First and foremost, I'd like to congratulate Matt Riccio once again for receiving this year's Friendship Scholarship award. He's a top-notch guy. He really portrayed the qualities we look for and the qualities I personally hold dear: honesty, humor, generosity, loyalty and kindness. If you can model yourself after those qualities, you've really got something. It's not easy to do that, but people that are able to live their life in that way, at least I can say, I'd like to surround myself with them. Please check out the blurb in the June 27th edition of The Southington Citizen, which can be viewed online by clicking here.
The past week has been great and we've received a good deal of support due to last week's article about the scholarship in The Citizen. I got a card in the mail, along with a donation, from a local resident and her words were extremely nice and made us realize that we are doing something that really matters. She said that she was touched by the article and our effort, and that friendship should never be taken for granted. I was literally taken aback by her words, so much so that I personally called her to thank her for her donation. This was the first time that we've received a "random" donation and it was not only groundbreaking, but also a bit special, just to know that people can relate to our cause.
This past weekend, I was in New Jersey, on Long Beach Island. I met the producer of the movie, Kenny Kohler, and his girlfriend there. The island was beautiful. Nothing against New Jersey, but I didn't ever expect to see such nice places in Jersey. I got there on Thursday night, slept well, and got up around 8 AM on Friday to start filming. I guess this is an appropriate point to give a shout out to Kenny. The guy is extremely talented and knows how to throw an artistic spin on something so bland as riding a bike. Furthermore, his girlfriend, and my friend, Barb helped us out also. I cannot say enough about her either, such a selfless, happy person. Kenny and Barb are just great people, the type of people you just want to surround yourself with because they literally just overflow with positivity. But back to the task at hand, did some riding, got some great shots around the island, and then went for a 9 mile run in the heat. Tough....it's like a different ballgame in the heat and humidity.
Saturday morning, Kenny and I got up at 5 AM to get some shots while the sun came up. It's so nice to be up before anyone else and to be on the beach before anyone. I did some running and Kenny did his thing, never failing to impress. I'm telling ya, you're going to want to see this movie, it's going to be special. Later in the day, we got some more running shots in the hottest part of the day, and it sure was tough, but (knock on wood), I think I'm getting more accustomed to training in otherwise dangerous heat, and I'm learning different things that work in order to keep my core temperature down. Lots of salt, electrolytes, and water.
It was a great weekend, and it really got me thinking about all of these great places I've gone to in order to train. I've trained in Connecticut (obviously), Rhode Island, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, and Florida. I've seen so many great things already, and I'm still two months away from the big race! This journey so far has been the best experience of my life, on so many different levels.
This week will be tough in terms of training. I will stay true to the pool, and also try to get some good rides in during the first few days of the week. On Thursday, I will be going on my first "Century ride", which is 100 miles. I've never gone that long and i'm curious to see how I do. To make matters tougher, I'll be going with my buddy Rohan, who just got back from climbing Mount Everest (yes, Mount Everest!) a month ago. He did that with no help of oxygen tanks, so needless to say, his lung capacity is insane and his fitness level probably makes me seem like a little leaguer. I'm glad to be going with him though, because I know it'll be tougher than if I went with anyone else. I'm really looking forward to that, especially since I have Ironman Providence 70.3 in less than two weeks.
I can't say thank you enough. I really can't. Thank you all for wanting to be a part of my journey, it's super special.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Two Races in 24 hours
I hope you all got a chance to read the article, and if not, it can be found here (page 1) and here (page 2). Thank you for all the kind words and support, it's much appreciated.
This weekend I did something I've never done before, attempted to do two races in one day. Saturday I competed in the USAT CT Club Championship triathlon in Shelton and Sunday I did the Fairfield Half Marathon. The weekend's now over, both races completed, and no injuries to speak of, so I'd say it was a great weekend.
