Winners finish last.

The last day of the LA County Junior Lifeguard program coincides with the International Surf Festival around here. Part of the surf festival includes lifeguard competitions, with lifeguard teams arriving from all over California and even Australia. No reason to keep the mini watermen/women out of the fun! The Taplin Relay consists of a six-kid running relay, handing off to a six-kid paddling team and then handing off to a six-kid swimming relay team. Jack qualified for the paddling portion of the Taplin relay race. And, if I may... the first running portion left Jack's team in sixth; the second part, the paddling part, Jack's part--those kids brought his team into first place with a 30 second lead!

Anyway, Jack's Redondo Beach team placed third! Third! That's good enough for a t-shirt! A t-shirt! A free t-shirt! I'm pretty stoked. Jack is a pretty athletic kid, but he consistently finishes fourth. All-city track meet...soccer...bike rodeo...fourth, fourth, fourth. Fourth is great. Fourth is better than fifth and tenth and twenty-seventh... But I don't think fourth even gets recorded officially, right? There's gold, silver, bronze and then the rest...fourth and twenty-seventh...and so on...

But in this event, the kid that comes in very last gets the very best reward. A Tunnel of Love made up of about two hundred kids. Just making a team is an accomplishment. And then to finish this exhausting race is pretty amazing.