The picture below was taken this week. It was just after a snow storm. Lake Michigan was wavy, the snow was seven-inches deep and the temperature was 19 degrees. The Steelhead Ironman Triathlon that I am participating in will be held along the same lake on a beach just up the road. Over time the conditions will greatly improve, but it won’t happen overnight.

This reminds me of a quote by U.S. Army General Creighton Abrams when he answered the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” He said, “When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” In other words, when you do something that is large and challenging, do it slowly and be careful.

Training for an Ironman 70.3 triathlon is an elephant for me. It would not be a pretty sight if I tried to complete the triathlon tomorrow. I would undoubtedly take most of the day to complete it, if I could, and then my next month or so would be needed for my body to fully recover. On the other hand, the results will be different if I take full advantage of the next 22 weeks until the triathlon by consistently training with gradual increases in distances and tempo. The pictures taken will be ones I want to frame and the memories will be enjoyed for a lifetime!

Most importantly, the impact made on children around the world will last a lifetime, as well. That’s why I have a goal to raise $20,000.00 that can provide 500,000 meals or, put another way, feed 685 kids two meals a day for an entire year. Please join me today by clicking the button to donate. Together we can do more than buy someone some meals; we can let them know they are not forgotten and that there is hope for their life!
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“You can’t get much work done in life if you only work on the days when you feel good,” Jerry West, the Basketball Hall of Fame point guard of the Los Angeles Lakers, once said. This statement definitely applies to every person of every job type around the world, from athletes to accountants and zoologists to zamboni drivers. Everyone has days where they just don’t feel it. From bad backs to receiving bad news, there are many reasons that we might not feel good or lack the motivation to put in the work.

This week I am faced with the challenge of not feeling like doing much in the way of training for an Ironman 70.3 triathlon. I had a minor surgery on my foot, so I am bandaged, limping and not even allowed in a pool. So where does this leave me? With the opportunity to be creative. I will be getting in some extra bike work and focusing on strength training for the next 10-14 days.

Another great athlete, professional golfer Nancy Lopez, said, “Competitors take bad breaks and use them to drive themselves. Quitters take bad breaks and use them as reasons to give up.” This week we all have the choice of whether or not to give up, or even slack off due to life’s circumstances. I’m choosing to keep moving forward in life and in my Ironman training, which will in turn help feed many people around the world.

I hope you make the same choice to keep moving forward and also to join me in reaching the goal of raising $20,000.00 to feed many in need. To help me reach that goal, simply click the button below and choose “#TRI2FEED Ironman Triathlon.”

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My headlights seem dim this morning as I drive to the YMCA for my continued swim training. It’s 5:48 a.m., so maybe what is dim are my eyes. They’ve only been open for 25 minutes and are still protesting.

Fifteen minutes later, I greet Sheila, my swim coach, as we stand on the brightly lit pool deck. She has a big smile on her face and rubs her hands together as she says, “Today we get to have our second swim test!” This means she watches, while I complete as many laps as fast as I can in 10 minutes. I can’t help but crack a smile as she knows I prefer the drills and talking about technique over continuous swimming.

For a month-and-a-half, I have devoted 85 percent of my triathlon training to swimming. I have grown to like it and almost prefer it over biking and running. At least I like it on the days I feel successful in the pool. Biking is easier. Running is easier. Swimming is what will make or break my triathlon. I know that training for the swim is something I have to do or else I will fail as an Ironman.

Week after week, pictures and reports come across my desk at Feeding The Nations of kids and families whose lives are on a pivot. They must spend 85 percent or more of their day looking for food. Their lives depend on it. They have no option to “grab the edge of the pool,” if you will. They can’t take a break from the day-after-day grind of trying to survive.

I’m so excited and challenged to be doing this Ironman triathlon. My hope is that doing it will promote awareness of the difference that can be made and to raise $20,000.00 that can provide 400,000 meals to hungry people around the world and here in the US.

Will you help me reach this goal? Please consider giving your support today! Simply click the button below and choose “#TRI2FEED Ironman Triathlon.”

