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Diana Nyad plans new marathon swims -- in a pool

NEW YORK, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Diana Nyad, who swam to Florida from Cuba at the age of 64, says she is through with the ocean but not with marathon swims.

Nyad told CNN in an interview Tuesday she plans to swim for 48 hours in a specially installed pool in New York in October to raise money for victims of Superstorm Sandy. She plans to repeat the swim in Boston on the anniversary of the Marathon bombings and then in Moore, Okla., which was hit hard by a tornado earlier this year.

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"I am through with the ocean," Nyad said. "Never going to be seasick again! See how happy I look?"

Nyad described her proposed venue as "a nice pool with no waves, no jellyfish, no seasickness."

"Those 48 hours should be a piece of cake," she said.

Nyad first attempted the Cuba to Florida swim when she was in her 20s. She finally succeeded Monday, arriving in Key West after 53 hours in the water.

She described herself as "a little beat up" after the swim. The hardships included wearing a special facemask as a guard against jellyfish stings that caused her to swallow quantities of salt water.

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Friends encouraged her to try a less difficult stretch of water, suggesting Guam or the Maldives, she said.

"But Cuba was in my heart, and when I look at the map, that's what spoke to my imagination," Nyad told CNN. "So I didn't want to give up on it. And this time I got lucky."

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