Holy bejeezus ...
Diana Nyad: I broke many records in my prime as a long-distance swimmer back in the 1970’s, in my twenties. For my world record—102.5 continuous miles from the Bahamas to Florida in 1979—and other swims, such as breaking the 50-year-old mark for circling Manhattan Island ... Yet my dream of swimming from Cuba to Florida was dashed in 1978, after fighting stiff winds and huge seas for 41hrs, 49 mins, and still not reaching the Florida coast ...
... Until a year ago, I hadn’t swum a stroke for 31 years. Swimmer’s burnout gripped me to the point that I could have sworn I would never, ever swim a lap again in my life. But approaching 60 last year threw me into the existential angst of wondering what I had done with my life ... I started swimming a few laps, just to take some pressure off the knees from all the other activities I enjoy.
My workouts escalated. My motivation started to burn like a fire in my soul. One day I was driving, after a long swim, and I stopped and looked hard in the rearview mirror. And I said to myself: This is one dream I actually could go back and achieve. At 60, I could swim from Cuba to Florida. This time, without a shark cage.
But first, a little warmup swim ...
AboutDiana: On July 10th, at the age of 60, legendary open-water swimmer Diana Nyad will attempt to complete her first marathon swim in over 30 years. Nyad's triumphant return to long-distance swimming till take her 50 miles off the Florida Coast to begin a consecutive 24-hour swim through the Gulf Stream's open-water and back to the Florida shoreline, without a shark cage.
CNN Health: Diana Nyad chases a dream
Diana's Website
Wow.
"This time she wore a full bodysuit, gloves, booties and a mask to help protect her from stings
hmm.
I'm pretty sure the bodysuit is not a techsuit,but rather a Stinger http://www.ecostinger.com/ or similar suit.My wife has one for sun protection.They don't make you faster,but are reasonably comfortable.
Thanks for sharing this, Philo! I have watched everything I can find and this is my favorite.
How amazing is it that she had this dream for 59 years and finally saw it come true today? AARP Magazine better do a cover story on her! :cheerleader:
And SI better be naming her SportsPerson of the year!
I'm pretty sure the bodysuit is not a techsuit
Yes, but she's wearing a suit that would be illegal for channel swimming. This will diminish the achievement to some. I think after her failed attempts she came to realize the only way she was going to make it would be to take measures to lessen the severity of jellyfish stings.
No matter how you slice it, though, this is an amazing achievement assuming she makes it.
Less than six miles to go, at 10:33am...
Navigator John Bartlett's Report
Monday September 2, 2013 at 9:00am. Swim Time: 48:00
reported by: Katie Leigh
2am: 93.84 miles, average speed 2.76 over the 53 hours.
7 am: 102 miles from start.
Total distance will be 110.36 miles
Approximate time will be 53-54 hours
Arrival time will be 2-4 pm
"A distance not ever having been close to achieved by any other human being before."
It's hard to fathom how someone could swim continuously for 50 hours. That kind of endurance is just staggering.
Agreed. Diana Nyad's swim has to be the physiological equivalent of a moon shot. Right at the limit of what a human being can endure. Here are just a few of the things she had to contend with:
Thermoregulation. She was immersed for 53 hours. The water was colder than her body, which meant she had to replace the heat lost to the water with heat generated by metabolism and exercise. But she couldn't get too hot! It's quite a balancing act.
Hydration. Had to get enough water, frequently enough, but not too much, and not too often.
Nutrition. Had to stay fueled, with same constraints as water, plus not become nauseated.
Saltwater. Continuous exposure to non-isotonic saltwater over 53 hours is another dehydrator. Her lips showed the effects at the end.
She swam at a rate of about 50 strokes per minute for 53 hours. That's about 160,000 strokes.
Breathing. Effects of 80,000 breaths of moist, salty air on respiration. How did she keep from getting too much salt in her lungs? Also, she is known to suffer from asthma.
Suit mechanics. 160,000 repetitions is a lot. She could not afford to have even a little abrasion from her suit, anywhere.
Stroke mechanics. Her stroke mechanics had to be impeccably clean. She could not afford to have any impingement, anywhere, or allow any inflammation to develop, even in the presence of waves.
Psychology. We've all wanted to quit halfway through our measley little 1650s, imagine what she must have felt like at 55 miles, halfway through hers.
And this part I find unimaginable ...
Sleep deprivation. Imagine sustaining all of the above, wtih acute sleep deprivation. She was awake, and swimming, for more than two whole days. She had to keep her focus, and keep going, while her brain was telling her lord only knows what. Two sleepless nights can induce existential depression, and even hallucinations. Yet she kept going. Diana Nyad is one tough critter.
She survived all of that, and was still able to walk up onto the beach, and make a little speech.
Staggering is a good word.
I'm interested in what her recovery from the swim will be. In the pictures I saw, I noticed she was put on an IV drip pretty quickly. I'm assuming the time spent in salt water dehydrated her fairly severely, even with the fluid and food intake. I followed her blog over the weekend, where her team was posting regular updates. They explained how they would do the feeding and what interaction she could have with her team (they could get in the water with her to apply sunscreen and anti-jellyfish-sting cream, as well as anti-chafing cream. she would put the jellyfish suit and mask on when the jellyfish specialists spotted the little buggers and at night, but she didn't like wearing it, so would take it off when she could). There were team members ahead of her in the water looking for sharks and jellyfish and guiding her around the jellies (apparently very few sharks spotted and the boat had some kind of anti-shark electrical system to keep them away). The guideboats had a white streamer for her to follow, which had red lights on it at night. She did have problems with nausea and was apparently vomiting most of the way from saltwater intake. A doctor took vital signs regularly, and at one point her team skipped her feedings so she didn't have to slow down because she was getting too cold and they wanted her to keep swimming to keep warm. She even remembered the birthday of one of her crew members and stopped to tread water and make everyone sing happy birthday to him. What an amazing woman!
I think she only wore the suit and mask at night -- I think because she could not have others scout for jellyfish in the dark.
And, the suit was only a thin lycra suit; nothing like a tech suit at all.
Swimosaur, thanks for your post; a well thought-out breakdown of her amazing accomplishment!
Arther, thanks for the article about her upcoming swim. COOL! I wish I could be there to see it live. Hopefully, the media will pick it up and televise at least the end of her swim. :cheerleader:
Yes thanks Swimosaur, that really spells it out; and "moon shot" seems like an apt comparison. Amazing.
I keep thinking how Nyad had to swim about 7 extra miles over the 103 point-to-point miles because of course corrections. Now, if I was told in the middle of one of my 2500 yd swims, "Oopsie - you got off course just a little bit there, Greg, so you're going to need to make a 7 mile correction to complete your swim today," I'd be disheartened beyond all toleration. But Nyad had to do those 7 miles on top of the minimum 103!
