept into the chilly, choppy waters on Saturday, coming in 72nd overall. His time was 41 minutes and 45 seconds.” Wow. That’s a lot of dog paddling.

Fortunately, Jake and Jeff were close together the whole time and there was plenty of rescue personnel on hand to keep everyone (human and otherwise) safe. As long as the safety team was close by, we think that the event is pretty cool.

More from the AP/Yahoo story:

The pair live in San Diego and swim 4 miles a week and bodysurf together, Pokonosky said. And Jake always eats scrambled eggs before a big swim. Bill Wygant, president of the South End Rowing Club, said he was more than happy to allow a dog into the race, a first for the more than 100-year-old group. “This swim is about personal challenge,” Wygant said. “Whether you are dog or human, it’s whatever you can achieve that counts.”