A horn sounded, and with his hands securing his goggles and cap, Andrew Hewitt leapt off the dock and into the Hudson River, the smack of the brackish water his baptism for the day ahead. The Manhattan Island Marathon Swim had begun, and Hewitt's race number, inked onto his left bicep, gleamed in the early morning light. Dozens of swimmers were attempting a circumnavigation of Manhattan, and the water grew choppy as they kicked and stroked their way out of the cove. Tracing the island counterclockwise, Hewitt and the others would head down the Hudson, around the Battery, and up the East River. From there they would cross the Harlem River and then swim back down the Hudson. At twenty-eight and a half miles, the swim was longer than either the English or Catalina Channel swims. It was Hewitt's first triple crown event. A 41-year-old former Navy Seal, Hewitt hailed from San Diego. Like the other racers, he had two support boats accompanying him, a small fishing boat and a kayak...
In 2010, Gail Caldwell, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic, wrote Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship about her relationship with the writer Caroline Knapp. The two met in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where they both lived, and bonded over dogs, a love of books, and the outdoors, as well as their respective sports: swimming (Caldwell) and rowing (Knapp.) The friends came from very different backgrounds but had deeply connected interests. Knapp grew up in Cambridge, the daughter of a famous psychiatrist, while Caldwell was born in the Texas Panhandle. Despite beginnings set widely apart, many common threads bound them together. Quitting drinking was a big part of their shared history, though each gave up alcohol separately, before they knew one another. Knapp's account of her addiction turned into the memoir Drinking: A Love Story , a 1996 New York Times bestseller. In addition to sobriety, the friends each started out their careers as columnists in Boston. Both...
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