Farallones marathon swimmer Amy Appelhans Gubser of Pacifica braves sharks and cold water in 17-hour adventure.
Amy Appelhans Gubser of Pacifica became the first person in history to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallones on Saturday, May 11, 2024. It took Gubser 17 hours to cover the 29.7-mile distance, reputed to be the toughest marathon swim in the world.
Until today, only five people have accomplished this swim. They’ve gone the other direction — from the Farallones to San Francisco, also very challenging because it means timing the tides to get through the Golden Gate. But water gets warmer as they go, and less dangerous. Accolades have poured in from across the global community of “open water” swimming, a sport first inspired by Capt. Matthew Webb’s swim across the English Channel in 1875 and more recently popularized by films such as “Nyad,” which documents Diane Nyad’s extraordinary journey from Havana to Key West.
Sometimes she counts — reaching 77, then repeating. She makes up poems. She imagines solutions to the world’s biggest problems. She plays songs in her head, often fixating on the same verse over and over.“We got swarmed by bats!” she said. “It was so funny. One landed on a crewmate. They came from nowhere. What were they doing there?”
And winds were unusually calm, never exceeding seven knots. The water was glassy, without the white caps to battle. “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride,” she joked. She glowed in the dark, wearing a small blue light on her head and a green light on her butt.
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