How far can you swim? During the past four months, Nick Irons, 25, swam 1,550 miles down the mighty Mississippi River. He couldn't see much in the famously muddy waters, but Irons said that every once in a while he would "feel something scaly. I really didn't want to see what was down there." That sounds very fishy!

Irons' marathon swim raised $125,000 in pledges for multiple sclerosis (MS) research. MS is a nervous-system disease that affects 350,000 Americans, including Irons' dad.

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October 10, 1997 World Report