What drives someone to swim the entire California coastline? For Catherine Breed (BA Integrative Biology ‘15), the answer is simple: “Someone can do it. Why not me?” At Berkeley, Breed excelled at distance swimming events and finished in Cal’s all-time top 10 in the 500-yard, 1,000-yard, and 1,650-yard freestyle. She’s helped Cal to two NCAA swimming titles and made the Olympic trials. Still, she wanted to go bigger. Always one to thrive on new challenges, she joined the Dolphin Swimming & Boating Club to take on open-water swimming. The sport involved navigating erratic currents, shifting tides, and sharks—Breed finally felt free. She went on to set a women’s world record for the fastest lengthwise crossing of Lake Tahoe, became the first person to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to Half Moon Bay, zipped through the English Channel, and crossed the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland. After countless ventures spent learning how to manage freezing temperatures, swim...