"Was that swim a little rough?"

This past weekend I attended the wedding in Hyannis Port, MA of one of my best friends, Chris Perera, who runs the creative department at the American Subsidiary of Leopard Films, and is one of TV's top producers. He was married to Carolyn Petersen in a ceremony overlooking the Kennedy Compound at the spectacular St. Andrews Church.

Ahhhh, weddings - when stories of the past are told. At this wedding the story of Chris's first triathlon was told...

A few years ago, in a Solana Beach Spring Sprint Triathlon, Chris and I stood on the shores of his first race. Chris is a natural athlete, runner, tennis player and has always been passionate about fitness, but as I looked out to the sea, I noticed some fairly large, in fact extremely large sets crashing on the shore. Chris seemed not to notice, and thought it was all par for the course.

I wondered if these sets would decrease in size as the clock moved in the direction of the starting horn, but as we stood there, they only got bigger. I gave Chris some pointers on swimming through waves by ducking under them and staying down just a bit longer than you think you need to, and about how to relax in the post-crash wave froth. He smiled, and seemed really excited to start.

Soon thereafter the horn blew, and we started what was the roughest swim of my more than a decade long triathlon career. Froth, giant waves crashing, people getting flipped over on my right and left in the waves. It was a washing machine. I slowly made my way through the swim, getting tossed and tumbled in each wave. Chris and I had started in the first two waves of the swim, and on the bike ride, I had heard from someone on the two lap course that they had cancelled the swim after the first two waves of swimmers and they were pulling people out of the water.

I was thankful to catch a glimpse of Chris, with a great smile on the out-and-back portions of the bike and run, he was moving really fast. At the finish line, I greeted Chris, and he grabbed a bottle of water. He was really happy and a newborn Triathlete, but it was his comment that I still remember to this day. Not knowing that this was a very unusual and difficult swim that they actually cancelled after his second swim wave finished - he looked at me with a curious enthusiasm and simply said "Was that swim a little rough?"

I'm a big fan of both Chris and Carolyn and am sending them best wishes for a wonderful life together - they really are both made of everything that is true, real, sincere, giving and honest - and these are critical ingredients in a relationship. This weekend, they started a wonderful life together in a beautiful place, and marriage just might be a triathlon of it's own sometimes. Chris & Carolyn - this is your starting line.

-Mitch

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