Dear Friends

The following is a letter sent to friends and family asking for their support in raising money for Bretton Woods Adaptive.

Dear Friends,

Almost one year ago I received the gift of an entry to Ironman Lake Placid taking place on July 26th. For the past six months I've been training for the race and also trying to pay that gift forward. I'm writing to ask for your help in doing so by joining me in raising money for Bretton Woods Adaptive (BWA). If I am one of the top fundraisers at the race in Lake Placid, the Bretton Woods program could receive up to an extra $10,000. Your donation, no matter the amount, could very possibly put BWA in the position to secure extra funds for their worthy organization.

The BWA Sports Program is a year-round program offering recreational opportunities to people of all ages regardless of disability. My Dad, who is a polio survivor with very limited use of his legs, began skiing (among other outdoor activities) only a decade ago. For most of his life he did not realize that there were opportunities like this available to him. He has thrown himself into ensuring that others do not have to wait as long as he did to enjoy the thrill of the outdoors by helping to develop and enhance the BWA Sports Program.

I've heard countless stories of how this organization has made a huge impact on the people it serves and experienced some firsthand also. If you'd like to read about a couple of them, I've written about them in my blog. Please consider reading about BWA and if you are inspired by the work they are doing then make a donation and/or spread the word by forwarding this e-mail before race day, July 26th. Whether it's $10 or $100, every bit helps!

Donate here or follow BWA on Facebook here.

Read more about Bretton Woods Adaptive here.

Follow our updates on race weekend here.

Track progress on race day here.

Thank you so much for the support and helping to spread the word!!

The day I got to help Martin

On a beautiful day last fall I was fortunate enough to be part of a hike up Mt. Willard in Crawford Notch, NH. This was not a normal hike. From the trail head to the top was only about 1 1/2 miles with an elevation gain of about 800 feet. What made it such an incredible hike is being part of a team that took Martin to the top.

Martin used to be an avid outdoorsman doing everything from hiking, to fishing and hunting. Martin was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, in 2002 and now is confined to a wheelchair with no use of his muscles with the exception of his eyes and a great smile. He can't speak, eat or breath on his own. Fortunately he has an incredible support system of family and friends to help him. I was grateful to be part of that support system that day in helping him realize a goal of his, to do a climb in the White Mountains through Bretton Woods Adaptive (BWA).

It will be difficult to express how the day went in words. It is an experience that would be so much richer if you could be there. I was able to get a few photos which will help paint the picture.

We met at the trailhead right next to train depot by AMC's Crawford House. We got there around 9:30 AM. Martin and his family arrived at about 10AM and after almost 2 hours of preparation we started up the trail.

While watching Martin get prepped for this excursion, I found myself trying to imagine what life for his family must be like on a daily basis if we needed 2 hours to prepare for a 3 mile hike. We needed to transfer Martin from his full time wheelchair to a rig that would help us help him get up the mountain. Besides the ventilator, spare batteries for the ventilator, oxygen tank, suction gear (Martin can't swallow so periodically the nurse would suction out his mouth) and medications, the family also brought a small lift that assisted in transferring him from one chair to the other.

We used a specially designed "wheelchair" that looked more like a wheelbarrow. It was actually a metal device with four handles that allowed Martin to lay in a relaxed sitting position in which we could secure his mostly limp body for the climb up the mountain.

There were six of us that rotated through four positions on the chair - one on each side for stability plus one of the front and back. It was a definite challenge carrying Martin's limp body plus the wheelchair up the mountain but the expression you could see in Martin's eyes and smile were worth the effort and then some.

I'm not going to try and describe the experience because I don't think words can do it justice. I've included a slideshow at the beginning of this post with photos from the day. Please help to support more efforts like these by donating to Bretton Woods Adaptive.

The ride I'll never forget. A 120-mile ride report.

I've had a few "epic" rides during my cycling and triathlon days but last Saturday's July 4th ride topped them all.

It was the peak bike weekend for my Ironman training which meant a 120 mile ride "in the mountains" per my training plan. Being in NH the White Mountains were the natural choice, plus there is a century ride already mapped out. All I had to do was find another 20 miles to do.

So, the route was taken care of. Now to actually ride it.

