Hi Friends,
For all the ways we get so myopically wrapped up in our pursuit of this multi-sport, sometimes at the expense of our partners and children. All too frequently, there comes along a special someone who puts it back in some much needed perspective: Someone young enough to be one of our children, who will never live old enough to to enter college, let alone "age up" to the next division.
Marin came to my area of Washington state 3 years ago to get help from our region's cancer fighting centers. She attended my high school, and trained at my aquatic center in Bellevue, Wa.
As followed by our local ABC-affiliate, Her fight against aggressive brain cancer became an inspiration to many of us in the region. Our 18 year old Olympian passed on yesterday morning, To a place without surgeries, pain and loss. I am sure that she is now free to get back to two-a day sessions(plus weights and Dry-Land, of course!), and to start doing lifetime bests in the nicest aquatic facilities around.
Click here to link onto a small story I posted on the US Masters Swimming forum (picture a wetter, smaller Slowtwitch), to follow her story of the last few seasons, her journey to the Olympics, and her passage to peace and light.
For all the ways we bitch about little stuff, whinge-ing about the effects of middle age and lusting for the next cool bike part.......lets not forget what it is like for someone who is too young to leave, and for whom the highlight of every day was her swim workout......to the end.
And appreciate and enjoy your training tomorrow
Love your family and friends
and do some hard, fast laps for Marin
peace
tom
For all the ways we get so myopically wrapped up in our pursuit of this multi-sport, sometimes at the expense of our partners and children. All too frequently, there comes along a special someone who puts it back in some much needed perspective: Someone young enough to be one of our children, who will never live old enough to to enter college, let alone "age up" to the next division.
Marin came to my area of Washington state 3 years ago to get help from our region's cancer fighting centers. She attended my high school, and trained at my aquatic center in Bellevue, Wa.
As followed by our local ABC-affiliate, Her fight against aggressive brain cancer became an inspiration to many of us in the region. Our 18 year old Olympian passed on yesterday morning, To a place without surgeries, pain and loss. I am sure that she is now free to get back to two-a day sessions(plus weights and Dry-Land, of course!), and to start doing lifetime bests in the nicest aquatic facilities around.
Click here to link onto a small story I posted on the US Masters Swimming forum (picture a wetter, smaller Slowtwitch), to follow her story of the last few seasons, her journey to the Olympics, and her passage to peace and light.
For all the ways we bitch about little stuff, whinge-ing about the effects of middle age and lusting for the next cool bike part.......lets not forget what it is like for someone who is too young to leave, and for whom the highlight of every day was her swim workout......to the end.
And appreciate and enjoy your training tomorrow
Love your family and friends
and do some hard, fast laps for Marin
peace
tom