If 2011 included attending one tune-up triathlon (Abu Dhabi), two ironman triathlons (South Africa and Kona) and the hours and hours of training and preparation that led to those multi-sport forays, 2012/2013 have provided a helpful reminder of what allowed for 2011's successes.
My mother says that if you don't have your health you have nothing. 2012, and now 2013, have allowed me to more fully appreciate the health and strength I depended on - and took for granted - in 2011. By battling thyroid cancer so soon after being on the podium at Kona, I was able to underscore how personal health is so very much higher on the list than quick swimming, biking or running.
Inextricably related to physical well being are emotional peace and strength. 2011 allowed for a specific expression of strength, but I wasn't very far into 2012 when just about all of that supposed strength had waned. As 2012 has emphasized, it takes a whole heck of a lot of time to get in top shape and about no time at all to get out of it.
Which is why emotional peace and well being are important - and more transcendent - than being Kona Fit. And, for me, here is where family plays a huge role, a role that reaches way back earlier than 2011 and looks to extend its reach well beyond 2013.
Take yesterday's family mountain bike outing, for example. I'd been so busy in 2011 triathlon training and racing that I'd hardly ever ventured off campus to participate in the weekly mountain bike excursions. Worse, when I had gone mountain biking I'd not thought about taking my family along, so focused was I on training and being competitive.
Pulling out of Ironmania and gaining a bit of perspective has allowed events like yesterday's to occur. I was able to watch my wife transfixed by the austere beauty of the arid landscape as she pedaled up, down and around. A late winter rain had brought a sudden burst of grasses and flowers, a botanical ephemera only fully appreciated when you've had, like we, less than 1cm of rain in 600 days.
While Hayden is older and stronger, Logan's determination carried him along our 24 kilometers quite well. Both bumped and jived on their bikes, willing them to go where they wouldn't have naturally, pushing their limits and thereby coming to a truer understanding of themselves.
When I watch my boys being active I can't help but feel a certain vicarious affection. All parents see at least some of themselves in their children; my emotional projections and connections to them are perhaps strongest when they are active, in part, I'm sure, because of how my life has been so strongly defined by the physical.
In any case, it was a lovely day, a welcome change to the humdrum of cloistered campus living that normally defines our weekends here in Saudi.
My mother says that if you don't have your health you have nothing. 2012, and now 2013, have allowed me to more fully appreciate the health and strength I depended on - and took for granted - in 2011. By battling thyroid cancer so soon after being on the podium at Kona, I was able to underscore how personal health is so very much higher on the list than quick swimming, biking or running.
Inextricably related to physical well being are emotional peace and strength. 2011 allowed for a specific expression of strength, but I wasn't very far into 2012 when just about all of that supposed strength had waned. As 2012 has emphasized, it takes a whole heck of a lot of time to get in top shape and about no time at all to get out of it.
Which is why emotional peace and well being are important - and more transcendent - than being Kona Fit. And, for me, here is where family plays a huge role, a role that reaches way back earlier than 2011 and looks to extend its reach well beyond 2013.
Take yesterday's family mountain bike outing, for example. I'd been so busy in 2011 triathlon training and racing that I'd hardly ever ventured off campus to participate in the weekly mountain bike excursions. Worse, when I had gone mountain biking I'd not thought about taking my family along, so focused was I on training and being competitive.
Pulling out of Ironmania and gaining a bit of perspective has allowed events like yesterday's to occur. I was able to watch my wife transfixed by the austere beauty of the arid landscape as she pedaled up, down and around. A late winter rain had brought a sudden burst of grasses and flowers, a botanical ephemera only fully appreciated when you've had, like we, less than 1cm of rain in 600 days.
While Hayden is older and stronger, Logan's determination carried him along our 24 kilometers quite well. Both bumped and jived on their bikes, willing them to go where they wouldn't have naturally, pushing their limits and thereby coming to a truer understanding of themselves.
When I watch my boys being active I can't help but feel a certain vicarious affection. All parents see at least some of themselves in their children; my emotional projections and connections to them are perhaps strongest when they are active, in part, I'm sure, because of how my life has been so strongly defined by the physical.
In any case, it was a lovely day, a welcome change to the humdrum of cloistered campus living that normally defines our weekends here in Saudi.
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