New Blog Post: Thank You.
THANK YOU for helping me and Elke raise more than $2000 for The Amyloidosis Foundation in honor of my friend Paul Hawthorne.
Hard to believe the 2010 NYC Triathlon is over. What an amazing experience. I was just going through my e-mail and found this message I sent to Amy last October:
October 13, 2009 at 4:42pm
Hi Amy -
I realize the deadline is looming, and I was all set to send you a confirmation e-mail -- and then I looked at the triathlon Web site. I must admit, I'm totally intimidated. The last time I did any type of "race" was the Chase Corporate Challenge several years ago. A 5.6K run, which I proudly completed -- without stopping. Have you done a tri before? I worry, among other things, that I won't have enough time to train. In other words, I need some words of encouragement. Maybe I'll get Elke to do it, too.I'd love to join you and Joyce for lunch. Let me know when you guys are planning to get together.xoxoDakilaObviously, Amy convinced me. Less than 24 hours later, Elke and I officially registered for the race. And I immediately started training. Well, not really. I started running in November and didn't begin cycling until March. But by mid-July, I ran/cycled a total of 276 miles, burned 24,793 calories, lost 9 lbs., completed a 4M, a 5M, and 10K, and Elke and I met our fundraising goal of $2000 thanks to our family and friends. And, most important, Paul's Posse raised over $40,000 for The Amyloidosis Foundation.
Here's a post-race photo of 17 of the 40 awesome members of Paul's Posse.
Elke's in the top row, fourth from left next to Amy and her son, Max. I'm on the far left of the bottom row next to AJ Patrick, an Amyloidosis survivor from Arizona who's in remission. (Several members of Paul's Posse traveled from out of town to participate.) AJ completed the entire swim, bike, run on his own. No relay team. Amazing. And the fourth person from the left is Amy's cousin Barb Freda, our relay team member from North Carolina. She did the 1500m swim in the Hudson to start off our relay. Elke and I fell in love with Barb as soon as we met her at the pre-race briefing on Saturday. To quote Amy in her e-mail to me last October, "Cool! My cousin Barb is your swimmer. She rocks." Amy was right. Barb TOTALLY rocks! (Thanks, Barb, for convincing security that relay team members are triathletes, too! That ice-cold towel was a lifesaver in the post-race heat!)
After Barb finished her leg of the race, she handed our team's racing chip to me, and I took off on the 40K bike ride up and down the West Side highway. For the most part, the course was relatively flat. There were some steep hills though. At one point, a guy yelled "Switch to a lower gear, and you'll spin faster!" as he zoomed past me. Lance Armstrong, I'm not.
Once I returned to the Transition Area, I handed our racing chip to Elke who finished the race with a 10K run through Central Park. Here's Elke crossing the finish line. Our team officially finished the Triathlon in 3 hours, 35 minutes, and 10 seconds.
In the end, it wasn't about finishing under three hours. Or getting an official Nautica Triathlon T-shirt. Or getting a nifty medal. It was about raising awareness for Amyloidosis and raising funds for The Amyloidosis Foundation. It was all about my friend Paul Hawthorne.
"I worry, among other things, I won't have enough time to train"? Who is that guy? I'm doing the entire Triathlon next year. Amy, you can count on it.
Go, Paul's Posse! Go!
