A 55-year-old woman has set a new record as the first swimmer to complete a grueling 30-mile journey through shark-infested waters.
On May 11, grandmother Amy Appelhans Gubser set off from a boat under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, USA, and then spent 17 hours swimming 49.7 miles to the Farallon Islands off the west coast of the United States.
According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Gubser was the sixth swimmer to successfully complete the mission and the first to swim into the ocean from the mainland.
Swimming out to sea is a more difficult journey, with currents and winds working against him most of the time, but the 55-year-old still manages to make it.
Grandmother Amy Appelhans Gubser set out on a grueling 17-hour swim. (Facebook)
On the way, the old woman was in danger of being swallowed by a great white shark, but she was able to escape from the beast's jaws.
Gubser, a mother of two and grandmother of two, works as a nurse coordinator at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, takes a nap after her shift, and then wakes up Saturday morning at noon local time. We left at 3:25.
She said: “This was the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. I look at those islands from Pacifica every day.
“My husband and I always joke that maybe we can swim there. It's so fascinating and creepy that we're drawn to it.”
The 55-year-old spent years training for marathon swims while taking on other cold water challenges, including swimming from Ireland to Scotland, but this was her longest and coldest swim.
She is the only person to have traveled that way. (Marathon Swimming Federation)
She also couldn't wear a wetsuit for the challenge, as open-water marathon runners can only wear a swimsuit, hat, goggles and earplugs.
“It was pretty steady for the most part, but at the end we encountered a strong current and the water got cold,” she says of the special challenges swimming in Farallones Bay poses for the few who have overcome it. said.
“My progress was delayed because I was cold to the bone. I wasn't expecting it to be 43 degrees (6 degrees Celsius). It was really bad.”
Her swim was accompanied by a support boat and a team of support swimmers, each completing part of the journey with her after the 15 mile mark.
She set out early in the morning and had to battle currents and cold water. (Marathon Swimming Federation)
The rules for marathon swimming are that a support swimmer can only be in the water with the challenger for one hour at a time, and another swimmer can only join in for an hour during that time.
Gubser, who is currently undergoing treatment for stage 4 pancreatic cancer, cited her 67-year-old brother-in-law, Dan Fine, as the driving force behind her moving forward.
Knowing that if I failed I would have to try again was another motivation to keep going.
Her training included swimming for two hours in the dark against a rising tide two to three days a week.
Featured image credit: Marathon Swimming Federation
Topics: US News, Sports
