During the middle of the night on July 9, marathon swimmer Leslie Hamilton voluntarily jumped into New York Harbor to complete her next big swim.
She says she has swam in those waters plenty, and already knows what you're thinking.
"People were like 'Oh she must have a third arm or three eyes. I was actually completely fine. I didn’t feel sick after the swim," said Hamilton. "I made sure my tetanus shot was current."
Fiancé Yan Fu — who is often on one of the guide boats near Hamilton as she swims — admits it’s kind of crazy.
"These fishermen were nearby and when we told them what she was doing they said, “Is she freakin' crazy?! What is she doing?!'" he said.
But despite that, Hamilton — who turned 31 on Monday — made history with an epic 37 mile, 14.5 hour swim around Staten Island. She wasn’t the first person to swim around the island, as a lifeguard did it back in 1961. But hers is the first officially documented one, and she’s the first woman to do so.
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Hamilton said they "weren’t really sure it was feasible" to complete the swim, because of the four bodies of water there and unpredictable currents. That's not to mention the boat traffic and, as Hamilton herself even admitted, "I thought about sharks for a minute."
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She trained for over a year, and with planning by the group New York Open Water, which helps 50-100 people swim around Manhattan each year, they pulled it off.
"I can only have one swimsuit, one cap and one pair of goggles," she said. "When I needed to eat every 30 minutes, I would take carb powder which was in my water bottle, I had rollups of ham."
New York waterways are technically not classified as swimmable. Riverkeeper.org says roughly 21 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater are discharged into them each year. But the NYC Department of Environmental Protection says the harbor is the cleanest it’s been in 150 years.
"I just hope my swim will promote other people to do the same," said Hamilton — though she may have a lot of convincing to do. Even her fiancé said he has not interest in swimming in those waters, but he’s her biggest cheerleader.
So what will be Hamilton's next stop?
"I’m looking at the English Channel for sure," she told News 4.
