Welcome to my latest adventure. I have decided to race an Ironman triathlon this summer. For those of you who are not familiar with this race, it is a triathlon consisting of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run. This event will take place in Santa Rosa, California on July 29, 2017. I have always wanted to take on this challenge ever since I saw a video of the ironman back when I was in high school. Since graduating college, I have tried to train for shorter bike and run races in the past and have never been able to stay free from injury. Not only that but I began to feel like my health and fitness was starting to deteriorate. After a few years of long hours and being dehydrated in the operating room, I developed a kidney stone. I used to run a lot but found myself not being able to run more than 10 minutes without knee pain. After the arrival of my beautiful daughter and seeing my wife go through 27 hours of labor, I decided that labor looked way harder than an Ironman triathlon. I think I can do that (no, not labor. an ironman).

Over the last year I have been learning how to exercise all over again. It’s been a long road trying to figure out why I had back, knee, and achilles pain. After many physical therapy sessions, visits with orthopedic surgeons, learning from my coach, and a lot of reading, I am finally training fairly well and living a pretty balanced and healthy life. I got what I was looking for: the ability to run and bike, pain-free! I decided that maybe it was a good time to attempt an ironman race. And that is when I had one of those “uh oh” moments when I saw exactly how much I needed to train for this event.

The training has gotten pretty hard and even though I have done well to put my family first, I realized that this endeavor seemed way too big. My family has been very supportive of my goal and we are pretty happy with how it is working out. I still get to spend a lot of time with my wife and daughter. I do most of my workouts when my child is sleeping. I accomplished a training regimen that fits with family life and a full time job.

Welcome to my latest adventure. I have decided to race an Ironman triathlon this summer. Why would I want to do a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and then a marathon?! I think the interest started for me when I saw a video of the ironman back when I was in high school. I was curious but I definitely thought those people were CRAZY! Since graduating college, I tried a few short triathlons and I really enjoyed them. But since graduating college I never have been able to stay free from injury. So I became interested in high altitude mountaineering. I enjoyed the long hard days of exercise and the high altitude makes movements very slow so there is very little impact stress like you get with running. I enjoyed climbing some of the highest peaks in the world and trained my way to prepare for climbing Mount Everest. However by the time I became ready to take on the world’s highest peak, I became a father and decided that it was not the right time for an Everest trip. Forget about the cost and time away from home…my wife and I were worried about the risk of injury or death. So I put climbing on hold.

So…I spent the last 6 months training for this race. However it’s hard to call it training. I was merely learning how to train. It’s been a long road trying to figure out why I had back, knee, and achilles pain. After many physical therapy sessions, visits with orthopedic surgeons, learning from my coach, and a lot of reading, I am finally training fairly well and living a pretty balanced and healthy life. I got what I was looking for: the ability to run and bike, pain-free! And then I had an “oh s**t” moment when I saw exactly how much I needed to train for this even. The training has gotten pretty hard and even though I have done well to put my family first, I realized that this endeavor seemed way too big. My family is sacrificing to help me train. My wife is very supportive of my goal and we are pretty happy with how it is working out. I still get to spend a lot of time with my wife and daughter. I do most of my workouts when my child is sleeping. So I accomplished a training regimen that fits with family life and a full time job.

But it still didn’t feel right. It was as if I was only doing it for myself. So I decided I wanted to start a fundraiser. I want to use my ironman race to call attention to something very important right now: women’s health and rights. I decided that I needed to help support Planned Parenthood. Why? Simply because this training has all been about being healthy for my family and keeping them my top priority. And I want to support an organization that has been there for my wife her entire adult life. I take care of people for a living but only when they are sick enough to come see me when they need an operation. This organization provides preventive health care for millions of women AND men.

With health centers under attack across the country and a new Congress and state legislatures chock full of anti-women’s health leaders, I knew I had to do more right now to support Planned Parenthood’s critical work.

Click “Donate to my Fundraiser” to make a gift now and help me reach my goal.

Thanks again for your donation. I look forward to celebrating with you when I reach my goal!