Sometimes our children surprise us… Wait a moment… that is a massive understatement… Who am I kidding? Our children surprise us all the time.
I am thinking about my son as I write this… he is always full of surprises. He has always been active… the fit one… a good all rounder when it comes to sport… great swimmer, brilliant skier, good at football… excellent at water polo, competent at basket ball… you know what I mean… the boy who always makes the team and plays well. He is not like me at all in this way. I hate to admit this but when I was younger I avoided sport… I did everything in my power to resist movement and the thought of a ‘team’ was my idea of hell. Swimming was an important part of growing up in Australia… racing up and down an Olympic sized pool wearing a Speedo bathing costume, plastic cap and pinching goggles was the stuff of nightmares for me… I was the girl who hid behind the tennis court when gym class was on… I was never the girl receiving the ribbons and trophies on sports day. Nothing has changed… I still struggle with exercise and if keeping fit weren’t such an important part of life… I would still be in hiding…
What a wonder and altogether unexpected pleasure it is to have a son who is so sporty and committed. Paddy has decided to compete in an iron man triathlon. Even writing that word makes me breath hard and my heart palpitate. Can you imagine this…. A 4 kilometre swim in the sea followed by a 180 kilometre bike ride up and around the hills behind Nice and then a full marathon straight afterwards… that would be 26 miles or 42 kilometres of running….The race is in Nice in the south of France, so it will be pretty, but it’s June so it will be hot. It will take about 14 hours non stop to get to the finish… I can’t even begin to imagine the physical pain he will be enduring as he competes for the finish line.
Why is he doing this? I ask him nearly every day if he is sure this is a good idea… that’s the mother talking… Of course, I am worried… physically it is an almighty challenge and as fit as he is and as hard as he is training… things can go wrong. I suggested a lesser triathlon… something shorter, more manageable… That was answered with a look that suggested that I had missed the point. Paddy is committed to finishing as a personal challenge and also to raise money for Cancer Research. One of his great friends is competing with him and he lost his mother to cancer not so long ago, so they are both determined to make a difference in a way that they can.
I admire my boy greatly… he has been working hard towards the 24th June for months and months. To say that I am proud would be an understatement… Watching your children mature and strive for greatness is both difficult and joyous. We must let them go, encourage them in their adventures, let them run their own races… It is the hardest part of being a parent… I will be in Nice, on the sidelines… heart in my mouth all day… I know that already… I will be counting down the hours for the finish and I will be hoping that he makes it without too much physical injury… but I will be thrilled and elated when he crosses that finish line… Who would have thought I would have an athlete for a son… life plays strange games.
I would love it if you would support him… I believe the more people he knows who are encouraging him, the faster he will fly…
Click HERE for details
and thank you… xv
;)
Dear Vicki,
I have left my donation but I have come out as annonymous !! My message wouldn’t go through but I said something like:
Hi Pady,
I am one of your mum’s blogging pals .. delighted to donate..think of all the aprés iron man that will be waiting !!Good luck.
What a tremendous challenge for him Vicki. I know just how you will be feeling but, he will be great. Lots of love to him. XXXX
You are such a darling Jackie… He is so thrilled… Thank you so much… xv
What a fantastic effort on Paddy’s part, such a worthwhile cause too. I wish you could be as relaxed as that gorgeous illustration on the day!
xoxo
Oh my goodness–I feel for you! I am worried for Paddy and I am not even his Mom!! How amazing. Not only is a triathlon but an Iron Man. Showing more of the Archer temerity and determination. And for such a good cause. Would you mind giving us all a little reminder the day before so we can send some good energy his way? Call me wacky if you will but I firmy believe that it helps!
And thank goodness I am not the only one that was hiding during Physical Education or feigning a headache–anything not to participate! That is why I like yoga now. It is just me on the mat.
I would be happy to support him and you should be so incredibly proud Vicki. You have obviously raised a special young man who is strong and able both physically and mentally…love the drive and ambition behind his quest. I have a son who is very similiar, extremely driven…and its an admirable trait to say the least! Best of luck to him.
Thank you Tina… I am very proud… this is such a challenge… I know he will make it but sons… how they make us fret! xv
As a parent we only want our children to be happy and healthy and I would say your son has both!
Just imagine how happy he will be when he crosses that finish line! I know you shall be there cheering him on beaming with your beautiful smile….and camera.
Capture the glory! Will you have a laurel wreath and a trophy for him?
pve
I should do! xv
I am taking a trip to Provence with my family including my two boys, ages 8 and 6. Your blog truly inspires me every day. I am a true Francophile and also a French teacher in the states. We are going to visit our good friends who have just located to Aix. I would love any ideas you have about things kids would like in this area.
