I ask myself, every Monday and Wednesday, as I dip my toes into the ice-cold-freezing-frigid-like-Alaska swimming pool.
I love swimming. I love changing out of comfortable clothes into an awkward, weirdly fitting, damp swimsuit. I love stretching and snapping a plastic cap over whatever my hairdo was that day. I love the questionable locker room and the cold puddles of probably-disease-filled water (water?) that I splash through on the way to the pool. I LOVE having to get in a freezing pool and how it makes me want to start exercising immediately, or lose toes and fingers. I love the pain and agony of the sprints and the humiliation of "butterfly". I love getting out soaking wet to spend the next half hour trying to get warm, dry, and dressed before walking outside and having my hair freeze.
Oh, yeah, I love swimming.
So if I love it SO much... why do I still do it?!?!?
I figured it out. It's all in the genes: Dad.
My Dad has run something like 34 marathons to date. The first one was about 15 years ago, and we have pictures of him at the finish line--well, we actually have many more pictures of me, the cute, chubby 3-year-old than we do of the bedraggled, almost-dead Dad. Despite months of diligent preparation and training, the marathon had stripped him of energy and feeling--not to mention toenails and probably years of life.
...and he wanted to do it again?
The man obviously enjoys pain: His dream vacation is walking uphill in all kinds of weather with 50+ pounds strapped to his back just so he can enjoy a view that is already hanging on his living room wall. He bikes 15 miles to work everyday--and 15 miles back--to save a couple cents on gas. His life goal is the Ironman, the Beast of all triathalons that basically sounds a little less fun than having every hair on your head ripped out by the roots.
Although...
Despite my immediate revulsion at such crazy activites... it kind of sounds like fun.
It has to be in my genes, because all logical thought screams, "Hello?! It's fun because it hurts less when it's OVER?! That's NOT WHAT FUN IS!"
Nevertheless, I find myself drifting toward the BYU triathalon booth, and looking up marathon training schedules online, and ...
again...
jumping into this freezing swimming pool.
--
3 comments:
Wow, your dad is hardcore! That's really cool that he's done so many marathons. I can't even imagine surviving one.
WoW! That sounds really cold. I'm proud of you for sticking it out. That's gross your dad lost toenails. My dad did once too, it was one of the sickest things I ever saw.
I have some crazy dad genes as well. But your dad sounds pretty extreme; 34 marathons! geez.
Post a Comment