Chicot Challenge 2019

I usually start writing about, talking about, and planning Chicot Challenge right after the first of the year. In Bruce Buffer's voice, "It's T I M E!!" It's time to think, time to train, time to plan, time to promote. This year's Challenge is set for June 1 and is titled Chicot Challenge VIII, The Comeback. After a year of pain, idleness, and despair, God has graciously granted me the ability to swim again. Last year, due to an injury (my right arm fell off in June of 2017), Wilson Carroll, Spence Carroll, and MJ Staples all graciously stepped up swam Chicot for me, for the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi, and for children and adults of Mississippi who have Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes. 

This year, I plan to swim a "one way," that is a swim from the Lake Chicot State Park boat ramp to Ditch Bayou. This is a twelve-mile journey, the same distance as last year's Chicot. I hope Wilson, Spence, and MJ swim also. They are welcome to swim as little or as much as they like. I hope Spence and Wilson, since they are Mississippians, promote their swims and raise some funds accordingly. Our fundraising was down last year, under $2,000. I hope it is up this time around and that we set a record. In 2017 we raised $4,000.

Training for me is going well. I have a partner at the gym, Trevor McLean, and Plate City is better than ever. This means I am lifting more weights and lifting more consistently than ever before. Does that help swimming? One person I follow on YouTube, Mark Bell, always ends his videos with this statement: "Strength is never a weakness." Not only that, but I now have daily access to an indoor pool. Consequently, I am in better shape in January than ever. Nevertheless, I plan to keep the swim at 12 miles instead of doing something really crazy. I still want to do a crazy swim, but that will be later, another occasion. Twelve miles is easier on the crew. In the past, I have always begun to feel guilty late in the swim because of what I was putting my friends through. They give up a day of their lives to take care of me while I do something I want to do. The one-way swim is about an eight to nine hour affair. That is a long day but not an overly long one. Last year, I enjoyed my whole time on the lake. I had rather have been in the water, but I enjoyed my time of the boat, and it was interesting to work the other side of a swim.

Please keep up with the Chicot Challenge. I will write often and post on this blog with links always posted to Facebook and Twitter. Pray for us, the crew and the swimmers. Pray for good weather, and please plan to donate. Once per year I ask people to give. Once. Every dollar donated to the DFM says in the State of Mississippi and helps educate Mississippians and advocate for diabetics. It also aides people with supplies and helps fund Kamp Kandu for kids with Type 1 Diabetes. Do more than give. Educate yourself on diabetes, lose some weight, eat a more healthy diet, and exercise.

Thank you.