At only 19 years old Mackenzie certainly completed an astonishing feat. It seems, though, that open-water swimming runs in the genes when it comes to the Miller family. Her father, Michael Miller completed the same swim in 1979.

When asked about the hardest part of her swim Mackenzie responded, “When I only had three miles to go, and the intersections of currents between Koko Head and Makapu’u kicked in hard, and I felt like I wasn’t moving anywhere. This was when the swim was entirely about my mental state. It literally takes over.”

“I had a fear I wouldn’t be able to finish at Sandy’s and thought I would have had to swim even more to finish elsewhere…” she says while explaining which part of her swim was the scariest, “which would have been Makapu’u or Hanauma Bay…but I didn’t have to and I was very happy when I finished.”

Mackenzie’s amazing experience consisted of extreem physical strain and constant vigilance for sea creatures. “Something I really dreaded was swallowing a jellyfish. I know when a friend of ours swam it [the channel] in 2007, she swallowed a box jellyfish and had to terminate her swim. Near the end when I was close to Sandy’s, I started getting stung all over my body, about 5 times, including my face and I knew if i swallowed a jellyfish I most likely would not be able to finish the swim and I feared not finishing when I was already that close.”

Mackenzie is definitely a force to be reckoned with both in the water and out. She would like to pursue a career in interior design and all of us at Le Jardin wish her the best of luck.