This weekend was our Pacific Masters Championships. It was a close battle between WCM and USF and I don't know who won at this very moment. I don't care.
You see, I left right before the 1000 today (the last event) right after the last relays. I watched some great swims today. Amazing swims. My friend Brendon swam a 2:03 200 fly and really hit his taper (as he's not going to Nationals)- we were teasing about how he does really well the week after a tapered meet. He seemed to finally figure it out this time.
My friend Stephen called me tonight and told me that Brendon also had a great 1000, was warming down, had a heart attack and died. He was 35. I was stunned. I've been crying since then trying to make sense of it all. It doesn't make sense.
I called some other friends and no one else can believe it either. Suddenly, the meet doesn't matter, swimming doesn't matter, what matters is that we lost a really great guy today. He was always so happy, funny, and loved to tell jokes. He was really good natured and fun to be around. I will miss him terribly.
OK, I'm going to put this out here, and if it sounds too weird I'm going to chalk it up to lack of sleep and grief...
I always wondered what my life would be like if I were surrounded by swimmers all the time? (I always picture Mission Viejo as to me it seemed like the community where swimmers came to live in the early 80's)
Wouldn't it be cool to live with all swimmers in your neighborhood? We'd have shuttles all day going to the state-of-the-art complex for any practice you wanted to attend? You'd see happy, health conscious people all day (when they weren't at work!). We'd all have swimming in common and then bring all of our other talents and qualities to the neighborhood. What a cool place that would be!
My point is, I really appreciate the swimming environment and all of the people that make it a really special place. Thanks you guys. (And if anybody is a contractor, we can get to work designing our swimming neighborhood ;) )
OK, I'm going to put this out here, and if it sounds too weird I'm going to chalk it up to lack of sleep and grief...
I always wondered what my life would be like if I were surrounded by swimmers all the time? (I always picture Mission Viejo as to me it seemed like the community where swimmers came to live in the early 80's)
Wouldn't it be cool to live with all swimmers in your neighborhood? We'd have shuttles all day going to the state-of-the-art complex for any practice you wanted to attend? You'd see happy, health conscious people all day (when they weren't at work!). We'd all have swimming in common and then bring all of our other talents and qualities to the neighborhood. What a cool place that would be!
My point is, I really appreciate the swimming environment and all of the people that make it a really special place. Thanks you guys. (And if anybody is a contractor, we can get to work designing our swimming neighborhood ;) )
