33.9

i will post tomorrow so set a side some time, there is a lot to tell.

i finished 33.9 miles (possibly more, i explain later).
15:50:00

i am sore and tired but in great spirits.

thanks to my TEAM without whom i would not have been able to complete.
thanks to ou for all your prayers and support.

rocketboy

32

i wear a shirt with the number 32 on it. it is my new number. when i was young i wore 13 and 17. now 32. just like all the 32's that have gone before me, i strive for greatness. to conquer what i haven't before. to set an example for others. to be. my 32 is different from others. it is a number that may define a chapter of my life. it is a number that may haunt me till the next time. or it just might be a number. nothing more nothing less. 99.9% of the people on the coast will go to bed and wake up to see that nothing has changed in their world. my world will change tonight. it may not be earth shattering, but it will change.
i would like to take a second to thank you all for following my journey. know this is not the end. i will attack something else. the money has not been raised in a way that i am satisfied with so i am using the swim as a start, not an end. i am so thankful for my loving wife, kids and parents. Jeanne, Paige, Ian, Mom and Dad, i could not even attempt this without you. you will be in my mind and heart the whole night. thanks to my coach shelly, who volunteered for this task. thanks for my business partner Susan for her details. i would probably have me and a friend in a boat if it weren't for her making sure i had what i needed. thanks to Francis, whom i know not well, but who has so generously brought his boat time family and energy to this event. again i couldn't attempt without him. thanks to joey lee for setting up interviews and coming along for part of the ride. i will rope him into the next swim. thanks to ed and brady for coming over and supporting me. thanks to mandy for coming over to swim and for the time she put in in the pool with me. thanks to nan and all the masters at crawfish aquatics. thanks to billy coach ripple and the kids of crawfish as well, the tuesdays and thursday workouts helped get me here. thanks to Adam and Paul for manning the FRESH ship while i am away, ya'lls hard work has given me the time to train.

thanks to God for giving me the all the blessings i have and for the courage and life to swim 32 (and for the east wind i prayed for!)

going to take a nap and start swimming.

rocketboy

SEE 32 is Significant

In mathematics

32 is the smallest number n with exactly 7 solutions to the equation φ(x) = n. It is also the sum of the totient function for the first ten integers.
The fifth power of two, 32 is also a Leyland number since 24 + 42 = 32.
As with all power of two 32 has an aliquot sum one less than itself; the prime 31. 32 is the first member of the 31-aliquot tree.

In science

The atomic number of germanium
The freezing point of water at sea level in degrees Fahrenheit

Astronomy
Messier object M32, a magnitude 10.0 galaxy in the constellation Andromeda which is a companion to M31.
The New General Catalogue object NGC 32, a star in the constellation Pegasus
The Saros number of the solar eclipse series which began on September 24, 1957 BC and ended on March 10, 460 BC. The duration of Saros series 32 was 1496.5 years, and it contained 84 solar eclipses.
The Saros number of the lunar eclipse series which began on June 11, 1691 BC and ended on August 9, 375 BC. The duration of Saros series 32 was 1316.2 years, and it contained 74 lunar eclipses.

In music

The number of variations in Bach's Goldberg variations
The number of completed, numbered piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven
In the title and lyrics of the song 32 Footsteps by They Might Be Giants
In Regina Spektor's Oedipus, it's sung "32 is still a god damn number" several times.

In other fields

Thirty-two is also:
The number of teeth of a full set of teeth in an adult human, including wisdom teeth
The size of a databus in bits: 32-bit
The size, in bits, of certain integer data types, used in computer representations of numbers
The winning car number of Ray Harroun in the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911
ASCII and Unicode code point for space
In chess, the total number of black squares on the board, the total number of white squares, and the total number of pieces (black and white) at the beginning of the game
The code for international direct dial phone calls to Belgium
Retired number of L.A. Lakers Magic Johnson's jersey
Retired number of baseball pitchers Sandy Koufax and Steve Carlton
Retired number of Jim Brown, Cleveland Browns running back
O.J. Simpson's uniform number
In the title Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, starring Colm Feore
Article 32 of the UCMJ concerns pre-trial investigations. Such a hearing is often called an "article 32 hearing"
Sometimes considered to be the occult opposite of number 23 (see 23 (numerology))
The (supposed) age of Jesus Christ when he was crucified
One of the Nissan Skyline versions
Pump water up an open tube and it can be raised to 32 feet - at that point cohesion is lost and the water column will break or cavitate. Pumping may not be necessary under the sole action of capillary action
According to the U.S. Census Bureau of places in the United States with the word "eagle" in their name.
Carlos Alberto Tevez uniform number in West Ham United
The short form of ThirtyTwo, a producer of snowboard footwear
A traditional (soccer) football is made up by 32 panels of leather.

