September 9, 1995,
The Air Force sent me to Dayton, Ohio for a week Intelligence Analyst schooling, but the morning before I left, I ran a race, the Hampton Roads Bay Days 10K run. It was the first running I'd done all year, and it took me 40 minutes 2 seconds. I struggled a lot. I hadn't been able to break a six-minute mile for a 10K run since 1992. Those six months in 1993 I spent swimming really messed up my running. Besides that, there was a heavy mist which made me look like I was really sweating. I don't even know where I placed. I was coloring my hair blonde by then, but, as you can see in this picture, it goes to a yucky orange after a while.
When I got home I received a call from my mother. My father had been diagnosed with cancer for the third time. He had it in the colon and the lungs and it was terminal. The doctor wouldn't even tell him how long he had to live. I'd been secretly expecting that call since early 1993, knowing that after he'd had cancer twice, it was likely in his system. It was only a matter of time before it resurfaced to take my dad. I got on my plane and flew away to Dayton...
