I was recently sharing with a friend my recipe for dealing with the depression that diabetes and life in general brings. The big 5 ingredients in my Happy Cocktail are exercise, music, sunshine, people (good people you actually like), and future plans. You force those upon yourself and it will drag you out of the blues into Happyville. As we round the corner out of winter and into spring (although it is not much of a winter here in San Diego and I know spring seems a long way off for many in the US and worldwide) I am working hard to throw off my yearly winter blues. I've been surrounding myself with happy music, through a new free Sirius Satellite subscription continuously tuned to Radio Margaritaville. I have been reading outside int he sunshine during my lunch break. And I have been going out of my way to build the relationships around me. But I needed to find a place for the last two ingredients in my Happy Cocktail; exercise and future plans. And for me that usually means it's time to find a new adventure to train for. So it was time to dig out my Someday-I-Will list. It's too soon to conquer the WESTPAC, a 8-19 day sailing race from Long Beach, CA to Honolulu, HI. I can't be away form my kiddos for that long, yet. A multi-day Stand Up Paddle exploration of the Virgin Islands may be a bit beyond my experience level at this point (I've only Sup'ed a handful of times). Which only leaves the Swim Around Key West.
The 37th Annual Swim Around Key West is a 12.5 mile swim around the island of Key West in Florida on June 28, 2014. twelve and a half miles is too much for me to take on this June, but they do have a three person relay division. I can definitely do a 4.2 mile swim with six months of training. I've done solo adventures before, I want to do something with a team this time. Three swimmers, a boat captain, maybe even a photographer/media captain to share our journey along the way. This race will give me a Future Plan and a purpose to Exercise. For the next six months I can look forward to a trip to the tropics and a five day vacation with some amazing people. And it provides me with the accountability to get to the pool and the weight room and on the road for a quick run to the beach. Now the question is, will this adventure be those same ingredients for you? I am looking for people to join the team. Maybe even put two teams together. If this could be the two ingredients you need in your Happy Cocktail, you can find out more here. You can also fill out the INTEREST FORM to let me know you're interested.