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Or, text your donation. Text the dollar amount you wish to give to 28950 and designate “ftnkids.” You’ll then be prompted to provide your credit card and contact information.

When was the last time you felt like you were on your own? Maybe it was in your rec-league basketball game where you had to hit an important free throw. When your spouse was gone on a business trip. After you moved cities….

Today as I walked into the YMCA pool for my early morning swim training, I noticed the pool was smooth as glass and I was all on my own. My coach joins me two days a week, but this was not one of them. There were absolutely no other swimmers in the pool and the lonely lifeguard gave me a good morning wave from the other end as I grabbed a kick-board and fins to start my drills. Taking advantage of this isolation, I snapped a couple pics and filmed a short video. Sliding along under the water, it was even quieter than usual. There was no one to swim around. No one to check my form. No one to have an unspoken race with.

Refugees around the world are genuinely on their own. According to the UN Refugee Agency, in our world today there are over 65 million “displaced” people of which 21 million are refugees. Nearly half of these 21 million refugees are kids under 18 years of age. Talk about really being alone.

News outlets report on the dire situation currently happening in Africa due to many of the conflicts in the world today. The number of refugees there has nearly doubled from 2.6 million in 2011 to almost 5 million in 2016. This situation has led to huge refugee camps at the Ethiopia/Somalia border with hundreds of thousands of refugees in these camps. Nutrition surveys in 2016 documented “high levels of acute malnutrition, anaemia and stunting. In many of these refugee sites, the malnutrition is ‘critical’ and anemia is greater than 40 percent, indicating a public health crisis.”

Fortunately WE HAVE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY! We at Feeding The Nations are in the early process of working with partners on the ground who can clear containers of food with the help of the president of one of the countries. Our current goal is to send almost 3 million meals to help defeat these horrible conditions and bring some hope to so many of these young refugees who are “on their own.”

Please join me in letting them know that there are people who care, people who will help and that they are not “on their own.” Simply click the button below and choose “#TRI2FEED Ironman Triathlon.”

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Or, text your donation. Text the dollar amount you wish to give to 28950 and designate “ftnkids.” You’ll then be prompted to provide your credit card and contact information.

Last week I had to travel, while still training. Monday and Tuesday I was able to get some swimming in before wheels up at 10:30 a.m. The connecting flight was cancelled and re-routed, but I finally arrived at my destination where it rained three days straight. That gave me motivation to enjoy the treadmills at multiple hotels. After taking care of business and pounding out some miles, it was back to the airport. This time I had two good flights, but the third was delayed which turned a three-hour layover into a six-and-a-half hour layover. I arrived home at 3:00 a.m. …just in time to take care of our six-month-old as he woke to feed.

One thing I noticed was on my flight from San Francisco, Calif., to Newark, N.J. Usually you cruise around 30,000 feet with the sun shining up above any clouds. At the end of this flight, we had to circle the Newark airport and ended up flying at 5,700 feet. At this altitude with a light covering of snow, I could see things so clearly. The contours of the land—every lake, river and stream, how subdivisions and cities were laid out, even property lines—were easily distinguished. I never give these things a second thought on a daily basis, yet it quickly gave me a better understanding of the area at which we were about to arrive.

Feeding The Nations’ purpose is very similar to what happened on my flight. We don’t ever want to take people or countries to 30,000 feet, but we do want to help them get off the ground to gain a better perspective, receive encouragement and know that they can have hope. So many times after a hurricane, a tornado, a flood or an earthquake, people are stuck in the tragic circumstances that surround them. We want to come alongside them and help until the worst is over and they are able able to gain altitude in life on their own.

That is what my competing in this Ironman Triathlon is all about: helping people, so they can help themselves. I am amazed by the response already of the people who have chosen to join me in this attempt to raise $20,000. This amount will change lives of orphan children and refugee families around the world.

Please consider giving your support today! Simply click the button below and choose “#TRI2FEED Ironman Triathlon.”

Donate
Or, text your donation. Text the dollar amount you wish to give to 28950 and designate “ftnkids.” You’ll then be prompted to provide your credit card and contact information.