Best luck to Paddy … my neice just became an Iron Man in Cozumel, and we all fretted as well. She is beautiful, charming, and was captain of her high school soccer, basketball, baseball teams. Full soccer scholarship to SMU, several knee repairs aka ACL .. but can’t stop testing herself. After a great finish, she quickly got a tiny Iron Man tatto (this is just not her) … on her foot.
I suspect your boy will finish terrific as well. We’ll all be waiting to hear.
Best Vicki
My family is full of marathon and triathalon members. On both sides! I trained for years in professional ballet but was never involved in ‘sports’. When we are at my husband’s family, I feel like each meal is punctuated by 10 mile walks to dashes off to the pool to swim laps. My poor son…has no athletic interest all…except for tennis. He never watches sports, has to be prodded to workout, and just that computer! But, I love him dearly nonetheless, but isn’t it interesting how are children can be so different!
Hi Vicki, You seem to have found voice to my feelings of being a mother of young adult children. It is such a different journey than parenting them while they are still under our wings. How hard it is to support their endeavors when we see dangers surrounding them–yet for their life’s journey it is imperative that we do so.
I’m also one who hid from PE–and I have three jocks!! And I am so proud of them. Still your mother’s heart knowing that all is well and just as it should be. Sending love, Mary
What a wonderful young man, and I know your pride and your fear. As a Mum it’s heart in mouth time, yet you let them fly. Such a great experience for all of you to share, ciao lisa
Vicki-
Your son is a very special person, and I know the thou are so proud of him for accomplishing these goals.
It is wonderful to see your children exceeding in so many ways.
I will keep your son in my prayers as he shoots for the stars. This will be some more feat to tackle.
Thank you for sharing this inspirations. And I was complaining about walking this morning.
Happy Tuesday.
Teresa
xoxo
How proud you must be! Such dedication and determination for such a great cause. I’m sure his feet will fly! Wishing him the best of luck, and congratulations to you for raising such a good one.
Good luck, Paddy. My mom always says “the older the children, the older & bigger the worrying is”. I believe her now that I have young adults. Ahh! the joys of motherhood. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
i will pray that paddy is a hero that day… and in his sweet mother’s eyes… he will always be.
congratulations on raising such a brilliant son dear friend… nothing in the world is more special than family.
xx
Dear Vicki,
Congratulations….obviously, you’ve good reason to be proud of your son.
I’m actually going to be in Nice for a week or so around 28 June. The most interesting aspect of this trip is that I’ll finally meet Herve’s aunt. Don’t ask me on which “side”; Herve’s grandparents were two sisters married to two brothers, and his parents’ siblings (his father’s sister and his mother’s brother) are married (Herve’s parents met at their older siblings’ wedding). So, everybody seems to be double-first cousins. Just to complicate things?…Herve’s favorite first cousin is married to the son of his godmother/mother’s best-friend.
The final fact is that, over eight years, I’ve learned the futility of asking how any one person is related to Herve. Generally speaking, they’re related in two directions at once. Obviously, Herve has innovatively spearheaded the current generation’s campaign NOT to marry girls who are already in the family.
That tangent aside? (and this IS interesting)…..Herve’s Aunt Yvonne (not to be confused with Great-Aunt Yvonne or the two cousins named “Yvonne”) had, for decades, a fascinating job….of the sort which, I expect, only the French provide.
She was the chief Degas copyist for the Louvre, which is to say that she was resonsible for painting exact copies of every Degas held by the Louvre. She actually STUDIED, at the government’s expense, to be a perfect copyist of Degas’s drawings and pastels (someone else did the oil paintings).
Apparently, the Louvre maintains (or at least it traditionally did so) a stable of such copyists….one for each major artist (which would entail rather a large number of professional copyists) so that, whenever a particular piece goes traveling, an indistinguishable copy of the painting goes up in its place.
Additionally, Aunt Yvonne (who’s got to be in her mid-seventies by now) was also the Director of the Louvre’s Official Catalogue of Ingres’s work. I didn’t know such a thing existed, but one does…once again, for every major artist whose work is held in the Louvre. If she says yours is not an authentic Ingres, then you are screwed unto The Very Lord, no matter how much you paid for it or what your grandmother wrote in her will. Apparently, she worked on this official catalogue for 4 or so decades…..cataloguing every recognized painting, drawing, or marginalia by Ingres. Museums, auction houses, and private collectors paid her, for decades, to pass her strict judgement on every supposed Ingres that came on the market, and she retired to Nice on the proceeds a decade ago.
All in all, her career (which, I gather, she pretty much made-up on her own initiative) fascinates me. For better or worse, though, Herve’s told me “She’s like you….she “DOES” art all the time, so she never TALKS about it.” I told him that she (in contrast to most of the “art world” folks I have to know) sounded refreshing to me.
