Bye bye 2010……hello 2011!!

Well here I am…alive, well, happy to have new perspective!  My MRI on 12/27 came back as good as it gets with zero change!!   You have no idea how difficult the week is, or maybe you do if you share this kind of situation with me.   To quote a wise friend who know just what to say, “it just sucks”, BUT it never gets old to hear the doctor say, “you have no change”.   I have to tell you it is indeed an emotional roller coaster, but that last hill feels great at the end.  So now what?  Well I have another 6 months of peace and quiet as long as symptoms of any change don’t creep up on me.   I of course asked the doctor if we knew anything more and had to hear the words I dislike hearing the most.  “It is not a matter of IF it is a matter of WHEN” as it relates to this thing doing something.  That is the cancer part…….hate hearing that to say the least.  It CAN, however, stay like this for 20 years!!! So we will go with that….

2010…….wow what a year:

1. New Baby on the way!
2. Egypt
3. New friends!
4. A Life Mentor
5. Excellent career movement and made Director!
6. Marathon
7. 3 Triathlons
8. Half Ironman
9. Built a Jabba The Hutt and dressed as Slave Leia!
10. I am a survivor!

Just a few things that came top of mind and there are many many many more.   I learned a lot about myself, my family, my friends, and anyone and anything that is important to me.   I definitely appreciate certain things a lot more and have let go of other things because they are not important.  

A few parting words for 2011 and something to think about as you enter a new year.   Are you taking time every week to evaluate how much of life you are taking advantage of and living to the fullest?  How caught up in the rat race are you?  What is one thing you can do differently in 2011 to truly appreciate a healthy happy life?  What if you knew you had less time?  I am personally committing to evaluating this every single week in 2011 and if any of you catch me caught in the moment PLEASE do remind me of this!

As far as crazy stunts for me in 2011 here is the list.  I encourage you to join me for anything that looks interesting!

1. Half Ironman 2011 – probably Michigan
2. Marathon 2011 – probably New York or San Diego
3. Warrior Dash 2011 – www.warriordash.com  in Logan, OH
4. VOX STREAK 2011 – 12 minutes of swimming, biking, running or working out every day of 2011
5. Reserved spot for something else I have not come up with yet

All for now……….Livestrong in 2011!  Happy New Year!

Rich

Walk like an Egyptian

Quick Halloween update:

Enough said. Halloween was fun Yes that is Erin in Jabba the hut and yes I ruined everyone’s fantasies about Princess Leia in the slave outfit……my bad.

I know cheese ball title….never gets old that song.   First I would like to apologize that I skipped October and November.  Everything is going well and my year just gets better and better. I just returned from the most amazing trip of my life to date.  I say that with the context that I have been fortunate to be able to travel to many countries with my amazing wife in my young life.  

I would like to pause a moment before I continue on with the main topic, which will be EGYPT.   I would like to expand, if you will all listen for a moment, on how hugely impactful taking time to travel with my wife has been.   As you are all probably trying to imagine, your life and perspective changes a lot when you get the lovely news that I got,  I know I have bored you all to death (nice word Rich) on this perspective thing….    I have to share with all of you that I cherish every single trip and exploration of the world that I have been on with my wife and hopefully in the future with my family.  It is true that I love life experiences and you have all read that in the past year, but I am also becoming keenly aware of how important it is to share things with your spouse and family in those experiences.   I feel like my life is more full because of my travels and I feel more cultured, but I know for a fact that I have a tighter bond with my wife, friends and family that we have traveled with.   Now it is true…..it is not cheap by any stretch to go where we have gone, but I urge you to consider seeing more of the world as soon as you can.  It is flat out amazing.  This last trip put it squarely in perspective and I wanted to share that with all of you.   The other life theme that I validated is that you cannot take your money with you (although the Egyptian Pharaohs certainly tried) and in my opinion it is best spent on enjoying life in whatever way is important or impactful to you.   In other words BALANCE…….yeah all you folks saving every penny you can for retirement or trying to be a multi-millionaire please stop and enjoy as much as you can when you are young and able.  I would have been very sad if I found out what I have an had done nothing to experience life.   Just some free advice from my heart……take it or leave it. 

Ok…..on to Egypt! Where to start??  It was life changing for a number of reasons: (not in any order)

1. Egyptian Antiquities
2. Egyptian People
3. Egyptian Culture
4. New Friends and Life Mentor
5. New Perspective and Spirit

I am going to try and not write a novel here so allow me to include some a link to better tell the story behind each of these and make it more concise.   Essentially we purchased a trip from Uniworld and I have to say overall it far exceeded my expectations and I would highly recommend them.  The trip involved flying to Cairo, spending 2 nights in a Palace from the 1800s, flying to Luxor, boarding a brand new river boat, and sailing down the Nile to see the most amazing things you can imagine for 7 nights.   We flew back to Cairo and back the palace and spent 2 days seeing the Giza complex.  The whole trip was planned to the every detail for us and was extremely professional.  We had drivers and an Egyptologist with us at all time.   Our Egyptologist was flat out amazing!

