61-year-old swimmer (almost) swims to Florida

She didn’t make it, but damn it was a great attempt! 61-year-old swimmer Diana Nyad (an apropos last name) ended her marathon swim 29 hours into her trip from Cuba to Florida.

She had originally planned to swim the 166 km in about 60 hours. Either way, that’s badass — she also opted to swim without a shark cage. Had the latest attempt been successful, Ms. Nyad would have broken her own 1979 record of 165 kilometres for a cageless, open-sea swim from the Bahamas to Florida.

Go old broads!!

Video |  Full story |  Photos

In other swim news, though, a 40-year old woman died during a triathlon in NYC.

This bears repeating: prolonged endurance exercise will NOT make you healthier. It’s about pushing the limits of human capacity… which (while cool) is NOT the same thing.

If you get off on extreme athletic performance, great. Swim to Florida or Antarctica, or run the Sahara, and I will high-five you all the way.

However, if you are triathloning or running or cycling or death-march-spinning or otherwise beating yourself into the ground because you think it’ll make you leaner and healthier, you’re swimming up the wrong tree.