diana nyad florida swim - Three miles from Havana on Sunday night in the Straits of Florida was still under the shadow of glass, when the 61-year marathon swimmer Diana Nyad felt his right shoulder seize up with pain. But she kept swimming.
At 1:30 on Monday, with the ocean swells his trembling now, Ms. Nyad suffered an asthma attack, her first, and struggled to breathe. But she kept swimming.
Nearly twelve hours later, halfway between Cuba and its destination, Key West, Florida, Ms. Nyad stalled when she began to vomit. Reluctantly, she lets herself be pulled aboard a boat named Bellissimo support, where it was quickly wrapped in blankets. After swimming about 29 hours, gave Ms. Nyad his quest to complete the 60 hours, 103-mile journey over three days, between Cuba and the United States.
"It was my decision to stop and no one else," said Ms. Nyad during a telephone interview Tuesday morning, moments after his arrival in a key Western Pleasure. "I am deeply saddened and disappointed, but I can hold my head high. We imagined the time I get on the coast of Key West. We knew it was my year and my time, even at 61 ".
He added: "It 'been a fable, but history has not come true."
Her doctor, Michael's brother, said Ms. Nyad had not suffered from dehydration, but was violently vomited when she was hoisted out of the water. "Physically, she is exhausted and mentally, she is tired," brother, Dr. said. "Given her experience, she looks pretty good."
Ms. Nyad said has no regrets. It was concluded that the combination of his shoulder injury and an asthma attack made it impossible to continue. "It was over, I knew," he said. "My body was just an absolute end. Willpower was not a part of it anymore."
Ms. Nyad, a commentator for public radio station KCRW in Los Angeles, started his "dream Xtreme" trip on Sunday night. It was the first person to try shark cage swim. Just before entering the water at the Marina Hemingway in the outskirts of Havana, Ms. Nyad, wearing a black swimsuit and bathing cap blue, target of a bugle played. "I'm almost 62 years," he said. "I'm here at the best time of my life, I think this is the first, when we reach that age. You still have a body that is strong, but now you have a better mind."
Tuesday morning, she said her goal was to show people in their 60s, that "life is not over" and that the age of "60 is the new 40."
"I was not the best swimmer that could be - asthma and the shoulder is said that," he said. "I myself was the bravest."
At the age of 29 years, Ms. Nyad established the record for the longest swim in the ocean: 102.5 miles from Bimini in the Bahamas, to Jupiter, Florida years earlier had tried to swim to Cuba-to-Key Passage West. Strong currents and rough sea has been slammed against the metal body of the shark cage, forcing her to stop swimming after 41 hours and 49 minutes.
This time she tried to swim without shark cage, despite warnings that hot water is infested with sharks. It was guarded by a flotilla of boats with satellites, global positioning systems, advanced navigation and shark shields.
In 1997, appointed an Australian swimmer Susie Maroney endurance, swimming in a shark cage, crossing from Havana to Key West in 24 hours, 30 minutes, an unusually fast, leading some to conclude that the cage has helped make it so quickly.
Ms. Nyad was trained and prepared for almost two years this week to swim. He swam for 12 hours every other day, sometimes lifted weights. He also organized a group of 22 people support him. All of these visas, that his in Cuba last week.
Ms. Nyad said that he felt as if it were brought them down, or the thousands of fans who had followed her to swim on Facebook and Twitter. "I say this to me and my team - there's no way 30 hours must have brought me to his knees," he said. "Yesterday afternoon, I thought I really do not want to walk to the beach, even if it was not how I wanted it to be."
Passage between Cuba and the United States to the symbolic importance of Ms. Nyad and friends. "I do not know if there is more famous than the section of an ocean between Cuba and Florida," she said. "How many Cubans are on the bottom of the sea, which does not make all of our countries are so close - one could almost swim."
Is Ms. Nyad try the 103-mile swim again? No, she said quickly.
"I think I'm going to live a life where I do not have to swim from Cuba to Florida," he said. "I think I can live with it."
He said he hoped that their search will inspire others their age to begin to revitalize their life through exercise. "Life goes by so fast, that at my age, you feel the passage of time," he said. "People my age should try to live life vital, energetic. We're still young. We are not our mothers' generation" to 60 ".
Over 60 years of age, he said, the goal should be to live "life with no regrets and no worries about what will you do with your time. Fill it with a passion. Be the best of himself.