Antiquities……..I will sum it up with the fact that recorded history started in Egypt, they have the last Ancient Wonder of the world, and they have like 70% of the world’s antiquities.  Now you can go here to see a book I put together on everything I saw and experienced complete with descriptions and a bit of history:

http://www.mypublisher.com/?e=SV6kgzMEAesGWguokxuBvFxR907tpg9yTelOfVMunciHAsn016EgQQ%3D%3D&_mp=JSxqjKvpwItz%2FLMl+uwx%2FH7OD2a2XB46_&showform=1

It is a 93 page book I assembled over 30+ hours that tells the entire story.  You just go here and click “Next” under the book cover and it will flip pages etc.  Enjoy!

On the Egyptian People front I just want to say that I feel like I was told a lot of stories over the years that are just not correct or half truths.   It is amazing what the perceptions are in the US of Egypt and the Egyptian people.  We were warned like 100 times of our safety and of terrorism, etc. etc.  I was called crazy a dozen times before I left.   The fact is that most people are not basing their opinions on fact at all or from actually experiencing Egypt first hand.  All in all, Egyptians are very nice/peaceful Muslim people (80% Sunni Muslim and 20% Coptic Christian) that want nothing to do with terrorism or hurting Americans or anything of the sort.   There are bad people everywhere, including your home city or state, and I did not encounter any in Egypt, but of course they exist some place I am sure.   There is a huge cultural difference, but it is one that you have to understand, respect, and compromise with a bit to truly bond with them.  We met some amazing people on our journey and thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them over a weeks time.  I will continue to stay in touch with a few people over the years.

I want to give my two cents on a few things here:

1. Muslims are not terrorists and just have different religious beliefs – no different from Jewish, Christian, etc. and the differences that exist between them in customs, traditions, beliefs etc.
2. Muslim women are not persecuted in Egypt and can choose their path as it relates to customs and religion just like we can – again no different than Jewish folks that choose to stay with traditions or any other religion etc.  Everyone is basically a product of their upbringing and life influencers….true here as well.   Parents have a HUGE impact on the paths that their children take without a doubt.
3. Egypt is not completely modernized in terms of how we live and mainly because there are a TON of people……89 Million and 20 of those live in Cairo.  They do have environmental problems with emissions etc. that we had over the last decade and are just behind.  They also have a major trash removal problem and that is unfortunately not pretty to see.  Probably the worst thing I could say about Egypt from my experience and trust me the people there do not like it either.
4. We felt totally safe in Egypt, but we invested in a tour and everything was prepared for us to the nth degree.  It is true this is not Italy where you just backpack and roam around, but if done correctly, is the most amazing place you will ever visit from a historical standpoint.
5. The history of the world started here and it leaves you speechless when you see all of the evidence from 5000 years ago of very advanced cultures.

As I mentioned we now have some great Egyptian friends, but that is not all!  We also met some amazing people that sailed with us on the River boat down the Nile and intend to stay in touch with them forever!  We had the pleasure of meeting two couples with the men in their 70s and women in their 60s and I have to tell you they really had an impact on me.  I find that I can relate with and understand better people at this stage of their lives.  It sounds odd, but in some ways I feel like I am in my late 80s and facing the facts of life and that it must come to an end eventually.  I really cant explain it, but it is how I feel.  Anways….Jim, Ted, Judy and Sharon really had an impact on me. They act like they are in their 20s, look amazing/very healthy, but overall, it is their spirit and drive to live life to the fullest that I am really trying to model my life after.  I don’t know how long I have and that eats at you on a monthly basis, but boy do I want to model myself after people like this….ALIVE (Made me think of Pearl Jam song)….POSITIVE…..and in general great to be around!   In fact, I connected with one of them so much that I just felt like I met him for a reason and asked him to be a Life Mentor (As most of you know I am not religious, but I am starting to believe highly in fate….just no idea what causes it).   What the heck does that mean?  Well we are figuring that out, but I have been looking for someone to really look up to that has experienced a lot of life and that has an uplifting spirit and aura about them and I found him!   I want to continue to develop my new perspective and spirit and try to make little changes every day in my life and I felt like a Life Mentor could help nudge me along a bit!

Three things on my mind that I will write about next:

1. WE ARE PREGNANT!!  Yep baby is coming 6/24/2011
2. December 17th is coming (day I was diagnosed) – not sure how I feel on that one
3. Next MRI is 12/27/2010 – no signs of anything bad as far as I can tell so hopefully this is just in time to celebrate the new year without any issues

OK….enough for now!   One more post in 2010 is coming and it will be titled something along the lines of “2010 a year to remember” or related to a recap of 2010.

