In the very beginning of her swim, Cox jumps into the frigid water and her whole body was immersed. She talks about how this could overstimulate her vagus nerve. If that were to happen, it would cause her heart to stop beating altogether, but of course she couldn’t let that initial shock stop her from swimming the mile. She started to swim as fast as she could, all while trying to catch her breath. As she was swimming, she started to hyperventilate because she just could not get enough air into her lungs, and when she tried to take a deep breath, she says that the air temperature was so icy that her body wouldn’t even take it in. It stung her throat and lungs. This is when she really started to get nervous, knowing that something was wrong. She couldn’t feel her arms or legs, the nerves on her skin were now damaged from the water. She says that everything felt tight. She keeps pushing herself, but a splash of water hits her in the face. She chokes on it and coughs, but she couldn’t stop even for a second. If she would have done that, the medical crew would have been alerted to pull her out of the water, ending her swim. She knew she just had to keep pushing herself, no matter how hard it might have been. That is when she realized that she felt heat in her core. Her body was protecting her vital organs, and that gave her motivation to finish the swim even when they