A 59-year-old man died shortly after beginning the annual Brooklyn Bridge Swim in the East River. Richard Harley, a 59-year-old California resident, apparently started having problems a few minutes into the 1K swim. Newsday reports that the race began 9:45 a.m, "He was pronounced dead at Downtown Beekman Hospital at 10:10 a.m." NYC Swim's Monty Berger said that kayakers, boaters, emergency personnel and even another swimmer were trying to save him. The swimmer, Melody Baglione, told the Daily News she saw him floating near the South Street Seaport, "He was definitely unconscious," and tried to give him CPR. Harley was raising money for a girls' school in Kenya. Berger said Harley had been recently certified with swimming 3.3K in 54 minutes, "This guy wasn't slow. For his age, he had some nice speed... I am saddened this happened. We work really hard to put on these events for people from around the world. This is not how you want to this to end up." more ›

If you're enjoying the gorgeous weather along the Hudson today and are wondering why the bodies you're spotting are not just floating today, it's the annual Great Hudson River Swim. Brave swimmers are making their way on a 1.3 mile shot down the Hudson that starts out at Christopher Street and finishes up at Battery Park City. Some New Yorkers naturally have their doubts—one asked the News, "It's New York City, how clean can it be?" But the News reports that it's "cleaner than you think" and anyway, what's a little Dysentery between friends? The real concerns for swimmers are actually not sanitary ones, but the potentially rough current and cool temperature of the water. NYC Swim's official site says you can expect the Hudson to be around 55 to 60 degrees. A previous participant told the paper, "It's colder than the Caribbean, but you're not going to be in that long." The city's site also warns of "chop, shipping traffic and random jetsam and flotsam in the waterways," which might explain why our arms seemed to glitter after a mid-90s dip up by the George Washington Bridge. more ›