Success Stories - SEE YOUR REACHING

The Catalina Island is twenty-one miles away from the coast
of California, and many people have taken the challenge to
swim across it. On July 4th 1952, Florence Chadwick stepped
into the water off Catalina Island to swim across to the
California coast. She started well and on course, but later
fatigue set in, and the weather became cold. She persisted,
but fifteen hours later, numb and cold, she asked to be
taken out of the water. After she recovered, she was told
that she had been pulled out only half a mile away from the
coast. She commented that she could have made it, if the fog
had not affected her vision and she would have just seen the
land. She promised that this would be the only time that she
would ever quit.

She went back to her rigorous training. And two months later
she swam that same channel. The same thing happened. The
fatigue set in, and the fog obscured her view, but this time
she swam with faith and vision of the land in her mind. She
knew that somewhere behind the fog was land. She succeeded
and became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel. She
even broke the men’s record by two hours.