On December 4, six months after kicking off from Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, Chris Ring arrived in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a Twain-esque voyage down the heart of America, only Ring didn鈥檛 have a paddle or a boat. He swam.

This makes the 28-year-old Navy combat veteran the first American to swim the entire 2,350 miles of the Mississippi River. Only聽Martin Strel, a Slovenian long-distance swimmer, has聽completely conquered The Big Muddy. Ring鈥檚 effort is on behalf of , a nonprofit that honors fallen military members. Throughout his swim, which passed through 10 states, he met with individuals who had lost family members in the Iraq war.

Though Ring swam for two years at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, he didn鈥檛 have much experience with distance鈥攈is longest swim before the challenge was seven miles. For most of his trip, Ring averaged 14-20 miles a day. Not to mention, he got a front-row seat to the most intimidating challenges that the Mississippi can throw at a person. 鈥淭he Mississippi isn鈥檛 like swimming in a pool,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here are undercurrents, whirlpools, large swells, a lot of things you can鈥檛 predict.鈥� These three obstacles gave him the most trouble:

1.聽The Chain of Rocks in Granite City, Illinois

Just north of St. Louis, the Mississippi winds through a section of rapids and drop-offs known as the Chain of Rocks. It鈥檚 a popular section marked by its eponymous bridge that for a time was used by U.S. Route 66.

Leading up to the Chain of Rocks, locals gave Ring plenty of advice to chew on, but a thunderstorm and unpredictable water levels threw a wrench in those plans. 鈥淲hen there鈥檚 a storm there鈥檚 high swells of water constantly blowing in your face,鈥� Ring says. 鈥淵ou swallow a lot of water.鈥�

He also had to scale the Chain of Rocks Lock, one of 29 locks or dams on the Upper Mississippi. For Ring, this meant climbing up the guide wall and then taking a ladder down on the other side.

2.聽The Ships in St. Louis, Missouri

Swimming through St. Louis, Ring dodged between passing cargo ships and other watercrafts.聽His crewmembers would alert the Coast Guard and other large freighters by radio, but not all boats were tuned to the same frequencies.

Ring鈥檚 closest call happened when a pleasure craft nearly sideswiped him. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not paying as much attention,鈥� he says.

During his first few weeks in Minnesota, Ring was surprised by the river鈥檚 low depth. He recalls crawling under logs on his hands and knees to respect the integrity of the swim. Meanwhile, St. Louis presented a challenging mix of shallow and deep, choppy water. 鈥淚t had the roughest currents by far,鈥� Ring says.聽

3.聽The Sewage in St. Francisville, Louisiana

The motto in this Louisiana town is 鈥渟oothing to the soul,鈥� but for Ring, it was anything but soothing. Sloshing through sewage and frothy bubbles on the surface, he says it was hard not to get sick from breathing in the air.

鈥淐oming up for a breath it just reeked,鈥� Ring says. 鈥淓ven the guys in the kayaks were talking about how bad it smelled.鈥�

With more than 30 million pounds of toxic chemicals dumped into it in 2012, according to Environment America, the Mississippi River is the country鈥檚 third-most polluted watershed.

鈥淥ccasionally, I鈥檇 swallow it,鈥� Ring says of the sewage. 鈥淚鈥檇 throw up here or there.鈥澛�

By the end, Ring had gone through six wetsuits, lost 30 pounds and met hundreds of families of fallen service members. Although his shoulders and hips are battered, he says the physical beating was worth it for the people he met along his journey.

鈥淎 lot of people try to avoid conversations with people who鈥檝e lost someone,鈥� Ring says. 鈥淚 just want to keep their memory alive.鈥�

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鈥淲ould you send your elderly grandfather across the desert?鈥� Rory Coleman, Britain鈥檚 marathon maestro, asked me this in February as we discussed Sir Ranulph Fiennes鈥檚 entry in the . The six-day ultramarathon, which winds 155 miles through the Sahara in southern Morocco, has been called the toughest footrace on Earth. Coleman, a performance coach, holds 11 finishes to his name and has trained over 100 registrants this year, most prominently, Fiennes.

Fiennes, the 71-year-old explorer whom Guinness World Records calls the world鈥檚 greatest living explorer, is attempting to become the oldest Brit to complete the race. He is the first person to have reached both poles by surface travel and is the most senior Brit to have summited Mount Everest. He once suffered extreme frostbite on a solo trek across the Arctic and .

鈥淭he only thing he hasn鈥檛 done is go across a desert,鈥� Coleman said.

Fiennes'聽participation is in support of , a foundation for terminally ill patients in Britain, for which he鈥檚 raising funds. On Sunday, Fiennes toed the start line alongside Coleman and 83-year-old Frenchman Joseph Le Louarn, the most senior finisher of all-time.

国产吃瓜黑料 chatted with Fiennes about his upcoming ultra, avoiding beauty in the Arctic, and recovering from near-death.

