MISSISSIPPI FLOATING SLOVENIAN STYLE

As hard as it is to believe, beating the Mississippi River -- something that Slovenian professional marathon swimmer Martin Strel has been working to do since Independence Day -- is not about physical endurance.

For him, it's about forgetting.

Forgetting that he still has more than half the distance to go to be the first man to ever swim the entire 2,340 miles of the longest river in North America, only stopping to eat and sleep. Forgetting that, while he is swimming, he may as well be crawling, because he's traveling only about 35-40 miles a day.

And, perhaps most of all, forgetting that he's substantially more than knee-deep in water that is replete with sewage, E. coli, pesticides, and other potentially harmful bacteria. Not to mention tons of debris and countless barges.

"Can't forget that," Strel said on a cell phone during a lunch break Friday, about 50 miles north of St. Louis. "The water is more dirty than we expected, especially when we go by big cities, industrial zones. It's bad."

But it's something he's overcome, if not quite forgotten.

"The toughest part to prepare is your head," said the 48-year-old father of two. "Every day is a new marathon. It's a challenge, but that's the way you look at it. You can't think about how hard it is, how painful it is."

Strel expects to arrive at Cape Girardeau Tuesday on his way to the Gulf Coast, where he says he will end up about Sept. 7. The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau plans to hold a "meet-and-greet" at their offices at 100 Broadway while he's here.

"We're excited he has decided to make Cape Girardeau one of his stops," said city spokeswoman Tracey Glenn. "It's a good chance to meet someone with a unique goal."

For cleaner rivers

Strel's goals also include raising awareness about cleaning up the rivers of the world.

"I don't know how it can be done," he said. "That is for Greenpeace. I just want people to think about it."

Since entering the waters of Lake Itasca in north-central Minnesota in nothing but a wet suit and a pair of goggles, Strel's 12-hour days have begun at 8:30, and he swims along with the 3 to 4 mph current until about 1 p.m., when he stops for a break. He then breaks about 4 p.m. for dinner and then swims for several hours after that.

He is traveling with party of 10 who monitor him from a boat and three kayaks, steering him clear of rival river traffic, floating debris, bridges and other obstacles. They use hand signals and blow whistles.

At night, his aching body is sometimes massaged by his 21-year-old son, Borut, who is with him.

"I try to get massage about every five days," he said. "Everything is sore."

Eating grapes

Strel's friends feed him grapes when he's hungry. When he has to go to the bathroom, he goes, no matter what nature requires.

"I do all three," he says, when asked if he does one or both. "Sometimes I throw up."

He said in addition to the fatigue, which comes often, he also has a badly sunburned face and conjunctivitis -- commonly called pinkeye. Preparation in his home country of Slovenia in the heart of Europe included swimming 400 laps a day, climbing in the mountains and a great deal of walking.

While his motto is "swimming for peace, friendship and clean waters," Strel has sponsors from his home country involving cell phones, sports drinks and health food. He is also being paid an undisclosed amount.

But he's also in it to a certain degree for the glory, greeting television cameras, reporters and well-wishers at nearly all of his stops.

"To be the first man to swim the Mississippi River," he said. "Who would not want to do that? And I like all the people cheering us. Some give us accommodations for the night, hotel, food."

It's one of the rare parts of the trip that's pleasant. When Strel gets to St. Louis, he can expect the water to get even worse, said Phil Eydmann with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He said once it meets the Missouri River, the water becomes even less clear.

From St. Louis to Cape Girardeau, he said, the river is still fairly narrow, and Strel should watch out for dikes. Once he gets past Cape Girardeau, the river will get much wider, miles across in places, he said.

There's also an undertow, but Eydmann said as long as he steers clear of the dikes where the currents are strongest, he should be fine.

"But I wouldn't want to do it," Eydmann said. "It's work. Not to mention that there's always a chance of a log floating just under the surface, so there's some danger. And there's brush piles here and there and some tires and some cables or wires. He's got to stay away from the bank in some of those areas."

If Strel makes it to the Gulf, in addition to becoming the first to swim the Mississippi, he will beat his current world record of 1,776 miles, which he set in 2000 at the Danube.

There are no thoughts of giving up, said the former music teacher.

"Not yet," he said. "But they'll come. But I won't stop. There is no other way."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137