Catching Up

The video is from a kite festival I attended with the little knee-biters known as Avery, Tyler, and Mia [my nieces and nephew].  The Saturday after Scott's death, I got an unexpected phone call from my bro telling me that he was driving up with the rugrats to go see some amazing kites.  Normally, I would be out doing my long ride at about this time, and thus, would have missed this call and quality time with the kiddies.  But, once again, that higher hand was at work in the universe and somehow, I changed my ride to Sunday instead of Saturday.  The timing was perfect and a day with 1-4 year-olds looking at some amazing kites was the perfect therapy after Scott's death.  The following Saturday was Scott's funeral and it was quite the service.  The speakers were amazing and after listening to each account of Scottie, I felt so lucky to have known Scott and to have called him a good friend.  Not only was Scott a dedicated and hard-working athlete, but he was one in the top 5 in his graduating class at Georgetown, his thesis won a prestigious award, and he somehow managed to be available to all types, from young to old, athletes to academics, and friends to family.  As I sat during the service, I slowly realized that what Scott accomplished in his 25 years of living I have yet to come close to in my 37 years [and I'm not saying this to be dramatic either, if you just make a list of countries visited, he quadrupled the amount of places I've traveled].  I guess it's time for me to start catching up to Scott.  I raced the day after Scott's funeral, sort of a way for me to spend the day with Scott the way that he would have enjoyed.  For a full race report, go to my website [http://www.racingawareness.org] and click the "RACING" link.  And today, I learned that hypothermia is very similar to heat stroke. This was probably not the best year to try my hand at the Donner Lake 2.7 mile swim in 67° water, considering that I'm 8 lbs lighter this year, fat I definitely could have used this morning.  Long story short, I was yanked at the 2 mile mark because I was doing the breaststroke and couldn't figure out the task I was trying to achieve and the course in which to go about it.  I was very disoriented, similar to the ironman shuffle that comes on with a bonk in crazy ass heat.  After being yanked by the rescue boat, I was taken to the beach and wrapped in blankets but I could not stop shivering and every muscle was cramping and I was totally out of it.  The meds decided to call for an ambulance and there I was in the ambulance, thinking how the hell did I end up here and I'm not even doing an ironman!  It gets worse, three paramedics the proceed to strip me out of my fastskin.  Since I had my cap still on, and I was wearing a full body fastskin, and with my shaved legs and all 122 lbs of me, I think the paramedics were trying to find some confirmation of my sex.  Well, I was suffering from hypothermia, which means my body was under extreme cold and under those conditions, I don't think my lower extremity was able to help with the confirmation of my sex. And to top it all off, when they asked me my name [hoping for a clue I'm sure], I responded "Kiet"...oh, that helps?!?.