Humbled in Austin

Last year I stumbled upon the Tri world and was content with all of the events that took place in and around the Boston Area. While at an EO event, a good friend Dominic C. told me he had just signed up to do a ½ Ironman and it was incomprehensible to me at the time that I could even think of doing one of those. Dominic had just spent time with a bunch of Former Birthing Of Giants graduates at their yearly Gathering of Titans session at MIT. This group had invited him along for the journey and he told me I should give it a try.

I was in a similar program called EMP at MIT and was not sure how a class that had graduated so many years ago would accept a new jack, someone still enrolled, someone far from a titan or giant. Last year that group welcomed me with open arms and yearlong friendships have been formed, this year I came back to race with this group and was just humbled on the generosity and selflessness within the group. What an amazing experience and journey this is turning out to be.

We had 20 plus racers this year, down from last year quite a bit, but no worries with that. There were 4 racers this year who were competing in their first ever TRI event. To start with a ½ Ironman is quite amazing and awe inspiring. All four finished the race in well under the allowed time and all but 2 racers this year personal bested their previous showing here in Austin.

While practice swimming on Saturday, Bobby started to have some difficulty in the water. Open water swimming with a wetsuit can take some getting used to, but after spending 30 or so minutes talking him down and off the ledge Jason and others were able to keep him in the water while getting him a bit more comfortable with the experience. I learned the next morning that Jason who had just finished KONA a week earlier had registered for the race and was planning on swimming with bobby during the race to keep him focused and to get him thru the swim. That’s awesome.

While we posted 2 DNF’s for the day, they are for amazing cause. Jason just swan to make sure Booby could get thru it with out distress, Jack swam it for a workout, having been sidelined for personal reasons. Jack also ran the back half of the race with his sister cheering her on, and by cheering I mean yelling and screaming and pushing her beyond her limits.

It was an amazingly beautiful fall day in Austin, 80 plus degrees in the afternoon and sunny. Such a great day for a race. All of our athletes crossed the finish line and 4 more virgins have been converted to tri addicts for sure. Amy completed her first ½ and is now signed up to do her first full in may in the woodlands, Peter dropped 30 pounds getting ready for this event and wins the award for happiest racers of the day skipping and smiling all the way around the course. Brock made his family proud again with a great race, he claims to ride a maseratti bike with a Yugo engine but I am hear to say Yugo don’t make things that fast. Patrick personal bested his time from last year, all that training during the work day has made him a better athlete and much more focused on the things that matter in the office. Val killed it out their with her training race getting her ready for her first full Ironman in Cozamel this Nov 28^th. How does Tony swim so fast? 30 minutes, are you kidding me. There are more to mention, but the three biggies are Randy Cohen for hosting us all for an amazing BBQ dinner after the race at his wonderful home looking over Lake Travis. Randy I am now a believer, and second is Jack Daly for laying down this as a challenge sometime ago to put together. The biggest props go out to the Abernathy Brothers, Justin and Jason for organizing this and making it all a reality. Congrats to both of them for realizing one of their dreams, the week prior in their finishes at KONA, the Ironman world championships.

Here is looking forward to long continued friendships, many more years of racing together and all the new faces that will join and take on this amazing challenge, journey and experience. I am humbled in the presence of so much love, sharing and selflessness. It's clear that what we do for a living and how big our companies is secondary at best in this group and it is more about who you are and what you are. Thank you for helping to make me a better person, or at least want to become one.