Quote:
Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
It's impossible to not like that guy. Truly humble people who can do amazing things are rare.
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Damnit. That made me cry.
I ran my first triathlon on Sunday, and it was a sort of touchy feely, women can do anything sort of event with all sorts of shapes and sizes and ages competing.
The winner of
the 70 and older category beat me by two minutes.
The winner of
the overall event--registered in
the 19 and under category instead of
the elite--beat me by an hour. I certainly didn't prove myself to be an amazing athlete, but I kicked ass in
the swim, and I did everything, which is better than most people can say. It was awesome.
Anyhow, my mom was standing at
the end of
the 750 meter swim, and she got to watch everyone finish up their first event. Some people took up to an hour, some people did it in 15 minutes (I did it in 22). She said
the elite athletes were unbelievably fast, and
the cancer survivors were inspiring to watch. But
the person who made her cry was a woman who must have weighed close to 300 pounds. Her husband / parnter / whatever was waiting for her at
the finish line, and it took three or four volunteers to help her up out of
the water. She couldn't stand up. Her husband moved her motorized scooter close to
the water and everyone helped her into
the scooter. She went up
the hill, handed over her chip to
the next member of her relay team, and then joined
the spectators.
The woman could barely walk, but she could swim, and she could compete. So she did.
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