WHAT I LEARNED SWIMING 20Km AROUND KEY WEST ISLAND

Swimming 20km nonstop around Key West Island was a transformative life experience. It wasn’t just a physical challenge; it actually shaped the way I approach simple everyday life challenges . I hope that, in sharing this story, you’ll find something that resonates with you. And if not, well, at least my kids will—so someone’s bound to benefit!

It took me about 8 hours nonstop to swim around Key West Island. The water was a bit too warm, and I got a bit hungry,? but beyond those minor details, it was a wonderful experience. With each stroke, I peacefully glided through the Atlantic waters around Key West. Here’s what I learned:

1) LOWER MOMENTS CALL FOR HIGHER CHALENGES – If you are struggling, do something.

It all started on a humid December night in Shanghai. I had just finished a midnight call with the team in US. At the time, I was the Coca-Cola R&D General Manager for Asia Pacific. I had been 2 years in China out of the 6 years I ended up living there. ?My work was going great, and I was thoroughly enjoying my time in China.

However, not everything was perfect. For that call, ?I was sitting in a little corner of my house on Jinxiu Road in Pudong, Shanghai, battling poor internet, with an air purifier buzzing beside me as a reminder of the pollution. The cold, damp air seemed to seep into my bones. December is not exactly the most glamorous month to live in Shanghai—cold, humid, and with very little Christmas spirit. On top of that, I was overweight, out of shape, and it had been far too long since I’d acknowledged that I needed to take better care of myself. These weren’t earth-shattering problems, but they were enough to make me feel like I wasn’t in the driver’s seat of my own life.

Everyone in my family was asleep, the house was dark and quiet, and I sat there staring out the window, wondering what I could do. That’s when I decided it was time to “do something.” A friend of mine had recently completed a 20km swimming event, which I thought was amazing—so, without overthinking it, I googled it and signed up for the 20km swim around Key West Island . It was an event planned for the summer of next year, giving me plenty of time to train. Six months later, I had lost 40 pounds and gained an incredible life experience.

This wasn’t the first time I’d faced such a pivotal moment. A few years earlier, I had hit a dark patch in my career. After 18 years at my previous company, I was dissatisfied with management and the trajectory of R&D in my previous company. Over coffee, a close friend offered me some simple but powerful advice: “Do something.” Six months later, I landed my dream job at Coca-Cola. This “do something” mindset has shown up repeatedly in my life, especially during moments when Sadness (for fans of Inside Out) or the urge to complain starts showing into my thoughts.

2) EMBRACE FORTITUDE …. AND SOLITUDE! And watch out for negativity.

I was all excited about my new challenge. When I posted about the Swim Around Key West on Facebook, the first reaction came from my ever-supportive brother. His ?comment, “You could probably do 100 meters nonstop, Diana. Let’s be real. 20km is 400 Olympic pools. Have you ever done more than 20? Ha Ha Ha!”

How many times have we heard comments like this—at work? in our personal lives? or even from ourselves? There is always somebody , and most of the time , yourself telling you why you would not do it.

Undeterred, I started training, one step at a time. The beautiful thing about swimming is that when you’re training in the water, everything else fades away. You don’t hear anything beyond your breath, and you don’t see anything beyond the pool line stretching ahead of you and of course you? can’t talk. ?For hours and hours, it’s just you and your thoughts. I ended up spending about 400 hours of training in the pool, with one part of my brain constantly telling the other, “Keep swimming. Keep swimming,” just like Dory (for fans of Finding Nemo).

Seriously, all those hours of training became a profound exercise in introspection and meditation for me. I would often start swimming feeling tired and weighed down by work and personal challenges swirling in my head. But by the time I stepped out of the water, I felt like Wonder Woman—ready to conquer the world, with solutions for everything. :)

Below is the cut-and-paste from that funny Facebook conversation with my brother years ago. I absolutely love my brother and must admit that his comment was such an important part of the “encouragement” I needed that I still remember it. Ha, Ha, Ha

3) MAKE A PLAN - Divide the challenge, Do research, Call an expert and Share your goals and plans.