22 hours

i am in ms gettting ready. factually i have benn chasing kids and my dog around my parents house, and finally it is calming down a little. i was here yesterday for an interview and then back to BR. i woke up today and have been going ever since. someone asked me today, "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" all i could do was laugh. i am glad i didn't have to workout this week much as i have had zero time to do so. anyway whah whah whah. no complaining.
my shoulders will hurt. i have been coming to realize this more by the day. it is all part of it. i tweaked something in both on my last long swim and through the power of celebrex i have been pain free, but as i have told shelly, it is just beneath the surface, 1000, 10000, 18000 m in. again, no complaining.
it is a night of some irony as there is zero wind tonight, flat and an almost full moon. tomorrow nights forecast when we push off is 15 mph winds out of the south east. luckily we are going east so i should gain some benefit from this. during the night they will switch and i will get some dead downwind swimming which will be awesome. i am going to want to hammer at this point but know better. no hammering this swim. it is a patience, slow game. this is not my style. i am a 90 to nothing type of racer. though this is not technically a "race". it feels like it. same aprehensive feelings, check, double check, got my goggles, looking for my race belt and remember this is not a tri. finish it finish it finish it. slow down slow down slow down.

rocketboy

reality

i like one word titles. more dramatic. also if you use a long titles you do't have anything left to write about. if the title was, my shoulder is fried, 32 miles is forever, i have some siblings, and ohh crap you would know it all and there would be nothing left to say. i have one week left and things have been tough.
as i said in my last blog i swam for 7 hours last sunday. it started off fine and steadily got worse. i did great with nutrition, but my shoulders were feeling the last two weeks of workouts. the last hour, my left shoulder was toast. i finished the last of 70 400's and probably couldn't have done another one. i had to get my freinds Mitch and Joe to put the kayak on top of the truck as i couldn't lift my arms over my head. i loaded up on ibuprofen and iced them off and on all day, but on monday morning i still couldn't lift my arm over my head. i usually sleep on my stomach with my arms over my head. sunday night i slept with my left arm by my side. on monday it was darn near locked up. i could not have swum one length. my coach and now good freind Shelly said she would take care of it for me and got me in touch with a doctor to get some strong stuff. it worked and by monday evening i was feeling more confident. i took monday and tuesday off. on wednesday i went to the pool to do an interview for a local tv station. i ended up swimming a bit and did not feel too bad. the shoulder was what i would like to call "tentative", it didn't hurt, but i could tell that the pain was within my reach if i pushed too much. i swam an easy hour wednesday without incident. no snap in my arms but i wasn't hurting so it was positive. i swam 18 miles or so that sunday, 32 miles is going to be forever if my shoulder hurts that bad next week.
fund raising has been okay so far. i have finally seen why people have development jobs. it is a full time job. i am looking forward to haveing some time after the swim to continue what we are doing and to raise more money and awareness.
a lot of friends and family are turning out to help out with the swim. one in particular really means a lot. i grew up for all intents and purposes an only child. my dad was married prior to marrying my mom and had three kids, Susan, Bill and Craig. Craig is 10 years older than i am and Billy 2-3 older than him and Susan 2 older than Billy. we never lived in the same house and only when i was very young did we live in the same town. i cannot imagine what their world must have been like growing up. divorce is hard on every party involved. mostly on the kids. my half brothers and sister were always good to me and besides craig calling my "brat" for the first 6 years of my life, we have always had a loving and good, although distant relationship. i have always wanted more, but besides a decade between us, we all live between 1000 and 3000 miles apart. its tough. we talk from time to time and see each other every 2-3 years and it is what it is. last week my brother bill called and told me to call him when i got a shot. i talked to him thursday and he said he is going to try and make it down for the swim. he lives in kingston ontario, canada (america jr.) which is 2 hours north of syracuse, ny. i was shocked (in a good way). he may not be able to work it out, but the fact that he would come down for it meant the world to me. he wants to get in and swim with me. how awesome is that.

