Mesa swimmer tackles 25K benefit with one leg

Today, Mesa resident Mark Rowley is going to be swimming 25 kilometers - nearly 16 miles - from Port Jefferson, Long Island, N.Y., to Captain's Cove in Bridgeport, Conn., as part of Swim Across the Sound, a benefit for cancer patients. Not exactly an easy task - especially when you consider the fact that Rowley is a cancer survivor himself, losing his right leg to bone cancer more than 30 years ago.

But Rowley hasn't let that slow him down, obviously. A state champion swimmer in high school, he twice represented the Sun Devil Masters swim team at national competitions, and will be one of only 15 swimmers (and the only amputee) doing the 25K swim solo. He thinks that his age (he's 56) is more of a handicap than any physical adversity.

We caught up with Rowley, an agent with New York Life Insurance, right before he left Mesa for the Northeast and the big swim.

Q: This isn't your first time doing Swim Across the Sound, right?

A: We've done it the last three years as a team. (Hanger Prosthetics) put together a team and asked for volunteers around the country. I, along with three or four other amputees, ended up being the first handicapped team to ever do it. This year, they came to me and said, "Hey, we don't want to do this as a team anymore, why don't you just do it." Even my doctors said, "go for it."

Q: How much more work will you have to do solo versus being part of a relay team?

A: As a team, each person will swim one at a time for up to a half hour. At the end of the half hour, the next guy will jump in the water, and the guy swimming will jump back in the boat. I've been swimming my whole life. Last year, I probably did about nine miles myself. I've always been a swimmer - these guys, some of them, that's just not their expertise, you know. We had a lot of fun as a team. This Saturday, it's going to be work.

Q: How challenging was it to learn how to swim with only one leg, essentially "re-learning" something you've done all your life?

A: In the water I'm pretty natural. It wasn't very much of a transition. As good as prosthetics are, no matter what, on this planet, I'm still clumsy. I get in the water, I'm not. Back in high school, I really wasn't a very good kicker anyway, I was doing the distance events. I obviously can't go as fast now, but that wasn't my forte. It was all my upper body anyway, so pretty much just a natural transition.

Q: How much have you increased your workout routine to prepare?

A: I've been pushing it - normally I'll swim four or five times a week, just once a day, 2,500 yards to 4,000 yards. These past few months, I've been swimming three or four times a day, doing 11 to 12,000 yards. I haven't worked that hard since high school. I've been doing that for three or four months. I've been feeling really good, and holding my breath longer.

Q: Do you think your story will inspire people who have endured similar hardships?

A: I hope so. All the other swimming events I've done in the past were just for personal gratification. This one, in addition to that, has a very worthy cause of raising money for cancer patients. Whether it's cancer, or someone that lost a leg from a motorcycle accident, it shows that you can do things. I do a lot of scuba diving, a lot of snow skiing, water-skiing - all that on only one leg.