Being the first woman to swim the full thirty miles from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon Islands, a grandmother has defied both age and weight.

Before beginning her training, the former collegiate swimmer had not swum in 24 years, but she nevertheless faced sharks, jellyfish, and freezing temperatures without a wetsuit.

At 3:27 a.m., Amy Appelhans Gubser dove into the waters around her support vessel and swam for 17 hours to reach the Farallons after dark. Her record, which was seen by a Marathon Swimmers Federation (MSF) representative,

is still undergoing verification, but if confirmed, she would be the first woman to finish the swim and the first person of either sex to do so in the opposite direction—that is, from the bridge to the islands.

Three efforts, watched by the MSF, had failed, but Gubser succeeded in the opposite way. Two male swimmers had completed the distance beginning from the islands.

The Pacifica, California, resident told Fox News Digital that she spent most of the swimming in what amounted to a sensory deprivation bubble due to fog and red tide,

seeing only a few feet above the water and not even an inch below it with her fingertips. Most people would have a heart attack in shark-infested seas, but Gubser went into a ‘meditative state,’ punctuated every thirty minutes by snack breaks.

Because of the sharks, she said, ‘I really had to be very thoughtful and careful about how I approached this swim.’

And a massive great white shark migration away from the Farallon Islands occurs in April, May, and June. For this reason, the swim must happen within that window of time.

She went on to say that even though wearing a wetsuit would have provided warmth and extra buoyancy, she didn’t do so in order to comply with MSF regulations.

‘The last thing I really wanted was for my skin to bleed near a shark island because when you wear a wetsuit, your skin rubs against the material,’ the woman stated.

Initially, the water was in the upper 40s Fahrenheit, but during the swim, it progressively warmed up by around 10 degrees.

She consumed chicken broth, canned peaches, hot cocoa, and some potatoes while maintaining a constant heart rate of about 61 beats per minute.

She had stings from jellyfish twice. Gubser expressed her hope that by proving that physical prowess can be sustained in spite of age and body weight, the accomplishment will serve as motivation for others in need.