I have never been a rah-rah patriotic zealot. I went through a period in high school and college where I was, if not ashamed, not particularly proud of my country. I even considered eventually moving to Brazil, the country of my mother’s birth, to live because I saw it in some ways better than the U.S.

My draft lottery number was so high, I never had to apply for a deferment and was able to attend college without fear of being drafted. When I was accepted to medical school in 1974, I had to find a way to pay for this. I joined the Navy, which had a scholarship program. While I was proud to serve, and did honorably for 13 years, my reason for joining was almost entirely financial; I preferred to pay back time in the Navy instead of money to a bank. I was discharged in 1987, proud of my service and free of debt.

In November 2013, I completed the Florida Ironman Triathlon. That seminal accomplishment was preceded by one year of cold showers. That’s right, 365 consecutive days, and then some, of taking only cold showers as part of my training. I revisited this in January 2017 briefly when our hot water heater died and could not be replaced for 5 days.

It is now July 23 and I have not taken a hot shower since January 1. An otherwise normal person might ask a perfectly reasonable question: why? To answer that, I have to go back to a chance comment by my son-in-law in 2012 as I was wrestling with the decision to attempt an Ironman. David mentioned that some athletes use cold showers to help them train. There are many benefits to a cold shower. They can help sore muscles recover faster. They can improve circulation to muscles and heart by constricting blood vessels in the skin. They can stimulate a rush of feel-good hormones and neurotransmitters in the body, and provide a host of other benefits as well.