OUTSIDE: In 2003, you . What did you learn from that challenge and how has your training for MDS differed?
SIR RANULPH FIENNES: It鈥檚 a fact of life, and it鈥檚 a pain in the neck, but it鈥檚 called geriatric status. You have to fight very hard to keep going at all. When we did the marathons [in 2003], I could still jog at a reasonable rate. I think back to the days when I could do a reasonable London Marathon in about three and a half hours, and now a marathon seems to take about seven hours. So you can see the big difference. And it could be disastrous during this Marathon des Sables, but I won鈥檛 know until I try it. I just want to try and complete it. I do not want to be removed by French helicopters or whatever they have, like vultures, waiting for geriatrics to be removed.

I know you鈥檙e a big fan of Sugar Puffs and chocolate, which appear at odds with a runner鈥檚 diet. How have you managed this?
In the days when I used to do a lot of ultra stuff, I obviously listened to what the editor of Runner鈥檚 World said, 鈥渆at lots of pasta.鈥� Everyone ate rice and pasta and was drinking orange juice. Now, it seems that pasta is described as near sugar, and people like me who have pre-diabetes have to steer clear of it. I鈥檓 told there鈥檚 more sugar in fresh orange juice than Coca Cola. So everything is the opposite of what it used to be. I鈥檝e never been involved with heroin or other drugs, but I can really understand why it鈥檚 very hard to give up. I certainly intend to give up [sugar], but my hands get out of control. You know, you鈥檙e paying for gasoline and you can鈥檛 pay for gasoline without being surrounded by chocolates. I find it very, very difficult to stop.

What gear adjustments have you made for the Marathon des Sables?
I like to wear big spikes or mud claws, but Rory said, 鈥淣o, in this race you must just use low running shoes.鈥� So, of late, I鈥檝e been slipping and sliding all over the damn place because they don鈥檛 grip.

The expansion of air travel in the 1980s and '90s has made remote excursions much more accessible. As you鈥檝e said, 鈥減retty much everybody鈥檚 granny鈥� goes to Mount Everest nowadays. How has this changed your approach to expeditions and your perspective on what it means to be an explorer?
I never call myself an explorer, and only one of the expeditions I鈥檝e done in the past forty years has genuinely explored. I call myself on my passport a travel writer or expedition leader, not an explorer. The expedition which did explore was probably the last terrestrial mapmaker鈥攊.e. we were in an area where there were no satellites making maps. When in 1979-1980 we did the first complete one-way crossing of Antarctica, we used Aneroid barometers to map the area from where we spent the winter to the pole. It was about 800 miles, which was unexplored. Nobody had been there, no satellites, nobody knew how high it was above sea level. Nothing was known. We crossed it and mapped it.

You鈥檝e visited so many nooks and crannies of the world that most people will never visit. What鈥檚 the most startling thing you鈥檝e ever seen?
The active volcano in Antarctica, . Seeing the flames and the steam coming out of a place of ice and snow is interesting. We didn鈥檛 look for anything other than whiteness. In Antarctica, any beautifulness or wonderful views mean problems. If it鈥檚 just white, you won鈥檛 get crevasses and that鈥檚 good because it means we can continue without problems. In the Arctic Ocean, the same is true, only the ice is on the sea, not on land. Because if you get color, it will mean either that the ice is split or that two million ton ice loads have come together and they create big ice blocks that are difficult to cross. So to get beauty means problems from our point of view.

It can be easy for people to make the excuse that they don鈥檛 have enough time to exercise. How do you fit in your runs and plot your day?
I run when my [nine-year-old] daughter is in school. When I鈥檓 lecturing, I will take running shoes, and when I get to the hotel, I find out from the reception a local place for an hour鈥檚 run. The very worst thing is a hotel gymnasium or a machine. I don鈥檛 like them. Now, I鈥檓 running about four days a week. If Rory says it鈥檚 gotta be more than that, then it will be more, but generally speaking, four one-hour sessions per week. For the last six months, Saturday has become a four-hour jog instead of a one-hour jog.

What do you consider uncovered ground in terms of your explorations?
There鈥檚 really only one left, and that鈥檚 to cross Antarctica during the polar winter. We have not managed to do that, largely because of the governmental rules, which prohibit UK citizens from traveling down there in winter because there鈥檚 no rescue facility on or near the continent during the winter. Therefore, if you run into trouble, you won鈥檛 get rescued and will become an embarrassment to your country.

Some people get carted off to nursing homes at your age. You鈥檝e had your own health scares鈥攎ultiple heart attacks, double bypass surgery, and a cancer operation鈥攏ot to mention the dangers of your expeditions. What鈥檚 motivated you to keep going?
I would consider life not worth living if there weren鈥檛 some form of challenge of a physical nature. It鈥檚 just what I鈥檝e always done since I can remember, and it would be pointless existing without a challenge

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