It was March, 1992, I was an avid Front tenis player and as faith will have it, history will repeat it self. Days before I found my eyesight had been damaged I was playing a tournament at the big five club in Miami. It was an annual event with us going to miami in the fall and Miami going to PR in the spring. It had been going on for many years and it was one of the big deals for both clubs. March 1992 I get my first 3 week rest from chemo. Needless to say I was on the first flight back to PR and at home with my family and life long friends. As it turned out the Miami- PR tournament was going on. I will never forget the feeling of walking into that club and everyone staring at you. I was bold as a cue ball and very clumsy due to some of the drugs I was taking. I didn't care, I didn't care at all. These people for the most part I have known since birth, they were all mostly family. I know it shocked them to see me that way but I was ok with it, in the end I was shocked to see me in the mirror too. People rected difrently, some were extra nice, some were sorry, and others just did not want to look or see me that way. It was ok I understood completely, after all I didn't want to see anyone with cancer either, and I felt sorry for some of them, and was even extra nice to others. So in all It was ok, for me it was my back yard and I was with family. Looking that way was my world and I had no shme, everyone new what I was going thru. Despite this kind of hard reality I was smiling inside. Come on this was liberty. I felt really good, no vomiting, no medicine, no neddles, and even better I was not confined to a room or a bed. For me it was paradise. Later that week I went on a boat out to the Virgin Islands and spent a week there with real good friend and his family and of course Julissa which never left my side. Moises is younger than I am and his father was one of those that could not bear to see me the way I was. Unfortunately they also had their story with cancer. Moises Sr. and his wife Silvia will always take me on boat trips and although this one would be a hard one for them it was no execption. It realy felt like me again and Moises was till this day the only friend I had that never gave me special tratment because of my illness. He stayed true to his friendship and we were buddies just as before and just as after. I never told him but that was a special thing for me then and now. Actually the only pictures that were ever taken of me with cancer outside my family circle are from that trip and I still keep them. I went to on that same trip many times even as a grown up in my own boat. But I will never forget that trip. Moises was the best man at my weding with Julissa and he is still my dear friend. We don't talk all the time but are somehow regularly in touch and from time to time share some laughs with him being mostly a victim of my pranks and practical jokes. In the end it is a friendship that would last very long.
All that time was like a stage had been completed. I was that much closer to finishing my treatment and going home permanently so I was smiling inside and out. I remember I was just smiling. Yesterday I also completed a stage. A big one too. I ran my first 5K and finished smiling. Yes smiling. I was nervous as I had never ran a 5K before. I felt really good all race long and although it was dificult because of all the walkers I kept my pace and pressed on for the whole 5K. The last 800 meters were tourture as my heart rate was really going up and my body was yelling for me to stop. But I didn't. Not a chance. I finished running and as I arrived at the finish line all I could do was smile. Smile, smile, and smile. It was ahuge hurdle, it proved I am getting better and on my way to the Ironman. The thing is that I just did not smile at the finish line, I was actualy smiling all the way back from the turn around. It was that feeling that you know you will make it. I was thinking about my race and I was certainly thinking of what that race meant in my journey to the Ironman. With about 1 mile to go I spoted my mom on the sidewalk on the other side of the road watching the race and I just had a very clear reflection of what the ironman will be. I ran acros the road to where she was sitting, gave her a kiss and told her to look forward to seen me at the finish of Ironman Canada. Yesterday I realized why I am training so hard. I know exactly why I am doing this event but you can do it in many ways and finish in a variety of conditions. For me it will never be about my time or my place it will always be about finishing with a smile from ear to ear. So....as I crossed the finish line yesterday those magical words came to mind, "REMENBER TO SMILE" and I did.
How much?? Ok I know some of you will need to know. So here it is. I ran a 5K in 36:58:00. Acutally I was faster in mile 3 than in mile 1 and 2 which would most likely explain why my heart rate was so high. At 243lbs and two decades of inactivity I think that would probably be a very good time. Sunday is my first triathlon ever. I swam the course today....No problem.?????
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