(This car is not in the East River – cars in the East River aren’t that clean. Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)
There's more than just Aussies floating in them there waters. (Isle of Manhattan)
A 36-year-old Australian man, Oliver Wilkinson, broke the 16-year-old record for fastest time swimming around Manhattan. He likely also set the record for disgusting things ingested while setting a record, and most likely to have caught hepatitis. The swimmer from down under began his gross 28.5 mile quest in the Harlem River just west of Randall’s Island. He than swam counter-clockwise traveling north up the Harlem River, south down the Hudson and finally returning up the East River to his starting point, 5 hours, 44 minutes, 2 seconds later.
5 hours and 44 minutes in the rivers surrounding New York. Wow. Do you know what goes into those rivers? Ok, maybe it’s not always that bad, but still. This guy deserves a medal just for the effort. Also, here’s the really crazy part – the old record was 5:45:25! Wilkinson broke the record by only about a minute and a half over the almost six hour attempt! What if he’d just missed it? Then he would have spent all that time in those filthy, god-forsaken waters for nothing! Hats off you Oliver. You are like a man built from awesome.
The waters around Manhattan are cleaner than your writer would suggest. There are no cars sticking out of the flats, it is not gross, and Oliver was fine the next day, not having ingested any disgusting things. None of the hundreds of swimmers who I have raced against this year in 5 swim events organized by the Manhattan Island Foundation (swimnyc.org) have come down with hepatitis. These natural, vibrant river systems have a way of healing themselves if given a chance and efforts to stop blatant pollution have paid off big in these waters over the last 20 years. Let’s hope this progress continues and these waters get a better rap.