Livestrong,

Rich

2010 Wow What A Ride

Here I am reflecting back on a number of things that have happened over the last year and the last 5 years for that matter.  It is almost surreal that I finished a Half Ironman race……

Born November 8th, 1974 – I was a very healthy baby overall, but my mother smoked while she was pregnant (which back then was totally okay and there is a story of my mom, dad, and doctor at the doctor’s office where mom and doc were smoking discussing my future birth) and I believe that may have led to me growing up with pretty gnarly asthma….bummer.  I was not so bad that I needed a machine, but was frequent friends with a steroid inhaler.     I played sports that did not require any huge amount of running and all was good.  Football, Soccer, etc. were not exactly my favorite.  Volleyball ruled in college.

5 years ago – My wife and I decided to try and find a few things to share with each other that would help us get fit and also allow us to spend quality time together.   She thought running would be a great idea and thus she pushed me to complete 1 mile.  Yeah folks……I had to use my inhaler to complete that mile, but I did it.  MIND YOU….this is 2005 everyone!  I could not run a mile!!!!!!!!  My goal that season was to complete my first 5k and eventually I did it.

Last 4 seasons – The following year I did my first 10k and thought I was really making headway.  I so excited that I told everyone that would listen that I had reached this goal.  I ran several 5ks that year and it became the THING that my wife and I did together nearly every weekend.  The races are great fun and the money goes to charities so it is a very cool way to GIVE.  In 2007 I completed my first Half Marathon…….wow was that a challenge to put it mildly.  I remember my wife and I having to hire a babysitter because we were dying tired after our race.  We sort of laugh about that now actually.  I went on to complete a few more Half Marathons in 2008/2009 and my wife started a very cool running group called VOX Running with a good friend of ours.  The group is now over 50 people and can be found on Facebook!

2010 Wow What a Ride- As most of you know I started off 2010 with some really difficult news and was told that I had a brain tumor.  I took that as a challenge and have used running and now triathlons as an outlet for the stress and burden that comes with that challenge.  On December 31st at God only know what time I signed a napkin (pic below) stating that I would complete a Half Ironman.  That friends is exactly what I set out to do.

Excuse the cursing as we were a bit drunk and were signing up to complete an Iron distance Triathlon.   Allow me to add some context:

1. I had no idea how to swim on 12/31/2009
2. I did not own a bike…..oh wait I did have that 100.00 bike from Target, but had never even thought about racing a bike
3. I had just found out on 12/17/2009 that I had a Brain Tumor and had no idea what was to come at this point for health
4. I was 35 years old and not exactly a college kid anymore

Kind of crazy right?  YOU BET YOUR A$$ it was crazy!  A lot of you know that if I make a commitment I stick to it…….will give another silly example later of ridiculous commitments. (see THE HAIRCUT below)

The Master Plan – When you make ridiculous commitments like this you simply have to get in touch with your inner “A-TEAM” and get a plan together.   So that is exactly what I did:

1. Convince Joe that he is now COACH JOE since he was the instigator of ridiculous feats that we could agree to do and had completed a full IRONMAN in his more youthful days
2. Set the milestones along the way:
1. Complete FULL MARATHON training and race in MAY
2. Purchase the equipment……yikes that was expensive
3. Buy an indoor trainer for the bike and ride twice a week
4. Come up with a training plan for 5 days a week training
5. Learn to swim with lessons, practice, and open water fun
6. Complete a SPRINT TRIATHLON
7. Complete an OLYMPIC TRIATHLON
3. Stay 100% committed no matter what got in the way
4. Lean on all of you for support!  THANK YOU

LOVE IT When a Plan Comes Together – Boy if I had a dollar for how many people called my crazy…….   Well the plan worked everyone!  I completed my first Half Iron distance race on Sunday September 12th.  Here is a link to the photos on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/album.php?aid=233688&id=627304826

For those that are not friends here is a couple of the cool ones:

‎Half Iron 70.3 = 1.2 Mile swim in 57 min, 56 mile bike in 3 hours 24 minutes, and 13.1 mile run in 2 hours and 16 minutes = 6:47:43 (includes 8 min or so of transition times)

I will eventually write about the feeling during the race etc., but that is definitely another post that is a play by play.  I am indeed very excited and still smiling daily that I could pull it together and do this.  I did my Marathon in honor of Maria and Prayers From Maria.  I did a few of my Half Marathons in honor of certain people that are important in my life and in honor of what they did or what they were going through.  THIS ONE…..THIS ONE WAS FOR ME!  I wanted to tell that Glioma to KISS MY you know what.  Thank you again and again and again to everyone that supported me on my 9 month pass to complete this race.   I hope this will serve as an example that ANYONE can do ANYTHING they decide to and nothing should stop you……not even a brain tumor.  Push yourself……only you can control your health.

