THE MOVE
Maryam Sharifzadeh ’ 08
TO SWIM SAN FRANCISCO
22 miles in 9 hours , and the mental strength to finish .
BY SAVANNAH MUÑOZ ’ 20
MILES TO GO
In October , Maryam Sharifzadeh ’ 08 became the first woman to swim San Francisco ' s entire shoreline .
“ YOU ’ RE SO WARM RIGHT NOW ,” she told herself , over and over again . “ You ’ re so warm ...”
But in truth , it was a cold October morning and Maryam Sharifzadeh ’ 08 had 22 miles of treacherous waters ahead of her . Still she was focused on completing her goal : to swim the entire shoreline of San Francisco .
Her course began in the ocean at Daly City and would go around the peninsula and into the bay , ending at the Brisbane County line . Only one person , her swim director Joe Butler , had done this before . Following the World Open Water Swimming Association ’ s guidelines for marathon swims , Sharifzadeh wore a regular swimsuit rather than a wetsuit , and she had a support boat and kayaker trailing her through the open waters . “ These longer-distance or hard physical activities are so much more mental than physical ,” Sharifzadeh says she learned . But letting her mind transcend her body is something she does every day . As an entrepreneur and owner of the business Office Yoga , she holds onsite classes at various workplaces — a concept she was exposed to as a RecLife instructor on campus . Sharifzadeh first took to the water while she was a student as well , learning how to surf and participating in club water polo , as well as swimming recreationally at La Jolla Cove and the Shores .
Yet she never knew she would swim such long distances until tragedy struck . On August 6 , 2018 , she woke up to a flurry of missed calls and text messages . She soon learned that her childhood friend , Nasim Ghannadan , someone she knew as a sister , had died in a plane crash .
“ Nasim was so special to me , and I chose to process my grief by swimming in her honor ,” Sharifzadeh says .
On her first long-distance swim , she raised over $ 6,000 for No Kid Hungry , a nonprofit that Ghannadan supported . “ I chose to cross Lake Tahoe because it was Nasim ’ s favorite place on earth . But even after those 12 miles , I knew I wasn ’ t done ,” she says .
She followed that with a relay to Catalina Island , splitting the distance with other swimmers . But now around
San Francisco , she was on her own . Four hours in , as she approached where the ocean and bay meet , the waters became tumultuous and harder to swim . Sharifzadeh felt nauseous . Still , she was barely halfway done .
To get through it , she found herself setting “ mini-goals ,” much like how she teaches yoga students to break down harder poses into several easier ones . At the very least , she told herself , she would reach the Golden Gate Bridge . Forty-five minutes later , however , with limbs going numb under the Golden Gate , she found that she could keep going .
Her mini-goals helped her continue on past the Oakland Bay Bridge before finally reaching the Brisbane County line . At nine hours and eleven minutes , Sharifzadeh became the second person and first woman to ever swim San Francisco from end to end .
“ This was about Nasim ’ s legacy and keeping her spirit alive ,” Sharifzadeh says . “ I felt her with me , helping me get across .”
42 TRITON | WINTER 2020