Swimming has always been a big part of my life. Swimming in open water and in open water races has been something I've done while growing up on the Jersey Shore. My first open water event was swimming from Nyack to Tarrytown in the Hudson River at age 11 and now, at age 55,I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't set goals to continue swimming in races in the Hudson and every other body of water around the world. I had a successful English Channel crossing on August 10, 2004. I had a great experience swimming in the innaugural Ederle Swim on October 21, 2006. I completed the Catalina Channel on August 14, 2008. It was fun to swim through the night and the conditions were excellent. I train and race with Michelle Davidson and, of course, swimming with a partner (even though we can't talk while we swim) is always a great experience. We share goals and that's very special. I now have been very lucky to have become a member of the Mighty Mermaids. We are a group of 6 females, who are all competitors of one another and who are all over 50 years of age, but who have come together to form a relay team. We won our division in the Trans-Tahoe Relay Invitational and now swam as relay around Manhattan! We are a very unique group of women from all around the country. This summer, the Mighty Mermaids will swim the Catalina Channel. After I quit the Ederle Swim in 2009, I look forward to swimming the Ederle Swim in 2010.