I used Map My Tri to plot the route. A great feature of the site, besides being free, is the elevation information. It told me the ride had about 5,300 feet of climbing. A little short of the 6,000 I'll face in Lake Placid but it's the closest thing to mountain climbing I can find and not make a weekend trip of it.

The route included

• Bear Notch - approximately a 3 mile climb
• Crawford Notch - long gradual 15 mile climb that gets steeper the longer into the climb you get and concludes with a 1 mile section at 13% grade
• Franconia Notch - a comparatively easy 5 mile climb and then a long downhill into the town of Lincoln.
• The Kanc - a very challenging 11 mile climb that includes a few switchbacks and no respite to the steep grade. But, the reward is a very fast 20 mile descent into Conway.

I did the ride with my buddy and Ironman training partner, Paul, and was happy to be able to experience the ride with a good friend. It made for a different and better experience.

As hard a ride as it was, it wasn't what really made the ride "epic". Here's why:

• The ride started in the sun, probably around 60 degrees and little to no wind.
• As we began to climb Crawford Notch we go through our first of two July 4th parades and it also begins to sprinkle. The further up we go, the harder it rains.
• After the Crawford Notch peak, its a nice flat ride past Bretton Woods and the Mount Washington Hotel. Normally there would be beautiful views except we were focused on staying up right as the hail started to come down! That's right, it hailed!
• After the hail it "just" downpoured for a while. We stopped at Fabian's country store across from Bretton Woods to refill our water bottles, which we definitely needed. However, being soaked to the bone, not moving and creating internal heat and then starting back up we were shivering and absolutely freezing in our tri-shorts and tri-tops.
• After making the turn on Route 3 towards Franconia Notch the rain slowly came to a stop and held off during our descent through the Notch into Lincoln. As an aside, having the sun made this a gorgeous ride. I've never cycled through this notch, only driven, and being able to bike by Cannon Mountain and the site of the Old Man in the Mountain was a special thing.
• As we roll into Lincoln towards our last big climb (the Kanc) we go through our 2nd July 4th parade and then see the clouds, hear the thunder and see the lightning. I'll ride in some pretty tough conditions, but one thing I don't mess around with is lightning so we played it safe and pulled under a store awning and watched the skies open up for about 30 minutes. It was some of the hardest rain I've ever seen. Thankfully it was warmer than up near Bretton Woods and we weren't quite as cold from not moving.
  
• At this point we've been riding for about 5 hours and still have 35 miles to go including 15 of it uphill. We are anxious to get going again. After 30 minutes the thunder and lightning appears to have stopped (even though its still raining pretty hard) so we head out. Even though my legs are spinning I'm absolutely freezing. I think the storm brought in some colder air. Paul and I said to eachother we'd actually like to start climbing just to get our heart rates up and warm up.
• After about 5 minutes, we hear thunder again and have to pull under an awning for about 15 more minutes :-( Finally we said screw it and started the last 15 mile climb even though it was still pouring.
  
• While it felt good to climb and begin to warm up, after being on the road for 85 miles, going uphill at that grade was a physical and mental challenge but we made it to the top.
• The problem with making it to the top is now we had to go down, fast, and though the rain had slowed the roads were still very wet. I tried not to think about the thin tires on wet roads hydroplaning at 35 MPH but it was not easy.
• As we traveled down the mountain, the sun came out, roads dried up and by the time we got back to the car it was beautiful.

How did we celebrate finishing our epic ride? We went for a short run :-) Afterall, Ironman is only a few weeks away!

The Value of Competition

Most reading the title of this post will probably first assume it is about competition against others. That's natural, and it's what I normally do when thinking about competition. But I got a different perspective this past weekend while attending my son's track meet.

It was the first real track meet I had been to. His bi-weekly practices were at times more like organized chaos and there was never the kind of formality like a real meet with starting guns, timers, announcers, etc.

Admittedly, I was a little skeptical of spending the entire day at the track when my Son's 3 events would take him a total about about 90 seconds. However, any opportunity to spend time with my family is a good one so I went looking forward mostly to that part of the day. However, I came away from the day with a lot more.

