What's the coolest thing you've ever done outside of triathlon? (Page 5)

Started college at 16, that was pretty cool.  Day 1: How to make a kegerator.  

Accepted to MIT for Ph.D (economics)...only an economist would think this is cool.  

Backcountry Snowboarding

Won state mountain bike time trial series

Been published few times. 

You are now one of my heros.... When was this!?  Michael was/is one of my favorite drivers during the CART years

There are a lot of things I've done that looking back I say to myself "How did I do THAT?" - 

like going from a C+ high school student who rarely if ever did homework to getting a 4.0 my freshman year in college, with a tightly organized and self-imposed schedule (maintaining enough discipline to graduate Summa Cum Laude from the college honors program and get into med school)

(seriously, if I met my adolescent self, I would not believe it would be realistic to be saying "I am going to be a doctor)

or like having my first daughter when we were in the middle of medical school, and our second in our residency - times when we were on call as often as every 3rd or 4th night (when I meet med students now, they seem so YOUNG - and even my oldest has said with some degree of horror "If I was following the life you and mom had, I would already be married and pregnant by now!")

There are a number of people here describing how their parents took them to cool experiences, but I had the opposite - when my oldest went to Nepal for a study abroad semester (after studying Nepali for several years), I joined her for a month of travel in Bangkok, Nepal, and Tibet. I don't know what was cooler - going to exotic locales, or spending time travelling with my daughter as a travel companion and not as a parent/child relationship!

Having kids - probably the most mundane thing, but the best life experience!

Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

Earning my chemical engineering degree - there were many days I did not think it was going to happen.

Incidentally, more than 10 years ago, DH and I honeymooned in Hawaii in late September. We were on the big island and couldn't get over all the athletes everywhere. We had no clue at the time that the Ironman world championships were less than a week away! We have a photo of DH standing under the commemmorative sign on Ali'i Drive. Little did I know how sucked into the sport I would be just a few years later!

AWESOME - the homebirth and BFing TriMama - so cool in my book : )

So cool, as that has a special place in my heart as my Husband of 10 years gave me my very own "Hope" Diamond when he proposed to me in front of the Hope Diamond in DC 

Hmmm.

The ones I can talk about? It probably boils down to racing on all seven continents, including Antarctica.

I do remember one incident that has always stuck out in my mind:

1999 Marathon des Sables, a 152-mile running race in the Sahara. There is one stage that is 52 miles non-stop. It crosses Erg Chebi, the largest dune system on earth, so vast it is visible from space.

It is black out in the Sahara at night. No moon that night. Pitch black. I'm running, well, sort of running, through the cool desert night when I nearly collide with a man on a huge camel. He is dressed in black robes and shemagh, face completely covered. It is absolutely terrifying. A desert bandit, like Laurence of Arabia. I am clearly dead- will disappear without a trace, throat slit, held hostage, head sawed off...

Two words come from under his shemagh: "Bon courage". Totally amped on adreneline I keep going through the night.

I have no idea where the nomad came from, where he was going to. No other athlete encountered him. He appeared- and disappeared into the black African night the way bandits and heroes have in the stories I read since I could read. But this was real.

It was incredible. I still remember it so vividly I can smell the camel. Incredible.

for the win

I know...first post...but long time lurker..

This thread is amazing and wanted to add mine:

Breastfed my youngest daughter. A miracle of adoption.

YEAH THAT!!!

(Except major props also to the mom who managed to breastfeed her adopted child--awesome!!)

This thread is awesome.  There are some amazing people on here, though I'd especially like to hear some of Tom's stories he can't talk about.

Don't know if it's cool, but the most amazing thing for me is marrying my wife and raising three boys, the youngest having Down syndrome and having had open heart surgery. Now HE'S got determination most of us can't even imagine approaching.

I've been filmed by Warren Miller doing some silly things on skis near Arapahoe Basin, though it didn't make a movie.

In college I saved a girl from likely rape on a remote trail.  The worst part was I was a little drunk and the two guys beat me up pretty good, and between the booze and blood on me, and the petrified girl, it took a few hours before the police had the whole story straight that it wasn't me doing the attacking.

Good on you! My adopted brother (aged 42) has spent years going through the process of tracking down his birth mother; he has met up with the half sister that he never knew he had, and they're still trying to persuade the mother to get up the courage to meet him. For the adopted child meeting a birth parent can be so very important.

Not a small thing.

Yay!!!! Welcome to BT!!!

When my daughter was just born and I'd hear her cry I felt like every cell in my body was straining to attend to that little creature

The coolest thing by far is having my 2 beautiful miracle daughters. I think of my 6 fresh IVF's as my introduction to endurance training! 

My husband and I (pre-kids) stayed in New Zealand for a month and for a week of that we sailed around the small islands in the north and camped in the boat, what a fun time that was.

Solo backpacking trip for the weekend in Yellowstone. Scared the crap out of this New Yorker, Mama Sow and cub just ahead from the humongous/cub paw prints and steaming piles of you know what..can't believe I didn't just bail then but I wanted to get to the beautiful "boiling river" I kept hearing about.

Patsy

1. Giving birth to our daughter (now 16 months) and now raising her everyday

2. Having and meeting him a totally supportive common law hubby.

3. Fixing my then box car (well stopped it from getting worse, and made it drivable) on the side of a rural road when it was minus  10 or so and snowing. by putting snow in the radiator.

Yeah I have nothings like the mentioned items. You guys are amazing

Having the courage to walk up to a complete stranger after Organic Chemistry class to ask her out. She said no... but we've been married ten years now and have 3 beautiful, intelligent daughters (they're just like mom).

Also threw a front 2 and 1/2 sommersault pike off a 35 foot cliff in Jamaica. i was a diver, but afraid of heights and could never even jump off of a 5 meter platform. It had been 3 years since I dove competitively. I suppose the 6 pack of beer and the 100s of screaming spring breakers at the bar on said cliff helped...

THAT'S cool!!!

That's a great story. Love it.