It's all in your perspective...

I thought this comic strip this morning from "Pearls Before Swine" was a great illustration of how positive thinking can turn a potential problem, i.e., a fat bottom, into a positive attribute, i.e., a superpower. Kind of like a channel swimmer's perspective on the addition of adipose tissues. It's not fat, it's an internal wetsuit! (And yes, in some ways it is a superpower! Just ask any skinny athlete who enters his first open water swim and forgets to bring a wetsuit...)

Pearls Before Swine

March/April issue of NEM News

Beware the ides of march for they bring... the next issue of NEM News! Now online and at the printer, mailing ASAP. Check it out here.

Famous Frazz!

It's been far too long since I updated this blog (do I start EVERY blog post that way?) and there's no real reason other than being busy and ill. I had a crazy viral thing-- whatever it is that's going around-- that saw me miss six days of work and even more days of swimming. But it looks like I'm going to live after all, and I'm slowly returning to life.

One incredibly awesome thing that happened over the past couple weeks that I've been remiss in reporting here is my first turn as the inspiration of a comic strip.

Frazz

My friend and fellow swimmer, Jef Mallett, is the author of the recently released Trizophrenia: Inside the Minds of a Triathlete and the artist behind Frazz, a nationally syndicated comic strip about a triathlete janitor at Bryson Elementary School.

Jef has become a good friend of mine-- even though we've not had the opportunity to go for a swim together just yet-- as a result of a couple fortuitous events, and the association goes back well over a year.

It all started when my swimming friend Debbie handed me a comic strip clipped out of the newspaper in December of 2008 that, surprisingly enough, was all about Masters swimming. As the editor-in-chief of NEM News, the newsletter that goes out to all 1,600 members of the New England Masters Swim Club, I am forever looking for new content to include in the newsletter, and here was someone handing me this totally relevant and funny comic strip. I just had to know how this artist knew about Masters swimming and could I print the strip in the newsletter?

So, I did some digging and learned a little more about Jef. He's not only a cartoonist, but also a columnist for Inside Triathlon and Triathlete magazines, a contributing artist for Velo News, a former professional cyclist, a blogger, and the author and illustrator of a couple books. Sounded like an interesting fellow. So I wondered if maybe, just maybe, he'd agree to an interview with me for the newsletter.

I began looking for an e-mail address for him. I looked high and low online and just couldn't seem to turn up anything that looked like a real e-mail address. I sighed heavily and looked at the strip again thinking I'd never be able to get in touch with him, and well, why would someone like that want to talk to me anyway? And that's when I noticed in the corner of one of the panels of the strip, in the tiniest of fonts, a Yahoo e-mail address. Bingo!

So I shot him an e-mail asking whether we could run the strip, and by the way, would you want to give me a few minutes of your time to talk about your swimming? I figured it was a long shot, but the answer's always "no" if you don't ask, right?

Well, lo and behold a couple weeks later I got a lovely e-mail back from Jef saying that he would be delighted to talk to me. Seriously? It's ON! We exchanged a few more messages and set up a time. And the interview knocked my socks off-- Jef was warm, funny, forthcoming, humble, and well, just a dream interview. Before I knew it, we'd been on the phone for almost an hour talking about all the neat athletic things we've done and some of the things we hope to do. Kindred spirits for sure.

During the course of the interview, I mentioned my quest to become a Triple Crown swimmer, and I guess I made an impression. I think it's so funny that both Jef and I were, apparently, somewhat starstruck by the whole thing. No wonder it was a great interview!

So then, I wrote up the article for NEM News and decided to pitch it to SWIMMER magazine, the USMS national publication of Masters swimming. Think NEM News with a lot more content and much wider reach. (Again thinking, the answer is always "no" if you don't ask-- I like that motto!) And, well, much to my surprise they loved the piece and wanted to run with it. I ended up writing two feature stories for them in 2009, and may end up writing more for future issues. Wow! Who knew a single e-mail might launch the beginnings of a real freelance career?

Jef and I have kept in touch ever since and he's been a great support in my quest to swim the Channel and whatever it is that comes next (more info on that in a future post). When he released his book in November, it wasn't long before a comp copy showed up on the doorstep, and a review in NEM News soon followed. (Favorable, of course... not because I like the guy, but simply because it was a great book that I think really hit on what it is to be an endurance athlete regardless of the sport(s) in which we compete. He made my job as reviewer easy.)

Not long after I finished his great book, Jef mentioned something about a certain comic strip that I should keep an eye out for on February 26. As it turned out, I was home sick from work that day and our Internet was down, so it was a couple days before I finally got to see the strip and Jef's blog post about it, but it was well worth the wait!

It's an incredible feeling to have anyone, especially someone with a national audience, reference you in a comic strip and a blog, especially when it's unexpected and, well, just plain flattering. Cool and awesome hardly begin to define it, and well, I'm actually left a little speechless by it all.

If that weren't unbelievable enough, then another package turns up on my doorstep yesterday--addressed from "Bryson Elementary Aquatics" to "Triple Crown Swimming." Too funny. Wouldn't you know it, Jef had been kind enough to sign the original and ship it out to me. Um, yeah... speechless. I guess it just goes to show you that there are some wonderful people out there, and this whole swimming thing is really about the journey and who you meet along the way.

Thanks, Jef, for everything-- the art, the letters, the epic friendship, and just plain "getting it!"