In any case, off we go to Nice (which is, among other pleasures, an efficent way of avoiding the 500 or so moving-boxes of stuff that’ll have just been transported from our two houses here into the single “new” house 15 miles away).
P.S. Predictably enough, everyone keeps asking what he/she can get us for a housewarming present. I’ve told every single one of them that, if they want to do something nice for us, then come to this current house of mine and please take AWAY something.
Level Best as Ever and, once again, congratulations to Paddy.
David Terry
I am beyond impressed Vicki, we have a close friend who ‘is’ an ironman, and I know what these triathlons involve. How fantastic to be able to get sponsorship for such a good cause. Congratulations to you and your husband, you must be incredibly proud, and congratulations to Paddy for such a fine effort. I am happy to make a donation and support his hard work
sharon
xx
Thank you Sharon… That is so lovely of you and so appreciated… Of course, after I have put this post up today he is slightly worried… he said, ‘I better make it now’! xv
Dear Vicki. You had me at “Nice.”
Thank you for your visit chez French Girl today. You must be one proud Mom. Paddy sounds like a wonderful young man. I have just made a modest contribution to his great cause and hope it went through. As luck would have it, I will be staying in Nice’s Old Town June 22-29 (a yearly tradition until I can find a small pied-à-terre there…) You will be busy, and, I imagine, spending time with relatives and friends, but if you have some time, I would love to meet you in person. I might even get to watch Paddy’s big event on 6/24. Veronique (French Girl in Seattle)
I do hope so Veronique… it would be wonderful to meet… I will be the anxious one at the finish line!! Thank you so much for your encouragement… xv
Wonderful. I will be in touch via email once I land in France…
Vicki – your post made my heart skip a beat (I have two sons). All the best to you and Paddy!
I wish him the best! It takes a special person to tackle that.
Thanks for your visit!
Hi Vicki – I have three sports mad sons and Aussie Rules dominates this house every weekend with 5 games played between them! And I love it!
Congrats to Paddy. It is an extremely (in more ways than one!) wonderful effort on his part and for a great cause. I know why you are so very proud.
ps I’ve donated!
Good luck Paddy. What a wonderful son you have Vicki. Best wishes to you both and enjoy the after race ,should be gorgeous
) Millie
I have commented via Twitter, but wanted to say again how wonderful I think Paddy is. My sister is battling brain cancer for the 2nd time, so I know the importance of funds to find a cure for this dreadful disease. I have made a contribution (hopefully it has gone through), as it doesn’t matter which country finds the cure, just that a cure is found. Enjoy your son’s success, (as I know you do), as it will be a success for him regardless of his place in the race.
VIcki how proud you and all your family must be of Paddy. Congratulations on such a fine young man it will be a gruelling triathlon. I can imagine what you will be
like at the event because I know what I would be like.They will always be our babies no matter how old that they are.Wishing Paddy the very best of luck .
I will be happy to support Paddy I will organize in next couple of days a small donation.Try not to worry too much.x Trish
YOU look STUNNING in your coat on the bench awaiting the news!How proud you must be!I hope a photo will follow of the Son and his MUM!
xoxo
honestly….
i can not imagine.
i am sitting in font of my computer saying to myself;
{before i read this post}
” i really need to go out and walk…. ”
but i whine;
“it’s so humid….”
paddy is made of all the right stuff apparently,
and we know where that comes from….!!!
xx
Wow what a great task I am sure he will be amazing & what a great course I will give a great big cyber cheere for him. My daughter is doing a 24 hr walk this weekend for breat cancer with her school so I will be supporting her through the evening she has volunteered me the tast of supplying them with food snacks throught out there time so I need to start getting organised for that.
Hope it all goes well & he get’s through it ok COME ON PADDY YOU CAN DO IT KEEP GOING!!! WWOOOOO.
Hey Vicki
Congratulation to your gorgeous son for doing what he is doing and for such a wonderful charity….Just went and donated a little, wish it could have been more…My beautiful 6 ft 2 in little 15 year old son did relay for life here last weekend and walked basically 18 hours straight ( a couple of little stops to refuel)…. Aren’t we lucky mamas to have such lovely boys…. Take care c xoxox
Patrick has taken such a mighty challenge on with delightful enthusiasm Vicki – good on him. I know he’ll fly over that finish line with the good wishes of his family & all the French Essence fans carrying him along. Son #3 decided to ‘modify’ his party ways with a half-marathon down on the Great Ocean Road. We were surprised & very happy to that he managed to get through it, but he reckoned it took him 2 days to get off the sofa without having to enlist 4 of his mates to lift him!
Millie xx