Humbling

.

I was congratulating myself for my stamina for managing to walk from Palm 

Beach over the headland to Whale Beach during my photo session of the big 

Palmie to Whale Ocean Swim (that is, from the start at Palm Beach, to the finish 

at Whale Beach - a full post coming up, after I've gone through about a thousand 

images that I took today!). However, ignoring the fact that 1700 people actually 

swam the longer marathon distance (2.5 kilometers, just under 2 miles) in the 

rough conditions out there on the ocean, I was totally humbled at Whale seeing a 

man with one leg appearing from the surf. Just before I had seen a young girl 

carrying a pair of crutches through the crowd, in the back of my mind I found it a 

bit puzzling, but I got the explanation very quickly: she handed them over to her 

dad (or granddad?), who used them to make a dash to the finishing line.

The last photo here is an example of another kind of hero, an elderly gentleman 

being greeted by his granddaughter (great granddaughter?) at the finish, for
them to finish the marathon together. I heard them interviewing another elder
later on (could have been the same person) who was all but 83 years old, having
just finished the demanding swim!