I got drawn into watching kids from 9 - 13 years old compete in all kinds of running events from the 50 meter dash to the 1600 meter run. Why? I absolutely loved watching these kids, including my son, digging deep within themselves and putting out incredible efforts. You could see in their faces the determination and focus going into their efforts and some were clearly turning themselves inside out to finish their race as fast as they possibly could. It didn't seem to matter if the kid was first or sixth, the same level of effort went into the competition. What a great life lesson!

And that is why I will do everything in my power as a parent to make sure my son has opportunities to compete. Yes, the competition with the kid in the next lane or against the other team provides good lessons and perspectives for kids to learn early. But, the bigger lesson in my opinion is kids learning how to compete with themselves. In other words, making that internal connection what it feels like to push beyond what you originally thought possible. What better physiological lesson to learn early and often as a kid?

These lessons don't need to be learned in traditional competitive sports. That competition happens in all kinds of activities. The dancer who won't give up until he or she nails the move they've been practicing. The musician that repeats a piece over and over again until it sounds just right. They are all competing with themselves, trying to turn out their best performance, just like the kids on the track.

My son didn't qualify for the State finals this weekend, but he beat his previous times in the 100 and 200 meter sprint. The lesson I know he learned from that effort about how to compete with himself is the best result I could hope for as a Dad.

Congrats Buddy!

T minus 30 days

I'm not sure how this happened without me noticing but there are only 30 days until Ironman Lake Placid!!

The last few weeks of training have been really good. They included some long ridees including a 110 miles through the NH Lakes Region, White Mountains and a climb over the Kancamagus Highway. The training block peaked with the Patriot Half Ironman last weekend in which I beat last years time but about 20 minutes. All this was followed by a light recovery week this week before the last push through a couple of monster weeks.

I'm going to try and write consistently over that period, but we'll see how well I do at balancing the schedule.

Making the outdoors accessible

If you've been following along for any length of time you'll know that as part of my Ironman Journey this year I'm raising money for Bretton Woods Adaptive, a non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities experience recreational opportunities. I've been collecting stories about this incredible organization and will be publishing them on this blog over the next several weeks leading up to the race.

Below is an article from Tom Eastman titled: Making the outdoors accessible to all Bretton Woods Adaptive Program blazes new trails for people with disabilities. Please read this great story and consider making a donation. It's a long read, but a worthwhile story.

BRETTON WOODS-On a fine fall day, six volunteers from the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program helped a 29-year-old consultant achieve his dream of hiking to an Appalachian Mountain Club hut.

It wasn't easy traveling the rocky, root-strewn 2.7 miles from the parking lot to the AMC's Zealand Falls Hut last Saturday, Oct. 6. But thanks to new advances in gear for the disabled, and a lot of sweat equity, it wasn't impossible, either.

Chris Hart, director of Urban and Transit Projects for the Institute for Human Centered Design at Adaptive Environments in Boston, Mass., has cerebral palsy. His condition impacts his body, but not his spirit.

Hart is an adaptive skier and busy consultant who travels frequently around the country, helping to design systems that make it easier for the mobility challenged to negotiate their way around urban buildings and transit systems. "With the aging of the Baby Boomers...there is going to be a greater demand to help design things that will allow people to remain independent longer," said Hart, who noted that last Saturday's first-ever hike by the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program to an AMC hut fulfilled a long-held dream.

"My grandfather began hiking all of New England's tallest 100 peaks when he was 75. He finished them when he was 83," said Hart. It takes some effort to understand him, given his condition, but like the hike, with a little patience, his message is loud and clear. "I could not ever hike with him. But now, today, I am hiking. It lets me go to where my grandfather went - for the first time!" he said, with a grin that said it all.

There were two rough sections along the 2.7-mile hike from the parking lot off Zealand Fall Road to the hut. Of the two, the worst was just below the hut, and it took the volunteers a good 45 minutes to port Hart in a Terra Trek Wheelchair, an all-terrain wheelchair. The wheelchair is modified to carry two poles in front that turns it into a rickshaw type vehicle.

For the section from the trailhead to two-tenths of a mile below the hut, Hart had been carried in a Trail Rider, a one-wheeled Rickshaw-like device designed and manufactured by an intern at Northeast Passage, a non-profit organization based in Durham at the University of New Hampshire dedicated to solving accessibility challenges for people with physical and cognitive disabilities.