Saturday morning, I got up around 4:30 AM and got all my gear packed and headed to the race. As soon as I got there, I could tell it was going to be a battle and on the drive, I was noticing all the hills. I got to Indian Well State Park and set up in the transition area, got my race packet, got my number, and then headed to the Heat tent. There was a good bunch of us, about 12 or so. At around 6:45, I headed down to the lake, and it was a little chilly, probably around the high 60's. The horn blew and the frenzy began. Again, I felt awful during the first half of the swim, was mentally not right, and was overall just struggling to stay in the middle of the pack. Luckily, this weekend, i didn't get punched in the face and didn't have to scramble for my goggles in the water. And once again, about halfway through the swim, i finally got comfortable and started thinking about my form. I don't know why it takes me a half mile to start thinking about my form, but even so, I finally got into a decent groove. I exited on the beach at 31 minutes, 6 minutes faster than last weekend, probably due to the swim stroke tweaks I worked on in the pool this past week. I got to T1 and was fumbling around trying to get my cycling shoes on. My transition time was over a minute which is not good, but I knew I could make up that time. The bike course surprisingly had only two hills that were painful, but otherwise was pretty flat, with only some inclination. The woman that was leading the woman's race was side by side with me the whole time, and she was pushing pretty hard, but nothing I couldn't handle, so i decided to stick with her to keep a good pace. I did so and had a great bike time, averaging 20.5 mph the entire bike. I got into T2 with my legs feeling fairly fresh, put on my running shoes and I was off on the 6.2 mile run course. I decided early to try and push it, and I did that. My breathing was spot on and had no problems, other than the steep inclines and declines. Not that they were problematic, but they were painful. Luckily, most of the run course was shaded so staying cool was pretty easy, grabbing two cups of cold water at every aid station, one for pouring over my head and one to drink. To make matters a bit harder, it was a two loop course, and so I'd see the hills twice. But all and all, it was a good run, averaged a 6:47 pace. When the day was done, Team Heat won the championship, and the third place finisher overall was Bill Schuman who is a longtime Heat member, so it was a great day. Not to mention Outback Steakhouse and Massage Envy at the finish line waiting for us! It was a lot of fun, and a bit bittersweet, knowing that would be the last Olympic distance (aka "short course") triathlon I would be doing this season.
Saturday night, I got some good rest, knowing the next morning a half marathon would lie ahead. I was a bit on the fence on whether or not I wanted to try and set a personal record at that distance or not, doing an triathlon the day before, and I really wasn't decided until this morning. I got up at 4:30 AM again, and my legs felt good, so I knew right then that I'd try and go for it. The time I had to beat was 1:34, or 7:07 mile pace for 13.1 miles. I was meeting up with Kristin Paradis and Mike Stasiuk for this race, and we met up and drove down together. It's just great to be able to do a race with some good friends, and it makes it that much more fun. We got to the beach at 6:45 AM, with plenty of time to spare. We used the bathroom, stretched, talked, ate. And then all of a sudden, it was race time, 8:30. There were over 3000 runners there, so it was tough to get comfortable for the first mile or so, elbow to elbow. I finally broke free at about the half mile mark, and running being my go-to event, started passing people. I did the first mile in just over 6 minutes and my legs felt great, although my breathing wasn't perfect. I had made the decision to push the pace hard, and did so throughout. There were plenty of aid stations, and the fire department was on the course, opening fire hydrants for the runners to stay cool. That was great, i had no heat issues at all, even though it was extremely humid out. It seemed like at no point during the race was my jersey not soaked with water. Nutritionally, I only took one gel at mile 8, and drank mostly water, taking GU2o (comparable to Gatorade Endurance Formula) twice, just to get some salt in me. For the second day in a row, I was pacing myself with another female runner, and we battled the entire time - I'd surge a bit, she'd surge head right with me, I'd drop back a bit, she'd drop back and get her breathing right also. From mile 8 until the finish line, we were shoulder to shoulder. We didn't talk much other than when I said to her "You rock girl" and she said back "No, you rock." That was great knowing that we were in this together. The last two miles were tough, and it seemed never ending, but I finally crossed the finish line at 1:13:31, and gave my pacing partner a big hug. It worked out to 6:57 per mile for 13.2 miles, which was a personal best. I was satisfied with that, especially knowing I wasn't full strength due to the race the day before. I think that after today, I could run an 8 - 8:30 pace at Ironman Providence 70.3, having to run that half marathon after a 1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike. I believe that I'm ready for that race, and that's next up on the list. That's on July 13th, so I have some time to put in some training time. Although i will be doing the full Ironman just to finish, I'm going to try and compete and be a factor in Providence. I think that's a great distance to me, because it seems like at the Olympic distance, I always run out of race, and I get faster as the race goes on. So I'm really excited to take the next step to "long course" triathlon.
Again, thank you all so much for all the support, there's nothing like coming home from a race and having someone say "Good job today." Thank you.
This weekend I did something I've never done before, attempted to do two races in one day. Saturday I competed in the USAT CT Club Championship triathlon in Shelton and Sunday I did the Fairfield Half Marathon. The weekend's now over, both races completed, and no injuries to speak of, so I'd say it was a great weekend.