One last update:

THE HAIRCUT: I have to shave my head next week because I bet against the idea of a certain band making to a work conference and I am auctioning off the right for work related folks to shave my head.  The auction is here for your amusement and the video will come very soon to this blog:

  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290475671911

All proceeds will go to Prayers From Maria to help fund a cure for Glioma Brain Cancer in children.

IT IS GO TIME

July was indeed a whirlwind of training, work conferences, and hitting my next milestone on my journey to Half Ironman.  I traveled for 2.5 weeks straight for work and that was difficult to manage with the training, but I did a reasonable job staying on track.    All of this training gives me plenty of time to think and it most certainly relieves the stress and pressure created by not only life in general, but also knowing that you have a life threatening condition that could take you whenever it wants to.   There are certainly times when you feel lost, without purpose, or flat out helpless, but I personally push through these “bumps in the road” by leaning on family and friends and focusing on shorter term goals I have set for myself.    The shorter term goals are definitely the key.  You can set them, work hard and focus on them, and accomplish them with the confidence that you can control the short term.   It is hard to verbalize for you all, but you have to trust me it helps for some reason.  This journey is most definitely about losing control of the long term and letting go of the things that are simply unknown for your future.  I often think of things that are longer term and wonder if I will be around to enjoy and experience them.  This is the hardest part of the whole thing honestly.   The most difficult of these “future thinking” items is children and my role in their lives.  It took me quite some time to get past the idea of not being around for my daughter in her later years or even more difficult what about the the next child we plan to have?  I have come to a place where, for the most part, I literally have to roll the dice of life and plan is if I will be around for 50 more years.   I have decided to STOP worrying about when things will get serious, and focus on maximizing life to the fullest.   It is easier said the done of course, but with everyone’s help I push forward.   We put a few things on delay when we heard the news and keep saying, “after the next MRI we can move forward with x or y”.    Sometimes setting those milestones and moving forward when they come is helpful to keep pushing forward. 

“The day I was diagnosed with cancer was the day I started to live.”
—Lance Armstrong

On October 2, 1996, Lance Armstrong realized he had to grab hold of his life and take nothing for granted. He made a decision to face his illness with courage, strength and dignity.

On October 2, Lance Armstrong became a survivor. My day is December 17th and that day will remain with me forever.

On to greener pastures and talk of GO TIME……..here are the pics from my International Distance Triathlon:

 

Swim, Bike, Run indeed!  3/4 Mile Swim, 23 Mile Bike, and 6.2 Mile Run in 3 hours and 10 minutes.  Let’s take you to this milestone and get in my head for a minute….while you are in there if you can give the tumor a kick that would be great     It’s 5:00 AM and the alarm or rather alarms are going off to make sure I pop out of bed ready for action.  My wife and I did this one together and for both of us it is our first at this distance.  I eat eggs, toast, coffee, etc. to get fueled up and make sure my body is ready for a 3+ hour battle.   Feeling a bit nervous about the swim because we found out that the winds were coming Southwest and that meant that we would swim against the current and have 2-4 foot waves to contend with.  YIKES.  We scurry to the car to leave by 6:15 in order to get to the beach with at least 1 hour to spare prior to the race.   As you drive to the beach you think through the hundred things you have to have with you in order to complete the event and you get nervous that you are forgetting something. You have your bike, bike shoes, bike gloves, helmet, gels, water bottles, Tri Outfit, Wetsuit, Bike, Bike Pump, Goggles, Anti-Fog, Glide Cream, Socks. Running Shoes, Towel,…….GOOD LORD!!!! 

Arriving at the beach becomes a race of getting all of your stuff “staged” in the transition area.  The transition area is the area in which you switch sports from swim to bike and bike to run.  Imagine a steel rack where you hang your bike and then strategically place all of your items so you can switch them out when you switch sports….more to come on that.   It is critically important that you align everything perfectly as the time in transition most certainly counts towards your overall time for the event.  In the midst of all of this chaos you have to also be strategic about going to the bathroom……..I know TMI, but actually vitally important.  As an example you STOP drinking and eating 30 min prior to the start.  

