In 2000 there was a swim called the Cove to Cove Swim, from the South Cove to the North Cove of the Yacht Harbor, down by the World Financial Center. I'd been swimming maybe a year, and I thought, "I love the city so much, and I know the city in a lot of different ways ... what would it be like to know the city from the river? Not on the river—in the river?"

And I was so frightened! My whole body was shaking from terror of the river. It's a powerful force. I really believe it's animated: it has this spirit ... this whim, this power, this caress, this playfulness, this anger ... it's a very powerful force. And, you know, you have to go into it with respect and with no expectation that it's going to be easy, or that you'll be welcomed. Maybe you won't be welcomed ... maybe you're going to be beat up! But you're going to go in, you're going to try. And it's scary.

But then I realized, OK, I'm in a body of water and I'm supposed to swim, and I kinda know how to do that, so let's go. And then once you're in motion, it was just swimming in a big body of water.

I did a swim last year where the current was strong and lovely, but near the end, it was very choppy between the seawall and some construction, and every time I looked up to make sure I was swimming straight, I got smacked in the face and my goggles would get knocked off, so I'd have to adjust them. And I felt like I was playing with a really, really big, unruly golden retriever puppy! You know how they get a little out of control? But this one was big and mischievous. And then other times, it's so calm and slow, its like you're rocking with your grandmother. And at other times it's like you're racing with a thoroughbred.

There was swim we did in 2002, with a two-knot current, so it felt like you were going a hundred yards between each stroke; you felt bionic! But it was actually traumatic for a lot of people, because they couldn't pull in in time, to the finish of the race, and they got trapped against a barge and some people got pulled under it. It's the race people still talk about because the experience was either exhilarating or terrifying, and nothing in between.

Swimming in the river is so intimate, and so unpredictable; I feel more connected to the city when I'm in the waters around the city than at any other time.