July 14 - 22 days to go - Today is my birthday and I woke up thinking about my father. He will be 69 in August. Every year since 1981 he has been swimming in the La Jolla rough water mile swim. He plans on competing for 50 years straight which will coincide with the 100th year of the rough water. On his birthday he swims as many minutes as he is old, weighs himself to see how close he is to his "college weight", and every 5 years has me take his portrait. At 65 his was sitting on his rowing shell. He is an inspiration. I did my first triathlon after reading an old diary entry from when I was eleven. He had just finished his first. When I turned 14 I did the rough water swim with him and for his 60th I swam the 60 minutes. It was a pretty spectacular day. I swam a two mile race in Salem Harbor to celebrate turning 40. I hope in 26 years I am able to play basketball with my grandchildren and teach them how to row. I hope my children will still be kayaking, or biking, or have found a love for some other activity. I do not think Patrick and I will be doing mudders in 26 years but I plan on doing something.
To celebrate today I ran for 43 minutes and weighed myself, two pounds lighter them my high school weight...not bad. And am going to build a fire pit with the kids.
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