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Rev3 Staff Runs Across America For Cancer

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

One of the reasons I love being part of Team Rev3 is because they just do awesome stuff. And it makes it insanely easy to support them.

Apparently at HQ a few weeks ago, there was a conversation that went down something like this:

“With all the buzz that we’ve gotten over the last few years, I really think we need to up our game and look for new ways to give back.”

“How so? You mean like offering complimentary back waxing to help hairy male athletes swim faster at our races?”

“No. Like doing something big for the Ulman Cancer Fund. We’ve supported them in a lot of ways in the past, but I’m thinking about something BIG.”

“Like what?”

“What if we tried to raise $100,000 for them? That could do a lot of good for people with cancer, right?”

“Heck yeah, but how are we going to do that?”

“Let’s run across the country. And invite others to join us along the route or run with us ‘virtually’ and tally up their own miles.”

“Shiver me timbers! That idea it the cat’s pajamas. Let’s start planning.”

Okay, well I’m pretty sure that no one said the last part. But the rest of it was pretty accurate. Even the back waxing part.

Starting Monday, March 26, a bunch of Rev3 staff and a few members of the AG team will start off running from Oceanside, California and won’t stop for 21 days when they reach Washington D.C. And they will be working on raising $100,000 in donations to the Ulman Cancer Fund all along the way.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to join them in person, but especially since my family had to start battling cancer head on last year with my dad’s lung cancer diagnosis, their mission really hits home for me. Me and the rest of the Rev3 AG team will be tallying up our training miles with hopes of at least matching the Run Across America team’s +3,000 miles over the same 3 weeks.

There will be more details on how you can help support the crew on their journey physically, emotionally and financially over the next few weeks. So stay tuned. Until then, if you have it in your heart to donate anything to help the team, please do. See the link on my blog’s sidebar or go directly to http://rev3tri.com/america/donate/

I’m fortunate enough to be able to plan my triathlon schedule 9 months out from now. Others have doctors telling them that they won’t be around by in 9 months. This is for them.

Tags: rev3, run across america, ulman cancer fund | Posted in Life, Running, Triathlon | 2 Comments »

Hitched

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

I’d love to say “I’m sorry for not posting in a few weeks”

… but I’m not sorry. Not even a little bit. So I won’t.

I’ve been busy making the best decision I’ve ever made and married my best friend, Sam. It turned out to be the Wedding Of The Year. (Suck on that Prince William! Your horse drawn carriages have got NOTHING on my dance-off with my new Father-in-Law. Plus, your wedding was such a snooze that everyone was paying more attention to your new sister-in-law’s bootay.)

Our wedding was easily the best night of my life, followed by a week in the Caribbean.

I don’t talk about Sam as much as I should on my blog, but she has made it to almost every single race I’ve ever done, does a TON to support me behind the scenes and takes credit for almost every single awesome race photo I ever post here. She rocks my world.

But instead of droning on about stories of everything that has happened in the past three weeks, here are some pictures that tell the story a lot better.

| Posted in Life | 8 Comments »

Smell Mortality: Breathe Life

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

Sometimes, it seems like life only works in extremes. This summer, Poppa B got diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and had to jump through hoops on top of that just to get treatment. Our whole family had to face his mortality head on. Something I’m not awesome at handling and sometimes the littlest things became major emotional battles.

Then last weekend I got to spend the day with my little nephew, who decided to feed me all of his gold fish by putting his whole fist in my mouth. If his arm was long enough to drop them directly into my stomach, he probably would.

Hand Feeding

Then apparently it was bed time, so he gave me his favorite toys and tucked me in on the living room floor - head first. It is so much fun playing with him and seeing how fast he is growing up and learning. And becoming just like my brother. I don’t spend as much time with I wish I did/could, but it is fun playing Uncle for the day.

Then this Thursday, my brother’s wife went into labor a few weeks early and had their second boy. Both mother and son are happy and healthy. The very next day I get a text from my dad that his latest scans are clear and there aren’t any signs of the tumor. Two of the best pieces of news you can get, all within 48 hours!

The roller coaster of facing a loved one’s mortality to celebrating the life of a newborn, an 18 month old and my pops has definitely put a fresh perspective on life. Sometimes we can get caught up in PRs, the latest gear, aggressive rase schedules, but coming from the last few days that I’ve had, it is easy to appreciate the lives that we’ve got right now and the wonderful people in it.

