Just Breathe

It’s Tuesday morning, my alarm clock startles me awake at 6am…time to hit the gym for a few miles before work. I watch the news most mornings, in hopes of keeping up to speed with the world’s current events. Usually the news stories consist of violence, crime, traffic and bizarre accidents. But this morning’s story was different, one of motivation, one of passion.

You see, on Monday morning, a 7 year-old Arizona boy became one of the youngest ever to swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco’s Aquatic Park. His name is Braxton Bilbrey, a second-grader from Glendale, Arizona. He began his swim shortly after 7 a.m. starting the estimated 1.4-mile swim with his coach and two other adults. He was quoted as saying, “It kind of seems like a long way, but I’m not totally worried, it’s not that far.”

Alcatraz, once a notorious federal prison that housed some of the nation’s infamous criminals, including Chicago mobster Al Capone, is now a tourist site that attracts about 1 million visitors a year. It also draws a fair share of swimmers who attempt the crossing as part of the annual Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.

The second-grader got the idea when he saw a magazine story about a 9-year-old boy who made the swim. Johnny Wilson, a fourth grader from Hillsborough completed the swim in 53-degree waters last October in under two hours.

So the next time you head out the door for that long run just think of young Braxton and say to yourself saying, “It kind of seems like a long way, but I’m not totally worried, it’s not that far.”
Amazing…just amazing. You go Braxton!