Friday, February 19, 2010

Share your Life

Today is an amazing day. I just witnessed my good friend Brian Balmes complete a 40 mile run. Folks, he started at 1:00 am. Three years ago, I was struggling to get back into shape after taking a 7 year vacation from athletics. While I was a start athlete in cross country and track in high school and competed in the SEC in college; I had had enough. I wanted to chase girls, stay out late and eat bad. After seven years, it was time to get back at it. The first time that I met Brian, was during a cycle class where he is the instructor. From that moment, I knew that I wanted to get to know more about triathlons, pushing my own personal limits, and getting to know Brian.

Lucky for me, Brian and I actually have a great deal in common as far as our personalities and we became friends. Over the past few years Brian has shared many of his thoughts, feelings, and perspectives on life. During our long training runs we solve the worlds problems. Brian's continued journey thru cancer (5x survivor) changed his life for the better. Brian choose to take a horrible situation and make the best out of it. Not only is he a light of hope for all folks with cancer, his positive attitude on living life to the fullest is totally infectious. I got the bug.

You see when you share your life with someone, you don't know what that positive ripple effect will be. Sometimes it's small, sometimes it's large. Brian has changed my life for the better, and know I "pay it forward" by doing the same for others.

Share your life, life it to the fullest, and take a lesson from Brian by making the best out of the worst.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

There is always an upside

This has been an amazing week. You never know what you are going to get on any given day. Groundhog's day was on Monday. It was a rainy, windy, cold day outside when the alarm went off at 3:50 am. I had a slight grin on my face as I was thinking of Bill Murray in the movie "Groundhog Day." But the day ended up full of suprises that I will comment on at some point in the future.

As my training for Ironman Arizona is soon around the corner, I was also getting ready for a shot in my hip to hopefully subside my injury. I am hopeful that this will help. So far so good. I also did something that I have never done before, start taking notes for a business plan.

It's off to Tucson next week!