Woman Swims Around Manhattan

If you've ever seen New York City's waterways up close, you understand why most Big Apple residents prefer to stay on dry land. But for one Connecticut woman, realizing her dream meant diving into the Hudson.

According to a story in the New York Daily News, 50-year-old Elizabeth Fry recently broke the record for the fastest swim around the island of Manhattan. Fry started her swim around midnight on September 18th and finished up 11 hours and 40 minutes later, beating the previous record by a full six hours.

The journey around Manhattan is about 28.5 miles, and the river currents can get quite treacherous: Fry faced currents racing at up to two knots. To train for her record-breaking swim, Fry swam at a local dam, where she could experience strong currents when water was released.

Fry is no stranger to long-distance swimming. She swam the English Channel three times, came in fifth at this summer's Manhattan Island Marathon Swim and organizes the annual Swim Across the Sound, a fundraiser for cancer patients.

While many athletes find motivation from a variety of sources, Fry found the willpower to finish the swim from an animated film. She says she kept thinking of the phrase "Just keep swimming," from the movie Finding Nemo. And keep swimming she did.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.