In America we have this one holiday that is quite interesting. It is called Thanksgiving. It is a day when people sit down and share a feast to give thanks for the good things in life. This celebration dates back to 1621 in Plymouth when colonists and Indians sat down for a feast to give thanks. The feast was not repeated the following years in the same way but it was tradition for the colonists to have feasts to celebrate events. It was not until 1817 that New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. President Abraham Lincoln finally appointed a day for Thanksgiving as the last Thursday in November in 1863. Each president since then has issued a proclamation for Thanksgiving day. As a young kid in Colombia we did not have Thanksgiving. But there we have a lot of Holidays that are not observed here in America. Colombia is a very Catholic country and besides Christmas there are holidays like Three Kings days and St. Joseph’s day that are observed. I loved St Joseph’s day for one reason. It is always on my birthday so that meant I never had to go to school on my birthday and there was always a birthday party.
Back to thanksgiving; when I moved to Puerto Rico which is really an Americanized Hispanic society I learned about Thanksgiving. They observe thanksgiving. In my high school we had the Thanksgiving Turkey trot. Guess who was always training hard for it. Yep I was and I won the darn thing a few times. The first time I took first place I won a Turkey; a live Turkey. I took it home to my mother and she had no problem killing it. My mother lived as a young lady in a small town in Colombia when you traditionally grew chickens and turkeys and when they were big enough you killed them for food. No preservatives needed. The second time I won it I got a frozen one. A frozen one was much easier to carry home.
My thanksgiving this year was very american. I help my wife cook a Turkey and even made the stuffing myself. I sat at the table with her and my two kids. Guess what my little 9 month old Sofia loved? She loved the stuffing daddy made. Alright! So now in true David Letterman fashion I will have my top ten things I am thankful for.
10. Luck; I think that I have definitely been lucky in many ways. Sure some bad stuff happens here and there but many great things happen and I had nothing to do with it. The only thing I can attribute it to is “Karma”. If you do good things, good things happen to you. I am no angel that is for sure, but I try to keep this Karma thing in mind.
9. Triathlon; it is a great sport and it is never boring. Besides it lets someone like me that is not great at anything but ok at many things actually do pretty good.
8. Age group categories; without them who would want to race as they get older. I turn 45 next March, do you think that has anything to do with me trying to get in shape and race?
7. My PE teachers that influenced who I am more that anything else; plus that one teacher in the 5th grade that we cheered and tried to run with in his ½ marathon race.
6. All my athletes that I coach particularly those who I do “extended coaching” with and I get to track their comments on the web site. I really get to know them. Part of my motivation to race next year comes from them. I want to do a little suffering with them. :-)
5. The internet; plus ‘Al Gore’ for inventing it. :-) We could not have online tri training without it and I would still be at IBM. Yikes!
4. My high school librarian; In high school I only know I was good with numbers but I was not sure what to study. So she said “study electrical engineering; that is the future”. So I said ok. That led to me learning how to program computers and it lead to my career and to Mark Allen wanting to develop the web site. He knew I could do this.
3. Mark Allen; I have to thank him for joining forces with me to have a great triathlon training coaching service and insuring that I do not have to go back to a traditional desk job for the near future.
2. My hamstring injury which has really brought into attention my need to be more flexible and spend time strengthening my core. It is much better for me to have an injury now rather than 10 months from now.
1. Mi wife Kelly and my two kids Camilo and Sofia. Our fun times together are really wonderful. They make my life really complete.