i can't follow that with anything clever or otherwise, this swim is bigger than me.
rocketboy

one week

i am dreaming about my swim. this means one of two things. i am excited about it, or i am stressing about it. i think it is the latter. for the first time since i started this idea i am actually confronted with the magnirude of it. 32 miles is a long way. i can't run 32 miles right now. i could ride 32 miles but it would be a lot slower than i would be used to and i would feel it the next day. that is a funny thought.
part of my concern comes from last weeks 7 hour + swim at the lake. i was tired all last week from the 57k the week before. i had trouble getting any snap back in my arms all week. i told my friend chuck at the beginning of my swim sunday that i was apprehensive about the swim that day. i got in and things went well for the first 3-4 hours. somewhere around 4 hours my shoulders started hurting. around hour 6 they were bad and by the end i did not think i could take another stroke. on monday i couldn't lift my left arm over my head and i could not have swum 25 m let alone 32 miles. i have been eating anti inflamatories for 5 days now and got in the pool a coupld of times over the past two days to loosen up. it is feeling better, but not 100%. in addition i am still tired. i will rest a lot for the next week.
did an interview for baton rouge tv wednesday. it was on last night. nice.
more to come...
rocketboy

57000m

i laugh to think about my old swimming routine. back 3 years or so ago, i was in pretty good triathlon shape. i was placing in my age group and even in top 3 in a race or two. i felt fast in the water. i swam twice a week 3500-4000m per workout. 8000 a week tops. i am almost laughing aloud at the thought of 8000m a week. to put it in perspective i swam 24000 on sunday alone, and 57000 for the week. i swim 8000m or more workouts 2-3 times a week. i was talking to shelly the other day and i said that i did not know what i was going to do with myself after the swim. i dont know if i can go back to 8000m a week. i will proabably come up with another hairbrained idea (i already have one or to cooking). i am going to let my wife and kids get some time with me, work on putting on some races and race some short stuff....maybe. and by maybe i mean it may be short.
i swam in the lake in prairieville sunday. the aforementioned 24000m workout. i felt good until the last hour. then my arms were hurting. nutrition was pretty good. i fed every hour. i never got week, so i guess this will work. i will probably go every 45 minutes or so just to be safe. i had a lot of good support from Ed, Tom, Brandon and Heather. it was nice to see people from time to time. i actually got sunburned on my face from breathing. i was out there for 6 hours so i guess you get more sun than you think. funny.
i am a pace slave. i am obsessed with keeping my pace for this thing. i know that i should not care about how fast i do it, just as long as i complete it. i know this, yet i am a clock watcher and i will push to make sure i keep up. i am obsessed with 1:30 pace for this swim. i don't know why this is so significant a number, but i keep it in the front of my mind. IF i can keep this pace i will finish in the 13hour range IF i don't swim too side to side. i would love to finish under 13 hours, but don't know if it is attainable. i certainly want to finish in less than 16 as i think that may be the upper end of my endurance. not really sure though because i've never gone swimming for 16 hours. 18 days and counting.
going to the coast to shoot a spot for their news this weekend. another marathon trip. leave baton rouge at 3 there from 5-7 eat with my parents. drive back to btr.
big week for my daugther paige's athletic career. she had a bike a thon for st. jude on friday. i told her in the morning that "it is not a competition, so just find out from the teacher who has done the most laps, and then do one more than them so you win." she is four. my wife was unstoked. it appears paige did not need to find out who did the most as she was 3 laps ahead of the rest of her group anyhow. woohoo! then on saturday she had her third soccer game. they do not keep score for these games, but my wife did and our team the Cougars, got beat 8-1. paige scored the only goal for her team. pride baby pride.

