Many of you know that Katharine Huth Parker and I have been training for our first triathlon to raise money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. For me, this is not just about finding a cure for Parkinson’s Disease, but it’s also about living life as large as I can by knocking off bucket list items. Last year’s skydive was big, but doing a tri is scarier not only because PD makes it tougher and I have to get in shape, but also because when I was 3 years old I fell into a pool and since then the water terrifies me. I usually doggie paddle, I can’t dive into water, I never got beyond Advanced Beginner on the Red Cross scale and I really wasn’t sure I could pass my high schools required 4-lap test. So I’ve been training for a triathlon for 7 weeks and most of it has just been regular grueling, hard, tiring exercise. But in the past few weeks we’ve started tackling the water. First in a pond with flotation devices; then no flotation devices; now I went into the bay where the event takes place. I’ve swam 4 of the past 6 days. I can’t make it very far and I’m still a terrible swimmer, but I’m not scared of the water. In fact, it was actually fun. (And in case you’ve read this far and for those who really know me, it won’t be a shock to hear that I cried a bit this week out of the sense of accomplishment from turning a fear into joy). I don’t know if I can finish the Mighty Hamptons Triathlon at the end of the summer (or the shorter training tri we’re doing next week), but in a sense I’ve already won. (Ok, screw that, I’ll be pissed if I don’t finish a tri, but you get what I’m saying). No need to pat me on the back – I’m plenty sore from patting it myself! ☺ But if you’re interested, here’s the link to help support the fight against Parkinson’s. And feel free to share this post and/or the link with others. www2.michaeljfox.org/goto/parker
Posted on: Fri, 04 Jul 2014 12:36:48 +0000
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