WASHINGTON – Diana Nyad isn’t currently training for anything. But that doesn’t mean the 65-year-old endurance swimmer – best known for her record-breaking journey from Cuba to Florida last year – has become lazy. When she recently decided to see how long she could hold a high plank, her knees and elbows didn’t touch the ground for two whole hours.
“If I ever do that again, I need to have a book in front of me,” jokes Nyad, who was in town last week to promote Extra Strength Tylenol’s “Stories of Strength” campaign. In exchange for folks submitting tales about people who’ve helped them through a challenge, the company is donating money to Dosomething.org.
Her contribution? Sharing her recent experience with best friend Bonnie Stoll, who served as the “cornerman” during Nyad’s epic swim endeavor.
At a certain point, Nyad was floundering. “I forgot what I was doing, I was so out of it,” Nyad recalls. That’s when Stoll asked for just five more strokes. Then five more. Soon enough, Nyad was back on track to Florida.
Nyad prides herself on having an iron will to match her rock-hard physique. “But I come to my emotional knees occasionally,” she admits.
And there’s nothing wrong with relying on others for help. Nyad says each of the 30,000 runners in the Marine Corps Marathon likely has someone to thank: “I don’t know any marathoner who says, ‘I did this all by myself.’ “
She’s certainly getting assistance to pull off her next tricks. Coming up: a one-woman show about her life, premiering in Key West, Fla., in February. Nyad is also penning a memoir and planning a walk across the country – and maybe snagging the record in holding plank.
