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This milestone comes after four earlier attempts ended in injuries and dehydration

 

(CNN) – Endurance swimmer Diana Nyad completed a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida, arriving in Key West more than 48 hours after leaving.

Nyad made history Monday on her fifth attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida.

At age 64, she was determined to become the first in the world to swim from Cuba to Florida.

Sunday night, she broke the record for distance, swimming farther than anyone without a shark cage or protection from the elements.

She’d been swimming for more than 45 hours and said this fifth attempt will be her last.

“There’s a fine line between having the grace to see that things are bigger than you are and to let your ego go, and there’s another edge over that fine line where you don’t want to ever, ever give up, and I’m still at that place,” Nyad said.

This is what she was up against: a grueling 103-mile swim estimated to take 80 hours in shark-infested waters between Havana, Cuba, and Key West, FL.

And then, there are box jellyfish.

Their venom is among the deadliest in the world, attacking the heart, nervous system, and skin cells.

It’s the jellyfish that thwarted her previous attempts, so this time, she’s using a custom-made silicone mask to protect her face and lips from jellyfish stings, but it makes it tougher to breathe.

She first attempted the treacherous swim in 1978, when she was 28-years-old.

Thirty-one years passed before she attempted it again – twice in 2011 and again last year.

 

READ MORE: 19ActionNews.com

Article and Picture Courtesy of CNN and WOIO 19 Action News

Diana Nyad Makes History After Swimming from Cuba to Florida!  was originally published on wzakcleveland.com