“Keep your heart in the right place.”- My Godfather
My father’s best friend is my godfather. For 34 years he has been a pillar in my life, a colume of strength, a light of wisdom delievered with the thunder of laughter rather then the shock of lightning. He is the kind of man that when you see him you get a real hug. You start talking, and before you know it you are laughing.
By the time you leave you realize you just had the heavest of coversations, that speak of the most important and core things in life, and all the while you didn’t know it until you are in your car heading back to your hotel 2.5 hours away in Clearwater, spending the entire ride digesting what you just learned. It amazing it still happens like that since he has been doing this exact thing all my life.
He is sneaky like that. You don’t realise how awesome someone like that is at times. He doesn’t make a big showing of his love, his unconditional support or his loyality. He just goes about giving you all those things quitely so you can have them and so you can kick ass in whatever you do.
While training a little while ago my phone rang. It was my father. We talk often but he never calls me. He never says “call me back.”When I did he said my godfather had cancer. I had though a bunch of times about not racing worlds but never about not going to FL because from the day I got that call I had planned on the visit to him the day after the race. You wanna know why I ran a personal best? It was to finish the race as soon as I could so that I could visit him. Because I knew that race and this visit would be linked and I wanted to have an effort he would be proud of. This visit was more important than any race.
My godfather has a long way to beating cancer, and with living through the process of beating cancer. Hearing how hard it is, I feel so proud to be part of Team Continuum. An organization that raises money for people fighting cancer. Cancer is one of those aweful things, that touches everyone directly or indiectly. If you can, please help me help others. Click the link here:
http://www.teamcontinuum.net/athlete_page.asp?eid=146&uid=85066
to make a donation and help me meet my fund raising goal.
(Pic: My dad godfather and me the day after the Ironman 70.3 World Championships)
That’s an awesome pic J! Three great guys! Livestrong!
Thanks! SLAY EM AT IMAZ!
great writing,w/a ironman for a son,one would think that your louse of a father could make more of an effort to stay in touch,plus whats w/ the gotee on the fat guy?some kind of col. sanders.way too much fried chicken..just sayin’