Sunday, November 18, 2007

Update

Cruisin'
wow. What can I say? It was so much fun. The boat, eh, I mean I never found myself puking or even wishing I could puke, but I can't say the rocking didn't get to me some. Davis seemed to love the motion and unstable footing. Luckily our room was only 2 feet wide and she just bounced back and forth between the walls.
Motion sickness aside, it was INCREDIBLE. Just like a bunch of old friends getting together. Not one weird or awkward moment. I only wished we had had more time together. I think we all had a little bit of blues after the trip. We are already planning for a new trip in 2009!

My Superman
Well, Daddy did compete, though he dropped out of the first event after swimming one lap in the ocean. He said he felt like he had a 2,000 pound weight on his chest and could not breathe. He was very disappointed and even more felt like he let everyone down. Of course it was NOT the case, but hard to make him not feel horrible. I think having his granddaughters or at least 5 of the 6 of them, there with him cheered him up. He did sign up for next years race and the training continues. My brother in law finished in an incredible 11.5 hours. He took 3.5 hours off his time from the IronMan he finished two years ago. All I can say is Go C! wow.

This years race did have one very tragic moment. It also made everyone very glad that my father did not push himself and try to compete without oxygen. A woman from Dallas and in the extended training group of my BIL's died. Yes, she died. 42 years old, in the best shape of her life. She died. She was pulled from the ocean after grabbing a hold of one of the safety canoes and saying "Help." She went under and they pulled her out. She never regained consciousness. Her three children were standing on the shore waiting to cheer her on to the bike event. Her husband was already in the bike portion and had to be located and taken to the hospital. She was on life support for several days before they said, "She's gone." There will never be answers on what happened. It's truly tragic. She was competing in this race to raise money for a Family Grief Support Center that had helped her and her three very young children after her husband was killed in a car accident 5 years ago. She remarried 2 years ago and now this. All I can think about is those poor children. And again those questions of WHY? Her husband and family and training partners said such amazing words about her and how in the end she would be happy hearing that she more than tripled her fundraising goal, and that the money was continuing to come in. She also gave life to many people as all of her organs were donated. But it's still tragic. Hard to think about how fragile we humans can be. One more reason to live every day to the fullest.

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