I have a New Hero – her name is Diana Nyad. Diana has dreamed of swimming from Cuba to Florida for over 3 decades, and this 64-year old finally completed the 110 mile swim in a little over 53 hours this past weekend. Long distance swimming is nothing new to Diana, yet she had failed not once, not twice, not three but four times on this quest. She succeeded on her 5th attempt - AWESOME! Accompanied by a 35-person support team, Diana was protected from jellyfish by a silicone mask, a full body suit, along with gloves and booties. She became the first person to swim from Havana to Key West without a shark cage. Part of her team was an escort kayak equipped with an electronic shark repellent that generated a faint electrical field around her while she swam. A special, slow-moving catamaran to her side deployed a 10-foot white streamer, designed to remain about 5 feet underwater so that Nyad could swim above it, much like following a lane line in a swimming pool. At night, this white streamer was replaced by a string of red LED lights – genius, huh? During her swim, Diana experienced sea sickness, mouth lacerations, sunburn and all of the side-effects of being in salt water for such a long period. Although she stopped to eat, she never got out of the water. Upon reaching shore in Key West, Diana’s speech was slurred and she was weak on her sea legs, but she proudly stated to never give up and one is never too old to reach a dream. When asked in a later interview how she was able to finish this time after so many failures, Diana stated, “All of us suffer heartache. All of us suffer difficulties in our lives. And if you say to yourself ‘Find a Way’, you’ll make it through.” Her mantra – Find a Way. Wow – perseverance personified! Yup, a definite Hero in my book.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 14:47:49 +0000
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