I swam from Asia to Europe. A surge of hope kept me going

Istanbul —

The echo rang out as I passed beneath the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. One of my fellow swimmers had shouted in joy, and the sound reverberated across the water.

I swam on until the second bridge, the 15 Temmuz Şehitler Köprüsü, came into view. It seemed impossibly far away, and I thought: What am I doing? Why was I, a sensible working mother in her 50s, trying to swim across the Bosphorus, the strait that divides Asia and Europe in Turkey?

One reason was that I was a participant in the 37th Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race, an annual contest that challenges thousands of amateur endurance athletes to make the journey between two continents in the waters of Istanbul. Beyond that, as the brine splashed my face, jellyfish drifted by, and the horizon dipped below shallo