Saturday morning, I got up around 4:30 AM and got all my gear packed and headed to the race. As soon as I got there, I could tell it was going to be a battle and on the drive, I was noticing all the hills. I got to Indian Well State Park and set up in the transition area, got my race packet, got my number, and then headed to the Heat tent. There was a good bunch of us, about 12 or so. At around 6:45, I headed down to the lake, and it was a little chilly, probably around the high 60's. The horn blew and the frenzy began. Again, I felt awful during the first half of the swim, was mentally not right, and was overall just struggling to stay in the middle of the pack. Luckily, this weekend, i didn't get punched in the face and didn't have to scramble for my goggles in the water. And once again, about halfway through the swim, i finally got comfortable and started thinking about my form. I don't know why it takes me a half mile to start thinking about my form, but even so, I finally got into a decent groove. I exited on the beach at 31 minutes, 6 minutes faster than last weekend, probably due to the swim stroke tweaks I worked on in the pool this past week. I got to T1 and was fumbling around trying to get my cycling shoes on. My transition time was over a minute which is not good, but I knew I could make up that time. The bike course surprisingly had only two hills that were painful, but otherwise was pretty flat, with only some inclination. The woman that was leading the woman's race was side by side with me the whole time, and she was pushing pretty hard, but nothing I couldn't handle, so i decided to stick with her to keep a good pace. I did so and had a great bike time, averaging 20.5 mph the entire bike. I got into T2 with my legs feeling fairly fresh, put on my running shoes and I was off on the 6.2 mile run course. I decided early to try and push it, and I did that. My breathing was spot on and had no problems, other than the steep inclines and declines. Not that they were problematic, but they were painful. Luckily, most of the run course was shaded so staying cool was pretty easy, grabbing two cups of cold water at every aid station, one for pouring over my head and one to drink. To make matters a bit harder, it was a two loop course, and so I'd see the hills twice. But all and all, it was a good run, averaged a 6:47 pace. When the day was done, Team Heat won the championship, and the third place finisher overall was Bill Schuman who is a longtime Heat member, so it was a great day. Not to mention Outback Steakhouse and Massage Envy at the finish line waiting for us! It was a lot of fun, and a bit bittersweet, knowing that would be the last Olympic distance (aka "short course") triathlon I would be doing this season.
Saturday night, I got some good rest, knowing the next morning a half marathon would lie ahead. I was a bit on the fence on whether or not I wanted to try and set a personal record at that distance or not, doing an triathlon the day before, and I really wasn't decided until this morning. I got up at 4:30 AM again, and my legs felt good, so I knew right then that I'd try and go for it. The time I had to beat was 1:34, or 7:07 mile pace for 13.1 miles. I was meeting up with Kristin Paradis and Mike Stasiuk for this race, and we met up and drove down together. It's just great to be able to do a race with some good friends, and it makes it that much more fun. We got to the beach at 6:45 AM, with plenty of time to spare. We used the bathroom, stretched, talked, ate. And then all of a sudden, it was race time, 8:30. There were over 3000 runners there, so it was tough to get comfortable for the first mile or so, elbow to elbow. I finally broke free at about the half mile mark, and running being my go-to event, started passing people. I did the first mile in just over 6 minutes and my legs felt great, although my breathing wasn't perfect. I had made the decision to push the pace hard, and did so throughout. There were plenty of aid stations, and the fire department was on the course, opening fire hydrants for the runners to stay cool. That was great, i had no heat issues at all, even though it was extremely humid out. It seemed like at no point during the race was my jersey not soaked with water. Nutritionally, I only took one gel at mile 8, and drank mostly water, taking GU2o (comparable to Gatorade Endurance Formula) twice, just to get some salt in me. For the second day in a row, I was pacing myself with another female runner, and we battled the entire time - I'd surge a bit, she'd surge head right with me, I'd drop back a bit, she'd drop back and get her breathing right also. From mile 8 until the finish line, we were shoulder to shoulder. We didn't talk much other than when I said to her "You rock girl" and she said back "No, you rock." That was great knowing that we were in this together. The last two miles were tough, and it seemed never ending, but I finally crossed the finish line at 1:13:31, and gave my pacing partner a big hug. It worked out to 6:57 per mile for 13.2 miles, which was a personal best. I was satisfied with that, especially knowing I wasn't full strength due to the race the day before. I think that after today, I could run an 8 - 8:30 pace at Ironman Providence 70.3, having to run that half marathon after a 1.2 mile swim and 56 mile bike. I believe that I'm ready for that race, and that's next up on the list. That's on July 13th, so I have some time to put in some training time. Although i will be doing the full Ironman just to finish, I'm going to try and compete and be a factor in Providence. I think that's a great distance to me, because it seems like at the Olympic distance, I always run out of race, and I get faster as the race goes on. So I'm really excited to take the next step to "long course" triathlon.
