my cool dad

This past weekend was pretty important. Every year around the last weekend in July there is a little something called the AuSable River Canoe Marathon. One time...when my dad was just a little guy...He went and watched a little bit of this marathon. He knew that was his thing. He wanted so badly to enter and finish....that's right...it's a big thing just to finish the race. Gauranteed every year more than one boat doesn't even finish. There are...

-timed cut offs: if you are more than a certain ammount of time behind, you are told to leave the water

-physical exaustion

-illness: not like my belly hurts...if your belly hurts you are doing pretty well/If you are seeing things but you are aware that they are halucinations you are also, still doing fairly well... NO, NO, no, illness that would keep you from the race includes...puking so much that paddling is impossible, halucinating that the trees are fans and thanking them for cheering, dizziness to the point of falling out of your boat, or having the medical experts stop your boat b/c they would rather have a mad paddler than a dead one. (I have seen them force a life jacket onto a guy before they would let him continue.)

-boat issues...a crack in the boat or something that would cause you to not be able to finish.

SO...that is the race that my dad was desperate to be a part of...and now my sister and I have brought our families into it too. It is an unbelievably cool thing to be a part of. My dad has tried several times and this year was his second finish. The first finish was cool 18 hours and 52 minutes ish if I remember correctly. This year...16:38!!!! Awesome. over two hours cut off his time. Keep in mind...a paddlers body is like my Mike's body. Not too tall, not to heafty, very strong. My dad is not fat by any means, but he's got quite a bit of heaft to him....so it takes even more to pull that body 120 miles down the AuSable. I am so proud of him finishing. I wasn't able to be there this year...I am pretty sad about that. I wasn't able to be there last year either...a little thing called Liela happened. SO....I have told Mike that next year I will be there... no matter what. If I have to go alone with two kids 'hup all night' I will do it. I can't miss another one of my dad's races. (if he is in it of course) I did keep up on the race the whole night. I added internet to my phone to check the standings and my mom and bro-in-law nate kept me updated by phone. I was checking every minute...and only slept between 3 and 5 when my phone fell off the bed and knocked the battery out, rendering my alarm clock useless. If you want to read the story from my sister who was able to be there...go to her blog. My mom called me as they were coming up on the finish. She asked if I could hear it. It was muffled but I didn't care. She said, "I'm going to be taping so I will turn the phone toward the announcer and talk to you after." as soon as she stopped talking, clear as a bell I heard those first few chords of sweet home alabama. I of course was crying right away. I couldn't believe he was doing it again.

So...my dad is cool. When I was little we used to pretend we were embarassed about his cameo wearing and stuff but even then I secretly thought that was fun. (I do not, however, secretly think that no t-shirt under a dress shirt is fun, don't do it people). Now I love it....I know he doesn't care too much about what people think. He doesn't do the race to be popular with other people, he would probably rather they didn't even know about it. He is just cool all by himself. I love my dad. I am so glad he finished this race again. I hope he does it even faster next time. In the words of my husband, "I am so proud of Him."