As hot and humid as it was on Saturday here in New York City (peaking at 101 degrees) while I was paddling on the Hudson River, I was still trepidatious about jumping in to cool off. At one point we were cooking, so my friend and I stopped paddling the OC-2 and went in. Gripping the aku and the boat, I lowered myself tentatively into the murky green liquid, reciting my mantra out loud, "Please don't give me cancer, please don't give me cancer." My friend laughed. I spared her my diatribe about how much poisonous shit is floating in there. Not to mention the jellyfish, which we also saw lurking on the surface, waiting to sting. Eeyoo.
Sure enough, during yesterday's New York City Triathlon, some guy from Buenos Aires died during the swim part in the Hudson River. What a bummer. He was only 32. I wonder. Heat stroke? Heart attack? Or poisoned to death by the contaminents? You couldn't pay me to take an extended swim in that water.
Robert Stolarik/ New York Times
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