IT IS GO TIME.  I am now fully dressed in my very embarrassing Tri-athlete outfit of choice…..see above and lets just say it does not allow for hiding anything.  The first layer to start is a compression fitted top and bottom outfit like you see in the running PIC.  The purpose of this lovely and quite expensive little get up is to keep all of your muscles optimized for all three sports and be able to go through the elements of each.  For the SWIM it must go in the water, fit under your wetsuit, and not cause any issues with rubbing etc.  For the Bike it must be able to dry rather quickly, provide support for sitting on a seat for over an hour, and not cause any rubbing issues.  Finally, for the run it must allow for full movement and be comfortable for the run.  As you can all imagine there is no time to be changing clothes in transition.    OK…so I have that thing on and have my wetsuit, see swim PIC, over and we take a 1 mile stroll down the beach to the start line at the far right end of the beach.  As you walk you see the lake crashing down and the water moving fast in the opposite direction you will be swimming and get to see the full distance you are about travel end to end.  Most people commented that “wow this seems long” or “wish the wind would change directions”, etc.   The most interesting thing I kept hearing was “man I cant believe we have to walk a mile to the start…they should have bussed us down here”.  REALLY?  You are about to do a Triathlon you P……perfectly nice person    Mentally this walk got me ready for GO TIME.  GO TIME = the moment when your adrenaline is at it’s peak in anticipation for what you are about to tackle.  

NOW IT IS REALLY GO TIME.  You stand at the edge of the water with the waves crashing at your feet waiting to here the race leader say “GO".   You get the call and it is your time, but you are with a group of people that are common in age and distance for the race……25 people or so.   This one was a WAVE START and so I launched with the 2nd wave of swimmers.   This is mostly where the rumored kicking, punching, etc. happen as you have 25 people fighting to get in the water and reach the first turn buoy all at once.   I am not that great of a swimmer so I hung back a bit and held up the back.   As we reach the first buoy, 200 yards straight out in to the lake from the shore, swimmers hang a left to start the swim down the coastline.  We were maybe 75 yards past the normal beach buoys for those of you that know Mentor Headlands beach.  As you look up and forward you see 1200 yards of waves and water and off in the distance the first yellow buoy indicating the halfway point…BRUTAL. 

I fought through the swim doing the breast stroke, which by the way is NOT the stroke I should be doing but I suck at freestyle for now.   I reached halfway and realized I had lots more to go and at this point wondered if I would make it.  Waves waters are getting more interesting as I fight the current and take advantage of the fact that I am doing the breast stroke.  I got my first nasty face full of water around 3/4 of the way through and had to stop and choke for a while…not exactly fun and thank god for the wetsuit or I would have been in trouble.   I am more pumped than ever as I reach the end of the course and start attempting to run out of the water to make my way to transition (that is the PIC of me in wetsuit) and realized that the kick from the breast stroke was not kind to my legs, hips, etc.  In addition to that the breast stroke is MUCH slower with twice the effort of freestyle.  I am taking lessons trust me. 

TRANSITION 1 or T1 and BIKE – I get to my bike station and quickly remove my wetsuit, throw down some CLIF SHOTS chews, put on my helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, and etc. and I am off to the bike race.  The bike ride was definitely tough and involved a 500 foot vertical climb…the course was challenging, but I pushed hard through it and averaged 16.8 mph with a peak at 36 mph. 

TRANSITION 2 or T2 and RUN – I rolled in with my bike after seeing my first race fan…….hey there Aunt Kim!!  She was on her cell phone and almost missed me rolling by…….LOL.  Now I have to take off all the bike stuff and get my running shoes on and get rolling out of the transition as quick as possible.  The run was tough to say the least as it was 87 degrees at this point and of course my legs were shot and not really wanting to go run for 6 miles.  I had to tie my shoes, walk a few times, and go to the bathroom along the way and still managed to run 9:48 miles during the run.

THE FINISH – I am half a mile from completing this first race and got very excited to see my family cheering me on through the finish gate.  I ran through the gate with my arms in the air feeling like a champion.  This was similar to the marathon finish feeling and you really feel like you did something HUGE.   I am fully addicted to this feeling and it may be related to the whole idea of feeling like I had an impact in life….who knows, but it is like a drug.   Here is the course map if you want to see what I did and the elevation etc.:

http://maps.onemillionrevolutions.org/map.jsp?mapID=249

Next up is the Half Ironman and I need help with this one my friends.  Who can make it to Sandusky on September 12th to get me through this monster of a race?  1.2 M Swim, 56 M Bike, and 13.1 Run?  This is the BIG ONE people and I need your help!!!!!  Ok back to training and getting mentally ready for the next milestone for 2010!!!!  What a year…….and it feels amazing!

LIVESTRONG everyone (tears every time I say that by the way) and make every moment count in life!

Biathlon, Triathlon, MRI oh my!