The hike from the trailhead to the hut took three hours Saturday, while the hike out Sunday took two and a half hours.

The weather changed from the morning's sunshine, and rain began to fall as they got to the hut Saturday afternoon. After a quick visit to Zealand Falls next to the hut, where the fall foliage was at its full glory, all changed out of their wet clothes into dry gear and then enjoyed a hearty meal prepared by the AMC hut crew of roast turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce before bunking down for the night by lights out at 9:30 p.m.

Sandy Olney, director of the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program, said one benefit of doing the hike in fall was no bugs. "I needed folks to be available so it had to be a weekend, and I hoped Columbus Day Weekend would give me the number I needed to get people up on the trail. We had six wheelchair team members and three 'Sherpas,' who carried supplies and gear up to the hut prior to our making the trek with Chris," said Olney.

In addition to Hart, Annie O'Neill also made the trek. She is a 26-year-old who has autism and who is an avid downhill skier and hiker. A resident of Wilder, Vt., she works two days a week in food service at Landmark College, Putney, Vt., and volunteers in the kitchen at Lebanon SeniorCenter, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and David's House.

Volunteers participating on the trek as wheelchair team members were Lennie Fillius of Bethlehem; Jim Hogan, a construction worker from Franconia; Tom Norcott of Franconia, Emily Voytek, a college senior majoring in geology at Tufts University in Boston; Gary Biadasz of Bethlehem, and Olney.

The Sherpas were Charlotte Fleetwood of Cambridge, Mass.; Keith Wortzman of Boston; Roy Loiselle of Cranston, R.I., and Herb and Ellen Kingsbury of Kittery Point, Maine, as well as Fillius' wife, Mary, who came up on Sunday to help transport gear from the hut back to the trailhead. Also recruited at the hut Saturday night to help with the portage out Sunday was a French Canadian guest name Stefan, along with members of the AMC hut crew, who helped carry gear down.

"It proved that wilderness and back-country hut experience is accessible to people who use wheelchairs. The inconvenience of having to use a wheelchair should not keep someone from hiking with their friends," said Olney this week,

The AMC caught a lot of flak when it rebuilt its Galehead Hut to make it handicapped accessible, including its restrooms. But, proponents argued at the time, one never knows what technological breakthroughs will occur over the next century, thus bringing the outdoor experience accessible to all.

"The bathrooms at both Zealand and Galehead are handicapped accessible. If there is a will there is a way in terms of bringing people to the huts. I like to say that if we put the programming out there, people will come forward and take advantage of it and enjoy it. It's one of those, 'If you build it they will come,' kind of things, " said Olney.

Located in Zealand Notch, the former scene of indiscriminate logging and devastating fires in the 19th century, Zealand Falls Hut occupies a choice four-season spot with outstanding views at the eastern edge of the Pemigewasset Wilderness.

Completed in 1932 along with Galehead as part of legendary hut master Joe Dodge's plan to make all of the huts a day's hike apart, it operates year-round.

The Bretton Woods Adaptive Program until this year was a ski program.

"But what was once the steering committee became a board of directors when they applied for nonprofit status with the IRS in the fall of 2006," said Olney. She said the board presented a proposal to go to a four-season program, and to hire Olney as full-time director. The new owners of Bretton Woods - CNL Income Properties - embraced the program. The Bretton Woods Adaptive Program is one of the primary beneficiaries of Olympic ski great and Bretton Woods director of skiing Bode Miller's annual Bodefest.

The program has expanded to include not only skiing, but hiking, road cycling, downhill mountain biking, paddling, water skiing and fishing.

The goal, said Olney, is to "enhance the lives of our participants by creating opportunities for them to enjoy outdoor activities."

Having people experience environments that they were previously excluded from, and to experience the freedom of speed in motion, "is exhilarating for me as well as the participant," said Olney, formerly of Nantucket, but a resident of Mount Washington Valley for the past five years.

Among her greatest success stories was this past winter, when Olney and crew helped a woman with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis fulfill her dream to go skiing.

