Diana Nyad going back to sea at 60

The host of the weekly column The Score on KCRW plans to swim from Cuba to Florida in August. She tried the 103-mile route in 1978 but had to be pulled from the water after 41 hours, "battered, delirious, ravaged by jellyfish, scarred by the salt water; and only 50 miles from where she had started." CNN's health blog says of Nyad:

In the 1970s, she was unstoppable. In addition to winning multiple swimming marathons, she was the first woman ever to encircle the island of Manhattan, and she holds the World's record for longest ocean swim – 102.5 miles from the island of Bimini in the Bahamas to Jupiter, FL. But there was one goal that eluded her.

"About a year ago now, I'm turning 60," she said, "and I thought 'what have I done with my life? What haven't I done with my life?' I started thinking, you know what, Diana? You've got to get real with life's lessons; one of which is you can't go back."

But a chance sighting of her own, 60-year-old face in the rearview mirror – a very ironic coincidence – changed her outlook completely.

"I caught my eyes, and I thought 'wait a second! There's one thing you actually can go back for,' and that's the dream swim which was Cuba to Florida.

It's been 30 years since she did any competitive marathon swimming, the story says. KCRW's "Politics of Culture" will talk with Nyad about this turn in her life next Tuesday. CNN video