Allow me to start by sharing some amazing news..no change in my tumor as of Tuesday June 29th.   I wish I could share the feeling that you feel when you are told amazing news such as this.  The build up to the day is honestly not fun, but I am getting better.  This time I tried not drinking until I black out (refer to St. Patty’s Day debacle) and missed a few nights of good sleep, but made it to the appointment in a decent state.    Here is how it goes……   2 days prior it is hard to sleep and hard to focus because you have no idea what to expect.  You think of the most unusual things and you question everything you can imagine about life and human existence.  It is an odd feeling and my body just did not feel quite right.   I busted my butt training in order to keep my head straight and stay focused.   The night before I was actually so tired I did sleep decently but had to be up at 6 to be at Cleveland Clinic at 8.  Thankfully I have amazing friends and family who literally picked me up and took me in.  I had an entourage…..the only way to roll in to the cancer center in my opinion.  8:00 AM I get called in to the MRI and it is actually quite chill.  You are in an oven of sorts and the noise is actually rhythmic and some what soothing in a weird way.  About 30 minutes in they injected me with dye for “contrast” views.  Oh yeah and you wear this hannibal lector mask thing….sounds worse than it is!  45 minutes and your done.   Next stop the Neuro Oncologist.  Arrive around 10:00 and you are nervous to put it mildly.  I think I actually got to the doc around 10:30 ish.  He sat me down and asked a bunch of questions and FINALLY he told me nothing changed and wanted to show me on the scans.  The feeling at that point can only be compared to cross the finish line of a marathon……it is a rush of feelings and a release of pressure that I cannot even begin to describe. 

So what have I been up to?  Well as most people know I am on a crusade (maybe mid-life crisis/holy shit I could die) to be a tri-athlete.  I completed a Bi-athlon, Sprint Triathlon, and I am fiercely training to complete a Half Ironman.  In August I will do my first International distance Triathlon (1200M swim, 25 Mile Bike, 10k Run) and in September the big daddy (well at least for me….Ironman distance people are psyhco) the Half Ironman (1.2M Swim, 56M Bike, and 13.1M Run).   You are all saying…so what Rich….that is really cool and we think you are an idiot.  LOL…..indeed partly true.  The actual training and time involved is nothing short of crazy.   Go ahead take a gander: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/Scott%20Herrick/halfim/preparing_for_your_first_half_ir.htm    I have 10 weeks to go so you can read about my next week of training.   1HR Swimming, 7.5HR Biking, and 1.5HR of Running for 10HRs training.  Clearly a bike week.  The good news is that yesterday I managed to actually swim 1.2 Miles in a 25 yard pool (40 laps or 80 lengths) in about 48 Min doing the breast stroke.   Not so much the recommended stroke as it is twice as hard and half as fast as freestyle, but I am that bad at freestyle.  Hopefully I can do a portion of the Half Ironman using freestyle, but I am terrible at the breathing.    On to training, training, and more training.  I am also getting hard core on diet…..logging every thing I put in mouth including the glass of scotch I am sipping on now here:  www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate I have to say it actually a bit fun and interesting and my diet is getting pretty damn amazing.  Check out the site if you want to change your life….happy to help anyone interested in this.

So that is about it….very THANKFUL and living life to the fullest.  Every day I am thankful for my  friends, family, career, and just about everything.  I have a different view on things on a daily basis and I am driving positive change in my life.  I feel amazing most days and I am happy to have 6 more months until my next check in with the brain folks.  Thank you to everyone who continuously supports and encourages me on a daily basis and thank you to the psychos who signed up for the Half Ironman with me…..JOE YOU ARE THE BEST COACH EVER! 

Livestrong….NO DOUBT!

Rich

WE DID IT!!

So I just realized in my complete excitement and recovery that I never updated everyone on the Marathon beyond Facebook.   Well WE DID IT…..we raised 10k dollars to officially fund 1/10th of a full grant for research for a cure for Glimoas!!   Oh yeah and ran 26.2 miles to celebrate!  I just want to sincerely thank everyone for their support, donations, showing up at the race, celebrating afterwards, and in general being there for me and my family!  

Ok ok….the 26.2……so the morning of the race I woke up at 4:00 AM with one of 3 alarms we had set to make sure we got up.   I went through my usual routine of coffee, protein shake, stretching, etc.  We had to be downtown to open the doors to One Community, a very generous sponsor of VOX Running that allowed us to use their downtown space as a meeting place for all runners involved with Vox and Prayers from Maria.   We arrived at One Community quite excited as the weather was sunny (or rather showing signs of it that early) and 54 degrees.   We had 40+ people show up and we all simultaneously got our stuff together in prep for the race.   Some were running the 1/2, some the 10k, and some the big daddy of them all 26.2.  

We are at the starting line or rather the starting STREET!  Imagine if you can 15,000 people jammed in to a single street and you can not move through the crowd if you tried.  This was the starting line!  People as far as you could see in every direction.  We attempted to stay together in this mess as the race director was shouting through the bull horn sounding like the teacher on Peanuts.   The goal was to find our “pace group” and try to stay with it.  I was pursuing the 3:45 pace group person.  These folks literally run the race as a volunteer carrying a sign on a stick the whole time with their pace number on it.  They are very talented runners with the mission of running the race at the time they state on their sign.  