"Erin Brady Worsham, an artist from Nashville, Tenn., who has ALS, first encountered Bode Miller while watching the Winter Olympics on TV. She was intrigued, so she Googled Bode, and found a link to the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program. Erin, who lives with her husband in and 12-year-old son, had never skied before, but she was excited by the element of speed that it could give," related Olney.

She corresponded with the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program's president of the board of directors, Cris Criswell, who suggested she come up and try adaptive skiing at Bretton Woods this past March.

"She only has the use of her muscles from just her forehead. She cannot swallow or breathe on her own. She has been on a feeding tube and respirator for 11 years. She paints, writes an speaks with an electronic sensor taped between her eyebrows. She calls that her 'cosmic connection,' " said Olney.

The resort provided her family with food and lodging for the visit. It was a cooperative effort between Bretton Woods and the adaptive program at Loon, which loaned two master tetherers, George Hollingsworth and Dave Blenkhorn.

"We had to rig the bi-ski to accommodate her. She needed head support so we ended up transferring her head rest from her own wheelchair to the bi-ski, a device which is a sit-ski with two articulating skis," said Olney.

The team connected her respirator to a portable battery, took her up the Zephyr chair, and at the top, disconnected the portable battery so that the respirator was powered by its internal battery.

"We skied down Crawford's Blaze, and about halfway down we started to get a low-battery warning. The battery failed sooner than anticipated due to the cold weather. So, we high-tailed it to the bottom! We got to the bottom, got her plugged back in and caught it all in time before it completely failed. We did have a backup in case the respirator failed on the slopes - we had an Ambubag, which has a pump which allows you to manually pump air into her respirator, but thankfully we did not have to use it," said Olney.

Erin Brady Worsham wrote the following account via e-mail: "The people of the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program took my vision in 'Go Fast' and made it a reality. I can never truly thank them for that. So, why did a girl from Nashville, Tenn., who's almost completely paralyzed from ALS and breathes with a ventilator, and who had never skied before in her life, feel the need to make a pilgrimage to the White Mountains to go skiing? Cris, who is also a minister, put it best in an excerpt from his invocation at the annual Hartford Ski Spectacular in Breckinridge, Colo., which is the country's largest winter sports festival for people with disabilities. 'So whether by birth, by disease, by accident or by war, whether you ski or whether you ride, one board or two, two legs or one, sit-down, stand-up, with or without sight, it is our magic carpet ride - we all glide over frozen, sparkling crystals for the same reason, to be transported into another world, a place where the crippled dance, the lame walk and the blind see, where we may all, each and everyone, no one left behind, all together, mount up with wings like eagles and join the dance which has no end.' Amen to that!"

The Bretton Woods program has 60 volunteers in winter, and for this past summer, the program's first, the program had 25 volunteers. Olney said the rewards of volunteering are many.

"You get the glow. When everyone came down off the mountain Sunday and we went and grabbed some sandwiches together, everyone was so positive and sharing what they had achieved, and appreciating it so much, it was great to be around that positive energy," said Olney.

For more information about the Bretton Woods Adaptive Program, call 278-3398; e-mail adaptiveprogram@mountwashingtonresort.com; or write Mount Washington Resort, Route 302 Bretton Woods 03575; on the web at www.mountwashingtonresort.com.

What was I thinking?!

My (far from done) list of training thoughts.

A friend of mine from work, Brett, recently asked me what I think about during all my training time. It was a hard question to answer, not because I haven't considered that question even before he asked it, but because the range of things that go through my mind on a 6 hour bike ride, 3 hour run or 5 hour race is so broad.

My thoughts have a very stream of consciousness feel to them so I as I try to give you a sense of what I'm thinking, so I'm guessing it will come across that way. Well Brett, here's an attempt to capture what I think about while training and racing, even though it's a very small portion of all the thoughts that scroll across my mind.

• Why did I sign up for Ironman again?
  
• Am I going fast enough?
• Am I going slow enough?
  
