When I tell people I am going to walk 60 miles in a couple of weeks for breast cancer research and awareness, they often shake their heads. Maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s been near 100 degrees in Memphis for the last few days (I walked 10 miles yesterday morning before it got too bad), but sometimes you can tell people think the whole idea is sort of goofy. Like, what am I trying to prove, anyway?

I don’t know Diana Nyad, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t think that.

You see, Nyad is a world-record-holding marathon swimmer, who, after 30 years out of the water, is about to attempt a swim she failed at when she was (much) younger — 103 miles from Cuba to the Florida Keys. Without a shark cage. It’s going to take 60 hours. The best part: Nyad is 61. (That’s Diana’s little arm, stroking out of the water, on one of her training swims, from a photo that ran with the New York Times story about her quest. Her training swims last NINE hours. I love this photo.)

I am completely taken with Nyad’s challenge, and have been thinking about her nearly every day, as I drag myself out of bed at dawn to walk.

“Why would she want to do that?” asked Tomas today when I told him about her. I guess it is pretty difficult to explain why someone wants to do any endurance event, even one as (relatively) tame as walking 60 miles for breast cancer.

But here’s why: To prove that you can still do great things, even when you are 61 (or 51, as the case may be). To get yourself in shape, to feel your body respond (I actually felt pretty good this weekend as I cruised over the Auction Avenue bridge at the end of my long walk, pouring sweat). To have a goal that doesn’t involve checking things off a work to-do list, or remembering someone else’s soccer cleats or homework. To be forced to spend time inside your own head, figuring out the big questions that are easy to avoid during regular life.

I hope Nyad will accomplish her goal, and climb out of the sea at Key West, into the arms of her friends. For some reason, I feel like she has a much better chance at 61 than she did on her first try, though maybe I’m just taken with her fascinating blog, and all of the details of this major undertaking.

I know one thing: I will be rooting for you, Diana, to be strong, and swim past the sharks, the jellyfish, and the doubters. I’ll be walking right along with you.