The first half of the race was amazing as we ran through cool neighborhoods in Cleveland with people lining the streets and cheering you on!   I was running with 3 other people for the entire first half and we were making good time at 8:40 pace and 1:53ish for the first 13.1 miles.   I was in excellent position to beat 4 hours and felt great.  It was amazing to see friends and family along the way and I nearly broke down crying when I saw my daughter shouting daddy!!!!

We are feeling good…..running hard…..and thinking we had this thing in the bag and then we ran past the windmill at the Science Center.  I have not ever seen this thing spin faster in my life.  I thought to myself….hmm that thing is really cranking….cool.   WAIT A MINUTE…..SHIIIIIIIIT!  For the next 6.5 miles as we ran the extremely boring route next to the burke lake front airport on the lake (P.S. you cant see the lake…..more about that later) and with complete head wind.   Oh yeah……sweet.  Head wind……..brutal head wind.   I slowed my pace to 9:30 ish pace and kept moving forward.   The hardest part was not the wind……there was literally NOBODY there to cheer or watch or anything for that 6.5 miles.  This was mentally tough, but we were not giving in. 

Mile 20…….the freakin 4:00 HR pace guy comes running past me.  First of all it was terrible to see them as that meant my chances of beating 4 were literally passing by.  To make matters worse this guys was holding a sign, running backwards, and literally singing to his group of loyal runner followers working to beat 4 hours.  Normally…..totally cool with this.  After 20 miles I wanted to punch the guy in the face….LOL.  My 2nd half race partner, Eric Driscoll, said to me “you know that is the 4 hour guy”……..I said U&^%&*^SDJKH him.  Eric said “good cause I was going to tell you to go on without me.”   At this point we were both beat up good from the head wind and feelin the pain.  We agreed to run hard, do our best, and finish the race no matter what.

Mile 22…….wow…….I was not ready for this kind of pain.  It was almost surreal.  I was more scooting than running honestly.   My pace fell a bit more and we were stopping at every water stop.  We were feeling it and we needed a boost.   The sun was pounding on us and it felt like it was 100 degrees in Houston.  The temps rose to 65-66 degrees with full sun and it was taking its toll on us.

Mile 24……THE FAMILY IS ALL HERE!!!!  It was flat out a rush of intensity when I saw everybody and it was just the boost we needed to get through the last 2 miles. 

Mile 26……GABE was there…..he ran with me for nearly a mile and kept me going as I started to feel a bit delirious and wondering if I would be crossing the line anytime soon.   He was wonderful and literally helped me get to the point where I could see the finish. 

THE FINISH……..I DID IT!!!!!  I literally crossed the line with my arms up and with everyone cheering around me.  It was amazing……wow what a feeling.  Impossible to describe and the most cherished moment by every marathon finisher.   I did feel a rush of intense emotion as I saw my family and Ed Macnamara from Prayers From Maria.   I want really thank Ed and Prayers From Maria for the inspiration I needed to see this through and finish this thing.  Maria……this one is for you kid! 

 

The news story!!

http://www.wkyc.com/news/local/news_article.aspx?storyid=135963&catid=3

So excited for Prayers From Maria!! 

Getting More “Public” in Support of PFMF

Hello everyone…..I have been training hard and staying very focused on my goal to complete the Cleveland Marathon.  I wanted to share with all of you the experience that I had to today in furthering my passion to support Prayers From Maria Foundation.   As I have mentioned before, I am running this Marathon in honor of PFMF and have been raising money to literally fund research for Glioma brain tumors.   Well everyone I took a HUGE leap today.  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with local media and the gracious folks at Channel 3 news to go VERY PUBLIC with my story.  I built up the courage to get in front of a camera and tell my story leading up to the marathon.  I had to stop filming 3-4 times…..got a bit emotional to say the least.  I just kept telling myself, “I don’t like videos or pictures, but this is not for me……it is for PFMF and this can do a lot of good to get more awareness of Gliomas and the foundation” over and over in my head.  I thought I could do it without breaking down, but for some reason when I told the whole story again it resurrected the emotions that I probably buried.   So here we are and I throw myself completely out their in the public in hope that PFMF will get just a bit more notice at the Marathon and overall in Cleveland and beyond.   I know….you are all thinking “I am itching to help and would love to support this”………LOL…..well here is one last plug for PFMF and my fund raising site:

http://www.active.com/donate/sunflowerstriders/figers

The news spot will be on Channel 3 news at 7:00 PM tonight and the following 2 days if all goes according to plan.  I will post a link to it once it is online.

I want to thank a few supporters if I could for the current fundraising total of nearly $8000.00 in support of me, my wife, and all of the VOX Runners raising money for PFMF.  I want to call out that 2500.00 of that total does not show on the site but is a result of the amazing benefit at Microsoft to match dollar for dollar donations made by employees.   I will not name names as this family does not roll like that but you know who you are and you donated $1000.00 that turned it to $2000.00 and I simply must THANK YOU! 