keepin the dream alive,
rocketboy

honesty

that lady would swim better if she would slow down, i wonder how long that gatorade bottle has ben there, 19,18,17,16, 4 25's easy, 1 fast, 1,2,3, breath, 17, 18, flip, "so much for my happy ending", stretch out, let your left hand extend, pick up your tempo but don't bounce, head down, am i done yet, i am going to make this swim, i wonder if my mouth will get eaten up by the salt water, hey there goes helen, i am the first one in the pool, i am th last one in the pool, i feel good today, 1:19 flipturn, 3 more hundreds, i wonder if anyone at practice wants to come swim half of this set with me, only 5600 left, i got this, no problems, i wonder if i can hold this pace, "t-t-tonight!". this is just 30 seconds of what my brain feels like each swim. i spend a lot of time by myself in the pool. mandy and shelly would swim with me from time to time, but other than that, no one on the masters team can hold the pace or distances. conversely, i cannot swim with the crawfish kids because i cant hold the pace. so i swim alone, a lot of the time i am the only one in the building. i grew up an only child so it does not bother me too much. you can't talk during it anyhow. swimming to me is not a social activity. a lot of time to think.
this past week i went to the Coast for a marathon trip. i drove into Biloxi, saw my parents then i was off to do a presentationbefore the Biloxi Rotary. it was very productive. i then jumped in my car and went to Bay St. Louis for the funeral for both of best friend from high schools parents. it was surreal. you don't expect both of someones parents to die and without getting into it, the circumstances surrounding this were bad. i then left and drove back to Biloxi to pick up my dad from a small surgical procedure he had on his back. he is fine (as fine as having a needle digging around your sciatic nerve can be, ughhh). i then drove him home to Gulfport and then back to Baton Rouge. it was during the wait in line for the funeral and in the days since that the idea of honesty has kept returning to my mind.

everyone is from somewhere. i had a slightly different upbringing in that i moved to Mississippi, the deep south, from Michigan, the upper midwest, when i was just about to turn 7. it was a bit of culture shock, i must say. yes ma'm, no ma'm, yessir, nosir, i was not familiar with any of this. but i was 7 so i adapted easily and moved on. i made pretty good friends and then after 6th grade, swithched schoold to attend St. Stanislaus College. it is an all boys school in Bay St. Louis and it was a big change. i basically had to make all new friends, and kind of start over. a lot of the kids at the school were either from the Bay and had grown up together, or were "sent" there for various reasons, ranging from getting an education to mostly discipline problems. it was a change, but really 12 year olds can adapt pretty easily too. my best friend from 7th-12th grade and then roomate for my first 1.5 years of college was Scott the guy mentioned above. he transferred to Ole Miss after his stint at LSU and we didn't keep nearly as in touch. my mom called and told me the horrible news about his family the friday it happend. i packed up tuesday and went to the Coast. i arrived at the chucrch and school i have only been to two or three times since 1989. i recall stopping by with a friend from LSU who also went there and we were passing through. i then was in Scott's wedding in May of 1995. i was now entering the same church that i graduated from high school and Scott's wedding. now i was there for a funeral. i got in line outside the church and caught up with a friend Jeff, that i hadn't seen in 5 or so years (oh year, i went to my 15th reunion). as i was speaking to him it struck me that i had not spoken to hardly any of the guys from my school. in fact none of them except Scott every year or two. this is probably quite normal. what struck me was the realiztion that i have been trying to distance myself from the Coast fro 17 years, for no real apparent reason. i mean i swore i would never go back there to live work etc. i had no interest, so little that i didn't bother keeping in touch with hardly anyone still there. this hit me as very sad and unneccesary. i mean the Coast may not be NYNY, but it is (was) really nice. Very laid back, really nice people. i still can't figure out why i never wanted ot go back there, small town mentality i guess. we all run from something. i can't quite figure out what it is yet, but hope to. my friend Scott and i spoke today (3/7) and he kinda said the same thing. it must just be what people do. it sometimes just takes you being really honest with yourself to 1. realize that you probably didn't give someone, somthing or in this case somewhere, a chance, and 2. that you can change this with a minimal effort.

one reason i have not written in awhile is because i completely changed the concept and name of my restaurant. it has also been an eye opening experience. i will expound in my next post.

24 days till the swim.
rocketboy