Amazon Swim

This entry was going to be about the Don Imus and Duke Lacrosse players controversies but the thought of writing about them was to depressing for a beautiful Spring day like today. So today I am writing about something uplifting and amazing. First let me say that I don’t know how something like this evaded me for 66 days. If I had know about the event I am writing about at the outset I would have followed it every day. Last year I had followed the amazing journey of Dee Caffari as she became the first woman to sail single-handed, non-stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents. I was mesmerized by the accounts of her journey and even plotted her progress on Google Earth. The event I am writing about today is the swimming of the entire length of the Amazon river by the Guinness record marathon swimmer Martin Strel. Martin is a 52 year old born in Slovenia and know for his many marathon swims, including swimming the Danube, Mississippi, and Yangtze rivers. Having been a swimmer all my life I know what long distance swimming is like. Swimming a mile is much more difficult than running a mile. I am currently 58 years old and consider myself in good shape and exercise regularly but the farthest I have ever swam at one time was 2 miles. Martin swam the entire distance of the Amazon river, 5,268 km or 3,274 miles in 66 days. You do the math to figure out how many km/miles Martin swam every day, keeping in mind that this was done by a man aged 52 years with a history of high blood pressure. From what I have read on the web site chronicling his epic feat Martin averaged 30,000 strokes and 70 km every day. Of course this is nothing like swimming in a pool this is the Amazon for crying out loud. Currents, piranha, whirlpools, storms, you name it and Martin had to contend with it.

Martin started his swim February 1st and finished 66 days later on April 8th. When he was pulled out of the water his blood pressure was very high and he was listed as being in critical condition. He had to spend several days in his hotel room under his Doctors supervision before he was well enough to go out in public. But despite all this, Martin isn´t just focussed on great sports achievements – he´s also interested in promoting universal messages. He has been swimming for years under the slogan ´swimming for peace, friendship and clean waters´. His swim on the Mississippi was dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, for which he achieved special recognition by Mr. Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York. Later the American Congress even passed a special resolution honoring Martin for his achievements and generosity. I hope to be posting more articles like this chronicling events that inspire people to have hope for man and mankind and hopefully counter some of the bad news that we are constantly bombarded with every day. We need more people like Martin Strel and Dee Cafarri in the world and fewer people like Don Imus and Mike Nifong.