In May of 2019, I went to Pontevedra, Spain, to participate in an age group World Championship, that consisted of a mile swim, and a 70 mile bike ride. The event is called the International Triathlon Union(ITU) world championships. During the briefing, which consisted of probably 800 athletes from all over the world, Rob and I happened to sit next to each other. We discovered that we were both from the San Diego area. We both placed 3rd in our age groups in the event.
On return to San Diego, we began enjoying spending time together swimming, biking, and running. We were both widowed, and had been in long term, happy marriages. We also had many interests in common, such as reading, music, art, and theater, as well as our love of sports, and ocean swimming.
We just fell in love, and decided to get married in September of 2020. As the pandemic was raging at that time, we decided to have a small, outdoor, Hawaiian themed wedding. I had worked on Maui, Hawaii, for 4 years, 6 months at a time, and felt that it was the perfect theme for our outdoor wedding. The pastor that married us had been associate pastor of my church for 13 years. It was her last rite at our church before moving to be the head pastor at another Lutheran church.
Rob is a retired English professor, and I will probably be soon retiring from medicine. Interestingly, his father and father-in-law were both physicians, and my mother was a journalism major. I guess we never know how we end up in our professions!!
Right now we are enjoying our swimming, biking, and running, as well as attending some fabulous shows, such as Hamilton in LA, and Hair in San Diego. We also visited the Getty Museum last week. We will be going to the Netherlands in 2 weeks, for another ITU world aquabike age group championship that will be a 2.4 mile swim, and a 112 mile bike ride. The event itself will actually take place on our wedding anniversary.
Rob had qualified for the Kona, Hawaii Ironman Triathlon World Championships in October, but that has been cancelled amid the pandemic, and moved to February 2022. We will look forward to that next year.
My four children live in the San Diego area, and we enjoy spending time with them as well. I feel very blessed in my life, and cannot wait to catch up with my LHHS friends at the reunion.
