Please join me in this mission of hope!
What the heck are you doing?
Please join me in this mision of hope
Please join with one of the greatest honors and adventures of my life; competing in the Ironman World Championships and representing millions of people that are in need of hope.
This will be a quick update with (much) more to follow later but I wanted to let you know what is happening. Save the date - October 13, 2018, Kona Hawaii
I am so very thrilled, honored, frightened, excited (and everything in between) to not only fulfill a goal that I have thought about since I was as a kid but even more significantly, I get to use this as an opportunity to help a lot of people and to represent an organization and all the incredible people that I have given the last 14 years to support.
My part:
Now - October 13, 2018 - I will be training for the Ironman World Championships (this is like going to the Olympics for triathletes) and with this amazing opportunity, I will be raising a boatload of money for cancer research and patient care.
Your part:
While I may have a particular set of skills teaching people how to swim, bike and run, I am not particularly good at asking for help. The training and the fundraising is such a daunting task; physically, mentally and logistically that I will need help from anyone willing to give it.
Fundraising - I will need support on 2 fronts.
My overall goal is to raise an impossible amount of money that will help a bunch of people that neither you or I will ever meet. People that are looking for a cure or a hope that tomorrow can bring a better day.
My first push is to get up over $100,000, which, yes, is a crazy amount of money just like swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and then running a marathon is crazy but, like all things, it is digestible when you break it down to smaller tasks. To get to that, what I am looking for is 1000 people with $100 or 100 people with $1000 or anything in between.
$100 is not a trivial amount of money so another way to get there is that if you can donate $25 and find 3 other people to do the same, we get the same result.
That said, I will need help creating other fundraising opportunities.
*If you want to help by throwing a fundraiser or helping me plan a big event this summer, I can use your help. We will also be looking for exceptional events that we can auction off on charity buzz. Looking for notable people that would be willing to donate their time for a meet and greet/career advice etc for a charity auction, tickets to premieres etc.
Join a team - You can join a team in your local area so if you ever wanted to a marathon, half marathon, triathlon, century ride, or hike Mount Everest, do it this year and then you can join my community team. If you have any questions on this, please reach out.
Training Support - This will be a rough road for sure, I have not trained outside of the team for a long time and we have no 140.6 events this year. Our season will wind down early this year so the bulk of the training will be solo. Anyone training this spring, summer and fall, I will be looking for OWS opportunities, people to drag me to the pool, people to ride with and people to run with.
*APLA riders, put me on your list if you need some training buddies.
*Follow me on Strava - help keep me honest with my training
*Ride with me on Zwift (thanks Amy Hale for the donation of a trainer)
If you see me waffling, if you see me wavering, I only want one you to ask me one question...
How bad do you want it?
Emotional Support - While this is listed last, it is certainly not least. This will be challenging on many fronts for me. This is a debt I have owed to myself for 10 years; a goal I set out to accomplish in 2008 and then fate intervened and put me on the sidelines.
The fact that this year the race is on October 13th brings added significance which brings me both strength and fear. This is more than a race, this is an opportunity to honor what our team represents; we fight because we have the luxury of choice and we do so to honor those that don't have the choice to fight.
This is also an opportunity to take my own advice. For years as coaches, we have emplored you to focus on desire, not on ability, to do, both with the team and in life, that what you want, and to not limit yourself only to what you think you are capable of doing.
I want to do this, my desire is to do this. Am I able to? With your help, I think the answer is yes. We always say "With your teammates at your side you can only succeed" so please join me on this adventure and be a part of my team. I want to make the impossible possible so others feel they can do the same.
Special Thanks
