My phone chirps its alarm in the half-lit living room of my apartment. The text reads, “I’m out front when you’re ready.” It is exactly 5:56 in the morning and, because it is the middle of February, the sky is pitch black and the air is frozen. Bizarrely enough, the hour is not new to me. I have been getting up early to run before work in the winter dark. What is new, however, is that Sam is picking me up for my first day of swimming. Somehow, he and Blaine talked me into competing in a triathlon with them. I am not sure why I... read more