Dan Head

Happy Friday, friends!

Just wanted to take a minute to give some final thoughts on this year’s Swim Across the Sound.

When all was said and done, Team RBG raised over $9000 to help BEAT CANCER. We also finished an outstanding 4th out of 17 teams in the Classic (No Wetsuit) division. Considering that we are all mostly in our mid-to-late 40s or early 50s, we all thought that was pretty darned good.

Speaking personally, I enjoyed this year’s Swim as much as I’ve enjoyed anything swim-related in quite a long time. We had a great team, an outstanding boat captain in the Housatonic Boat Club’s Chris Reinhardt, and a Hell of a lot of fun out there by any possible measure.

Thank you all for your support. We legitimately could not do this without you!

Until next time,

Dan

Friends,

Team RBG had a banner week this week, totalling over $8,000 in donations from our incredibly generous friends and families. I feel truly blessed and humbled by your outpouring of support this past week, and indeed, throughout this whole season. The Swim changes lives, especially mine. Watching my own friends and collegues come together to support my cause has been a life-changing, life-affirming event in an increasingly hostile and polarizing world.

We all need to feel loved, and we all need to feel needed. I felt both in abundance this week. That's not down to MY efforts. That's because of all of YOU.

Thank you.

I love all of you very much.

For those of you who live anything like locally, I strongly encourage you to come out and watch us finish Saturday afternoon at Captain's Cove in Bridgeport. Help us celebrate our team and the work that the Swim does in our local community. This hasn't been the easiest year to organize Team RBG, but it might have been the most rewarding.

If you're wondering, I've swum more this training cycle than I have at any time since the Glory Days ended way back in 1995. I've had every kind of day you can imagine in the pool over the past few months, including a few where I actually felt like my old self. At times, I've even found myself thinking, "Hey. Y'know, I'm actually good at this."

Part of me can't help wishing that you all could have seen me back in the the Old Days, when I really WAS good. Mostly, though, I'm grateful just to be happy and healthy enough to do this, and to have the support of friends and family pushing me along.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

--Dan

Friends,

Team RBG finished the month of June strong! After some uncertainty about who was gonna be able to make it out to the Swim this season, Stephen and Dave both signed on again, and Kar joined our team for his first Swim. That brought us to five swimmers for the coming event and -- God willing -- a strong finish.

I'm excited because Dave is just coming off a really good showing in the 500 Free at Master's Nationals, and given that he lives in Indiana, it was never a given that he'd be able to make it out this year. As noted, we've also brought on Kar this season. Kar swam at Iona and today works as a lawyer in Brooklyn. He's our first civilian!

Speaking personally, I've been in the water as much this season as at any time since finishing my formal swimming career way back in 1995. I've slowly ramped up to something like 15K yards/week over the last two months with a goal of hitting 20K yards by mid-July. But we'll see. That's a lot of swimming!

I hope you all have a good 4th of July. Thank you very for your contributions to our team and to the effort to BEAT CANCER!

--Dan

Hey friends. Just wanted to give you a quick update on the Swim Across the Sound.

We had a big week this week!

The headline event saw me get interviewed by Channel 8 News to talk about the Swim Across the Sound and Team RBG. They shot about 10 minutes of me in the water swimming, and then we did an interview. Incredible experience. Very flattering to be treated like a Real Swimmer at age 50. I hardly feel like that most days, but the good days are still pretty darned good.

Big training week this week. Swam four times, putting in just over 12,000 yards total, highlighted by a long swim of 4200 yards Saturday morning. I didn't really feel like I had my best stuff Saturday, but I legged it out and tried to keep it long. Felt very much like one of those late-day legs during the actual Swim itself. If you know, you know...

If you're wondering, I also lifted Tuesday and Sunday, so today I feel a little like someone ran me over with a truck. Felt decent on the bike riding into the office this morning, so that was something, but now that I'm sitting at my desk, it's mush all around.

Final note: Team RBG formally added a new member this week. Please welcome Elise Holtan! Elise is another former Army Swimmer, so fingers crossed that we'll actually be Army-heavy for the first time ever this year.

That's all I've got. Talk to you again in a few weeks.