Diana Nyad Halfway Through Record Swim

Diana Nyad pushed through dark waters early Monday as she tried to complete a record 103-mile, unassisted swim from Cuba to Florida without the aid of a shark cage.

Her team had been trying to find a path through a storm that was nearly stationary over the 62-year-old Los Angeles open-water swimmer. But they said Nyad was safe and feeling strong as she swims.

Her team was hoping she could capitalize on a great day of swimming Sunday.

“Today was an awesome day,” Mark Sollinger, her operations chief, said in blog posting Sunday night.

Nyad has already edured jellyfish stings on the current attempt. Stings forced her to cut short her second of two attempts last year as toxins built up in her system.

Nyad, who turns 63 Wednesday, is making her third attempt since last summer at a cage-less crossing of the Straits of Florida. She also made a failed try with a cage in 1978.

Nyad has been training for three years and is in peak shape, according to friend and trainer Bonnie Stoll.

The team expects Nyad will take at least 60 hours to complete the swim, meaning she would arrive in the Florida Keys sometime Tuesday. She was more than 34 hours into the swim early Monday.

She takes periodic short breaks to rest, hydrate and eat high-energy foods like peanut butter.