• Is my heart rate too high?
• Is my heart rate too slow?
• I wonder what Amy and Connor are doing?
• Am I being a bad husband and father by spending all this time training?
• How could I be a better husband and father.
• How am I going to fit the next training into my schedule?
• What a beautiful sunrise.
• How cool is it that I saw a deer/moose/falcon/rabbit/snake/frog while out on my ride/run.
• Should I go this way or that way?
• I must be one of the luckiest people alive to be able to do this right now.
• What the hell am I doing out here in the rain/dark/heat/cold/snow?
• I bet that not many other triathletes are out here in the rain/dark/heat/cold/snow? I'll have a leg up on them when race season comes.
• Oh crap, I forgot to pay that bill.
• How am I going to pay that bill?
• When is this f'in hill going to end?
• Why did I sign up for Ironman again?
• It would really suck if I crashed going down this hill at 40 MPH.
• When am I going to have time to shave my legs before this weekend's long ride?
• I need to pick up the pace if I want to hit my goal time.
• I'm feeling really great, I should pick up the pace a bit.
• I'm feeling like s*!t, I better slow it down a bit.
• I could do a 7 minute per mile pace to if I weighed 150.
• I can't afford to get a bike tune up, get new race wheels, get new tires - which one can I do?
• How am I going to fit 23 hours of training in next week, go to Connor's track meet, go to Connor's track practice, do my share around the house, see my wife for more than 15 minutes?
• If I don't finish this workout until 7:15, what should I have for breakfast so that I can still get to work on time?
• What should I bring to work for food so that I get enough carbs and calories before tonight's workout?
• Why did I sign up for Ironman again?
• All I need is within me now
  
• Why did that idiot have to toss their cigarette out of the window?
• Why did that idiot have to pass me so close and almost run me off the road?
• What should I write about for my next blog post at work?
• I can't wait to go camping with Connor after the Ironman.
• I wish I wasn't training and took the family camping instead.
• What does Connor think of me spending all this time training? Does he see that I set a goal and taking steps to reach it or does he just know I'm not at home?
• Perfect circles (when I'm on the bike to help me focus on a good pedal stroke)
  
• What does Amy think of me spending all of this time training? Does she see that I set a goal and taking steps to reach it or does she just know I'm not at home?
• Why did I decide to do the Ironman, again?
• I think it would be cool to do a cross-country ride on my bike.
• I wonder if I could do a 100 mile run.
• Why did I sign up for Ironman again?
• If I can just make it to that mailbox I'll let myself walk for a minute.
• Don't think about having to do 10 miles, just keep running to the next telephone pole.
• Wow, I'm feeling pretty good for having been out here this long.
• This is not going to be a good workout. Get ready to suffer for a while.
• What is that pain in my knee/ankle/shoulder/chest/foot/calf/hamstring?
• I think I want to try bike racing.
• Lean forward, good arm swing (when I'm running to help focus on good form)
  
• I love this song!
• I hope that I can finish Ironman and not pass out.
• I hope that I can stay up until midnight on race day to watch the last of the racers finish.
• I hope that I'm not one of the racers that takes until midnight to finish.
• Is Twitter really going to last?
• Maybe I should have stuck it out in real estate.
• I'm so glad that I got out of real estate when I did.
• If someone with Lou Gehrig's disease can have the courage to ski down a mountain, then I shouldn't complain about finishing this workout/race.
• What can I do to raise more money for Bretton Woods Adaptive.
• Even though people know I'm training for a race, do they really know what it takes to be able to finish this race?
• I wish there wasn't so much litter.
  
• Why did I sign up for Ironman again?
• Should I have a shot of gel now or wait another 15 minutes?
• Man I have to pee, where on the route is private enough that I can jump into the woods?
• What junk food am I going to have once Ironman is over?
• Will I be able to get my weight down to my goal before race day?
• Should I sign up for Ironman again next year?
• Where am I going to go for my 100 mile ride this weekend?
• How can anyone watch NASCAR? And why would you pay money to go watch it live?
• What am I going to do with the 15 - 20 hours I'll have back after Ironman is over?
• Man, this Kings of Leon song is mesmerizing!
• I wonder if I'll start to cry again as I approach the finish line in Lake Placid.
• Should I really tell my co-workers on Monday when they ask what I did this weekend that I ran 15 miles and rode 110 miles? Does that come across as bragging?
• Maybe I should take up a musical instrument, I've always wanted to learn to play the piano.
• How many calories do I need to take in?
• How am I going to take in enough calories after this workout? Can I really eat 4,000 more before the end of the day?
  
• Why did I sign up for Ironman again?