Birthday Pulling Power

Birthdays are important.  Well this one certainly was...

Today Charlotte celebrated her 34th birthday.  

Yes, 34.  Somewhere in-between 30 and 35.  

Thing is, life counts.  Years count.  Days count.  Moments count.  When you've been up against the alien.  And that's exactly what Charlotte's been busy doing.  Fighting the horrid alien that came into her life (and ours) at the beginning of 2012.  

The last month has been hectic.  I hadn't realised exactly how hectic until it dawned on me that I hadn't seen my bestie in a few weeks.  This didn't feel OK.  Particularly when I was later to discover that Charlotte had had a scare.  A nasty scare.  In the shower at school.

Thankfully, the angels at Kings did all they could to find out precisely what had swelled up.  To discover that it was not, in fact, the alien returning, or sending a cousin.  Surgery has side effects.  The body doesn't appreciate being lacerated at regular intervals.  Soft tissue particularly doesn't enjoy it.  And this was Charlotte's body putting up a little resistance.

It's been a helluva term.  She started back at school having just got through surgery and before half term had commenced, was back under the bright lights of yet another operating theatre.  

Which is why I walked onto the gym floor towards the indoor rowers with great gusto this evening...

It was Charlotte that got me into a boat in 2000.  And she stayed in boats far longer than I did.  Her stamina exceeded mine, and her skill blew my own out of the water.  Never let it be forgotten that, pre-cycling, Charlotte was a rower, and later a sculler of world class standard.

So inspired have I been by this woman that I decided to push myself through 2k, just for the sheer hell of it.  F*** you Cancer.  F*** you Alien.  My mantra got me through with a some half decent splits, for someone who has not pulled so much as 500m in several years.  

I was delighted to glance across at the blokes going for it either side of me, huffing and puffing, as I sailed along comfortably at 01:47 for the last 200m.  Little did they know that I was doing it in honour of my dearest friend and birthday girl.  

Whatever your feelings on body art PLEASE watch this moving story...