I will save most of the thanking for after I complete this monster, but I am truly fortunate to work for such a supportive company like Microsoft, to be surrounded by amazing friends and family, and have the benefit of running with VOX RUNNING which you can find here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60261306026&ref=ts

Next stop…..Facebook…..why not right?  I have not been able to do that yet mentally but I am going there right now to point back to this blog……

LIVESTRONG everyone!  Fight your fight!  I am going to run 26.2 and kick some butt to beat 4 hours.  BRING IT!

P.S> I officially signed up for my first Triathlon…more to come!

It’s GAME TIME BABY!!!

I thought I would do a quick post before I complete 50 miles this week in training for the Marathon.  WOW…I have to tell you it is quite a feat training for one of these things.   I now have a new appreciation for anyone that has finished a full 26.3.    I am feeling good, feeling strong, and feeling ready to tackle this thing.  I am hoping that I will break 4 hours and based on recent training pacing I think I am rockin it.   

SIDE NOTE: for those that do not already know I am attempting to raise some money for the Prayers From Maria Foundation.   I am SOOOO THANKFUL for everyone that has already contributed!!  The thing I am MOST excited about is that if we (VOX Running and all of you!) can hit $10,000.00 we will have contributed 10% of a 100k grant to research for a cure for Glioma Brain tumors!!  This will benefit all of the kids and families that are facing this today like me and who may face it in years to come!    Please go here:

http://www.active.com/donate/sunflowerstriders/figers

Okay I had to post it once so please forgive me and support the cause! I completely understand and appreciate that there a millions of charities and trust me whatever you give to is AWESOME!!

If you would like to join us at the Marathon on May 16th we would LOVE to have your support at the race finish!  We anticipate finishing around 12:00 Noon or so and will hopefully be throwing an after party for all friends, family, and supporters of Prayers From Maria!! 

No updates other than that!  Oh yeah the Tri madness……Swimming once a week now for 8 weeks and can now do 1/2 mile of nonstop breast stroke.  NICE.  The freestyle……well yeah that is a different story but I am working on it. 

Okay everyone…….LIVESTRONG (now that I actually know what that means….if you don’t look it up as it is my new mantra in life!)

3 is a good number right?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to leverage the fact that a very good friend of mine works at UH and had great connectivity in to the Neuro Institute.    I had the pleasure of meeting with my 3rd neurosurgeon to create a tie breaker situation for the future when treatment may be needed.   It is my plan to line up surgeons that are current on my case and know my deal so that when the time comes I can choose the best plan rather than rushing in to have my head cut open.  

I am glad I went…..this is a younger surgeon (40s) that seems to be very up on the latest in greatest of research, advanced or new techniques, and anything that can improve how we address these lovely anomalies in the future.  Very promising stuff actually.  He put it to me this way “Rich…40+% of cancer is breast cancer while 1.6% is brain cancer.  Where do you think the research is focused and funded?  Oh yeah and did I mention that 40% plus of the government officials deciding on where funding is allocated is now female”  Before the ladies get a chip on their shoulder he meant that it is just a fact that not very many people or funding is being put towards brain cancer research.  The good news…..this doc is all over it and has his hands in many different baskets looking for advancement.  He believes that there are a number of things that will change over the next 5 years and I am a prime candidate to benefit.  So I got that goin for me……which is nice.   Seriously this is great news. 

Overall this doc agrees with the other two on wait and see and observe.  He differed in opinion on my as a candidate for AutoLITT (See Sharks with Lasers post) and would be concerned with how close my tumor is to some major arteries that he would prefer not to cook.  He also, however, differed in opinion on the possibility of traditional surgery to remove it if it started misbehaving.   He was actually quite bullish on his ability to do this and literally showed me on a model why it was not a “big deal” to do.  Lastly he made it really clear that he would want to do a biopsy FIRST to get good tissue.  He indicated that if he had that tissue it may be valuable in the future in terms of several research projects that he is involved.  He mentioned that as an example if I knew your molecular make up was x and 3 years later we have a specific treatment for x….that would be quite good.  He explained today that just because 40% of tumors respond well to y and only 2% to x you would potentially get y because of stats. His thinking is that “what if x is the treatment that will work with you because we can prove it regardless of success with only 2%.  What if you are the 2% that it works for?”  

So….I continue to observe and go back in July and now 3 lucky surgeons get to fight for my “business”.  Crazy right?  I feel very fortunate to live in Cleveland with UH and CCF right here.  I may make a video on Cleveland that shows how amazing we are for medical facilities and post on youtube so people can make fun of that!!!!  Ok off to run 9 miles on my lunch hour.