This is my 14th year participating in the TYathlon. With every training swim, bike, or run, I am reminded that I am not getting any younger. For anyone who knows me well, they know that time is my most valuable asset. In more recent years, I noticed how fast it goes and how much can change in the blink of an eye. I pictured my life to be very different. I grew up swimming in Lake Mahopac. And I imagined myself in my 50s taking my kids back to my old neighborhood to take them swimming there and then to have dinner with Nana and Papa in my childhood home.
The reason that I am asking for donations is because life can change in the blink of an eye. My wife and I were living our best lives at the beach with our two young toddler boys. Then Ty was diagnosed with brain cancer one summer afternoon. And the script we had planned for our lives was completely flipped.
My reality now, at 55 years old, is swimming in Lake Mahopac for our annual Tyathlon to honor my son who died at just five years of age and never had the chance to swim there. After the TYathlon, on the way home, I will pass by where my parents used to live and shed a tear or two just thinking about how much has changed.
T-hank Y-ou for helping us fund pediatric cancer research while honoring our son, Ty.
