Firstly many thanks to all the people contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society on my request in 2007 and 2008. All the money you contributed is officially in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's bank to be used for cutting edge research and patient support. Fill up your company's gift match form if you haven't already!
My Story.....
The cancellation of the Treasure Island triathlon in Nov 2007 due to an oil spill in the Pacific ocean was not fun. I had been training for 3+ months with my teammates from Team in Training by then and we had nothing to show or achieve at the end. Multiple fits and starts later, I got around to signing up for The Triathlon at Pacific Grove on 14 Sep, 2008 and this time I DID IT!
Many things went wrong the night before - from my bicycle tube's valve pin breaking off to mistakenly riding on broken glass on a road to a restless sleep.... On the day of the race, we biked a pleasant 4 miles from our hotel to the event at 5:30 am in darkness, super cool! The water was cold at 63 degrees at 7:30 am when my race started...The swim waves of participants go by by sex and age...In the water, I was unable to swim at my normal pace with all the people cheering, ambitious participants kicking each other and the adrenalin rush so I kept powering through expending a lot of unnecessary energy..On the bike and while running, I was a crowd delight....As I came close to finishing a lap and the crowd cheered, I gave them drama by overtaking people or just by sprinting and waving and shouting.....
I dont think I took a breath of fresh air normally (at my practiced exercise pace) throughout the race but boy did I have a lot of fun doing the triathlon!!! You can and should do an endurance event once in your life :) :) There are half-marathons and century rides and walks to suit everyone's interest! Next I will aim for an Olympic distance triathlon....Thanks again for all your mental, $$ and emotional support!
The Team's Story....
The Silicon Valley Team in training Triathlon team had major setbacks:
- Jim's lymphoma came back and he is undergoing chemo at Stanford hospital currently
- Doug has a secondary cancer and surgery is scheduled for Sep 22, 2008
- Don participated in the triathlon but had to be pulled out of the race after the swim and taken to the hospital for tests....
But they are all strong, fun and confident survivors...We are all very proud of our team honorees and hope for the best!!!
And whats most important is.....
Team in Training brought ~ 340 amateur triathletes like me to The Triathlon at Pacific Grove from all over the US and together we raised $1.2 Million for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society! Go Team! Cheers to more research to save lives!!!
Pictures of my fun ordeal can be found at
Slideshow http://picasaweb.google.com/
Click each photo http://picasaweb.google.com/
You can still donate towards Leukemia & Lymphoma research at
http://pages.teamintraining.
2 comments:
Triathlete !!! Whoa...thats some serious stuff. Just learnt the correct way to swim and I am really enjoying it now. shumit.vatsal@gmail.com
just saw ur comment now Shumit :)
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