So I went out to celebrate the good news, my health and the health of the people I love with a cold swim in Walden pond. I won’t always have my health and be able to jump into 60 degree water and swim for as long as my arms will let me, but today I do. And I’m not going to pass that up.

Now, on to spend some more quality time that make me so happy in between training and racing….

| Posted in Life, Triathlon | 8 Comments »

What To Do With My Wedding Ring?

Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

I’m in no mans land. About 45 days from my last race and 40 days until my last day of being a single man. The big day is coming soon. Sam and I are busy crossing off a lot of the final t0-dos and we picked up our rings last week.

As someone who hasn’t worn a single piece of jewelry (other than watches) since high school, I’m anticipating a learning curve in making this whole “ring wearing” thing part of my routine. (I wore hemp shell necklaces in high school to pretend I was some hippie/surfer/skater rather than a kid that lived next to a corn field.)

And the biggest obstacle – What do I do with this thing when I’m training and racing?

I’m was thinking that this was some big “married triathlete” secret that I needed the scoop on, so I polled Twitter to get some help. I don’t want to loose my ring right away or not wear it often enough and set some sort of precedent as being a bad husband. Unfortunately, there was no single answer from all my married triathlon friends and they were all across the board. I guess I’m going to have to come up with my own plan, but I’ll probably end up taking it off and keeping it someplace safe when I’m working out. I just have to figure out where that safe place is.

Here are all the responses I got from Twitter. For any married blogger friends that aren’t on Twitter – What do you do with your ring when training and racing?

Keep It On

Lisa-Marie Howe - I wear both rings but put them on my ‘fat’ hand.
Megan Killian - I wear my “engagement” ring (which is actually going to be my wedding ring) all the time, training/etc. Never take it off
Heidi Henry - I wear mine, but not my engagement ring.Didn’t realize how often I checked for my rings until I tried to swim w/ them off once.
bikezen - I keep mine on.
Matt T - keep it on always.
Sonja Wieck - wear it.
George Houston - I keep it on all the time. Rain or Shine.
Kirstine Roberts - wear it?!!!

Take It Off

Meredith Trowbridge - I take engage ring off-crashed bike w it once almost impaled myself wed band I wear ride/run in train. None racing/swimin
Alex Gonzalez - I leave my ring at home. It can come off to easy and a lake is not a good place for it.
Kelly Covert - i take mine off for racing and OWS…especially when the water is cold!
Jen Small - i stopped wearing mine for fear of losing it (swim) damaging it (weight room) but a mens ring would be different
Joe Vukson - I’ve got a good fit on mine but I don’t wear it to race. I typically take it off for rides when I’m wearing cycling gloves too.
Kiersten Henry - Leave mine at home. Spent my entire ows last weekend worrying about it falling off because I forgot.
Patricia Brownell - I don’t wear mine. It would fall off in the beginning & I wouldn’t be able to get it off at the end (I swell a lot).
Colleen Lasko - just leave it at home then you don’t have to worry about it. I never wear mine anymore since the diamond is lose anyway.
Chris - when racing, I give to my wife.I always feel like I will lose my ring on the swim.Had a friend lose his this summer in a sprint
Andy Rosebrook - I take mine off for the swim and put it on my glasses waiting for me in T1. Had my ring come off in a pool once badday. When I played basketball they would make me take it off so I laced it on my left shoe.
Stephanie Buckler - don’t wear it that’s my take anyways
Heidi L - We don’t wear them – leave it at home. Not worth losing. Sometimes I’ll wear my band, but never engagement diamond
Triathlon Funster - remove at home or put in wallet if to/from work.
dan kazup - My wife wears it on a necklace or I hide it in the car.

It Is Complicated

Jill Poon - I leave it on for training, I give it to Alex during races (or some poor unsuspecting teammate passing by)
Barb - I wear mine but my husband takes his off and leaves it in a safe place at home.
Jan Hawkins - I put it on my watch band
ransick - I wear it unless I’m wearing tight pearl izumi full fingered gloves. It’s uncomfortable under those.
Sean Prior - take the ring off for swimming, usually leave it on for anything else.
Sir IronWorm - training I keep it on. Race I give it to the wife. If she’s not there it goes on my car key chain
philiplavoie – on a necklace.