It wasn’t as simple as just pushing a button and suddenly swimming nonstop. I didn’t carry a knife to catch a fish if I got hungry. I didn’t carry a water purifier, I didn’t stop applying more sunblock, and I didn’t stop t to use he bathroom. Swimming nonstop for 20km involves a lot of details beyond being a decent swimmer. So, I made a plan:

1)????? I found an expert to help me build the plan. While living in Shanghai, I reached out to Kari Duane in California—a fantastic coach with experience in training endurance swimmers, especially women who aren’t exactly spring chickens anymore. The lesson here? I learned that no matter what challenge we are facing, it’s always worth bringing in an expert who can provide the knowledge and experience we might be lacking. Whether it’s swimming around Key West, painting my house, throwing a party, ?developing new technology, or crafting a new business strategy — I would pause for a moment and ask myself: who can you collaborate with me to co-create a plan or get valuable input for the plan?

2)????? I broke the challenge into smaller, more manageable parts. Kari and I ?divided overall fitness into endurance, strength, and nutrition, and broke the 20km swim into smaller milestones—1km, 5km, 15km, and 18km swims leading up to the event. This gradual progression helped build my confidence and stamina, ultimately preparing me to conquer the final goal.

3) I developed Mastery – Master the key areas needed for the challenge. I dove into research on endurance, swimming techniques, nutrition, meditation, and more. Every new piece of knowledge empowered me to tackle the challenge with greater confidence and skill.

4)????? I shared my goal and my plan with friends and told them that for the next 4-6 months, work and swimming would occupy most of my time, leaving any extra moments for family. They fully understood me, accepted and encouraged me to continue with my plan despite my lack of commitment to other social engagements. Also, once you have shared it with your colleagues and friends, it is hard to backpedal!

This is a process that I keep doing today every time I face a challenge- divide into smaller challenges-learn the field (research and develop some mastery)find an expert and share with colleagues and/or friends.

5)?????–GO BEYOND WORDS - Pay attention, observe and learn the human language

As the event drew closer, I was required to swim long distances, up to 15km in the pool. My work at Coca-Cola involved ~ 50% travel, so I made sure to find a friendly YMCA nearby whenever I travelled. My longest in door training was 18km at the YMCA (780 laps) in Atlanta on a Saturday morning (and afternoon since it took me about 8hrs??).

During those 18km at the Y, I watched the lifeguards change every 2-3 hours and realize their different preferences. I had “conversations” with the swimmers in the next lane without saying a word. Sometimes we challenged each other, sometimes we just observed. It’s a silent language that becomes crucial during the event when you're leading or following another swimmer closely. This silent communication reminded me of the conversations I had with my Chinese Ayi (nanny)—she didn’t speak more than five words of English, and I didn’t speak more than five words of Chinese, yet we understood each other perfectly during those 6 years living in Shanghai. At least, we understood what really mattered.

I’ve swum in pools around the world. Sometimes they were fancy hotel pools, but most of the time, it was the closest YMCA to the office. Independently of the different culture and language, the body language was always the same. We are all just humans.

6 - LEGACY - ?Our actions are impacting others

The event day happened during the Soccer World Cup. Somehow, that’s what my husband remembers most. Once I started swimming, my family watched the first soccer game, then headed to the boulevard where they could see me swimming around Key West. They saw me going around the island, went for lunch, saw me again, then watched another soccer game—and I was still swimming, as I told you before, like Dory. It took me 8 hours.

When I stepped out of the water, the only thing I remember is the surprise look on my 13-year-old daughter’s as she said, “Mom, you actually did it.” She’s repeated those words several times throughout her life. I’m not sure how much that swim truly influenced my kids, but I like to think it played a part in shaping their resilience. Today, my daughter is a neuroscientist working on her PhD, my son is a philosopher, training and embracing the challenge of making sure he goes to heaven (which is a lot more challenging than swimming around Key West), my older son is enjoying his dream job and my little one, well, we'll see. Now, it’s me who say to them, “You did it.”

Hope you found this article useful, or at least entertaining.

Keep swimming!

Diana Escoda