HAVANA ? Endurance athlete Diana Nyad was preparing Friday for a second attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida and set a world record at the age of 62, after falling short last month.
Nyad told reporters she would spend the day meeting with her support team, carbo-loading and loosening up before setting out from Havana's Hemingway Marina in the evening. She hoped to take advantage of what she called a "magical window" of calm seas and favorable weather through the weekend.
The Los Angeles woman said last month that there would be no repeat after choppy seas, a crippling asthma attack and debilitating shoulder pain forced her to call off the previous attempt 29 hours and about 50 miles (80 kilometers) into the 103-mile (166-kilometer) journey.
"Don't listen to athletes when they say it's over," she told a news conference at the marina Friday.
Nyad added that her problems last time had nothing to do with her age: "I'm in better shape than before. I'm more prepared than ever."
Nyad was confident that this time it'll be different. She hopes to avoid a repeat of the asthma, which she said was provoked by a medicine she hadn't used before. She said her shoulder checked out fine, and she will loosen it up beforehand.
"I'm going to get in the pool and not make the same mistake I made last time of not swimming the day of."
Nyad set a 6 p.m. start time ? around when powerful thunderstorms unleash dramatic lightning displays like clockwork on a near-daily basis during the Cuban summer. Seas around Havana were flat as a plate in the early afternoon, however.
If she succeeds, Nyad would break her own 102.5-mile (165-kilometer) record for open-water swimming without the aid of a shark cage, relying instead on special equipment that surrounds her with an electric current imperceptible to humans but strong enough to keep most of the predators at bay.
Divers in kayaks will be paddling alongside to gently prod away any sharks that make it through.
For the length of the crossing, Nyad will not be allowed to touch the boat if the record is to count. Nor can her team physically aid her other than to pass her food, medicine, a new swimsuit and so on.
She will try to sustain her energy by eating the likes of peanut butter sandwiches and pasta, and said she sings Beatles, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin songs in her head to keep her mind occupied especially during nighttime.
"I never ever ? it's the cardinal rule ? I never look up because it's very depressing to see the horizon with no lights, no nothing. And I never ask my trainer here in the boat what time it is or, 'Are we almost there yet?'" Nyad said. "They're going to tell me when we're about 10 hours away."
Nyad first tried to cross the Florida Straits as a 28-year-old back in 1978, when she swam inside a steel shark cage for about 42 hours before ending the attempt.
Now 62 after celebrating her birthday Aug. 22, she has said she hopes to inspire people to lead active lives into their golden years.
Nyad also has called the swim symbolic for increasing understanding between the United States and Cuba, two nations torn by five decades of animosity and mistrust.
Marina commodore Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, whom Nyad describes as a cherished friend and who helped with logistics in Cuba, presented her with an honorary membership in the nautical club Friday.
"He who tries has already succeeded," Escrich said in encouragement, quoting famed Cuban poet and independence hero Jose Marti.
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