Again, thank you all so much for all the support, there's nothing like coming home from a race and having someone say "Good job today." Thank you.
Friday, June 20, 2008
The Southington Citizen Article - June 20, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon Race Report
If you're reading this, you've most likely seen the article on our effort in the Friday, June 20th edition of The Southington Citizen, so first and foremost, thanks for visiting. Please sign my guestbook. I will be updating this blog on a regular basis. Jared's parents asked that I document this whole process: race reports, training days, Ironman preparations....the whole gamut, and I am happy to do that. You can scroll down and read about how this idea was born in my first post.
This past Saturday, I competed in my first triathlon of the season, the Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon in Middlebury, at Lake Quassapaug. It was at Quassy Amusement park. The swim was one mile, the bike was 25 miles and the run was a 10k (6.2 miles). I got up at about 5 AM, and my father picked me up soon after. I put my ipod on and got my bike and gear to the transition area, set up all my stuff, ate, and pretty much just focused on the task at hand. The water was a warm 75 degrees, but the race was wetsuit legal, and I wore a sleeveless wetsuit. Seeing how far a mile is in open water is quite intimidating and I had never swam that long a distance in a race, but the horn went off and off I went. I tried to settle into my stroke early, but I was getting kicked, punched and overall, just annoyed with the hundred or so other swimmers in my wave. I finally got halfway through and got dialed in and comfortable. It was a bit disheartening to take about 15 minutes to finally get comfortable, but when I did, it felt good. 37 minutes and change after the horn blew, I was out of the water, peeling my wetsuit off and running to the transition. I sat down, put on socks, and my cycling shoes, put my sunglasses on, and finally my helmet. I was wearing my tri suit under my wetsuit so that was convenient. I took off like a bat out of hell, and strapped on my gloves during the first mile, and then settled into the aero position. The first 7 miles or so were fast, lots of flats and downhills. I must have been averaging well over 21 mph when the hills hit. The rest of the bike course was a lot of climbing and not many flats or downhills. With about 5 miles left on the bike, I caught up to one of my teammates, and when i saw him, I knew I was killin' it on the bike. Come to find out, Rob was 4th overall out of the water, and over 10 minutes ahead of me, which meant I had made up over 10 minutes on the bike. He saw me and pulled away, but not a big deal, he's in the age group under me. This was a great thing though, because Rob is an absolute animal, and he's already done Ironman New Zealand and a half ironman in New Hampshire. He's a serious athlete and to know I was right there with him was satisfying. I finished up on the bike, and had a fast transition into my running shoes, and also put on my visor. Then I was out for a 6.2 mile run and my legs felt fresh. I took off again, planning to negatively split the run, in other words, run faster as I got further into the run. Turned out nobody passed me on the run, and i was seeing people going the other way, on their way back and I was picking them off, one by one. The one hill on the course was quite brutal, but I knew I could make up time on it, so I pushed hard up that hill. I really was negative splitting, and before I knew it, i was crossing the finish line. I did the run at a 6:37 per mile pace, which is 7 seconds slower than what I wanted, but that's ok. I simply ran out of race. Had that run been 10 miles, it would have been a different story, but I ended up placing fourth, with a time of 2 hours and 37 minutes. A very respectable effort for the longest triathlon I've done thus far.
This weekend I will be racing with my team at the HealthNet Connecticut Club Championships in Shelton, CT. It's the same distance, but not as hilly of a course. It's a sure bet that all of the best in CT will be there and I'll be ready. On Sunday, I am running in the Fairfield Half Marathon, and I'm not sure if I want to take that easy or try and set a personal record for that distance. The only reason why I'm even thinking about blasting that race is because of how flat that course is, I think it'll make for some fast times. All and all, I'm extremely happy that it's officially race season. I can now see the results of the past year of training. Have a great week and weekend everyone. Thanks for stoppin by!
This past Saturday, I competed in my first triathlon of the season, the Pat Griskus Olympic Triathlon in Middlebury, at Lake Quassapaug. It was at Quassy Amusement park. The swim was one mile, the bike was 25 miles and the run was a 10k (6.2 miles). I got up at about 5 AM, and my father picked me up soon after. I put my ipod on and got my bike and gear to the transition area, set up all my stuff, ate, and pretty much just focused on the task at hand. The water was a warm 75 degrees, but the race was wetsuit legal, and I wore a sleeveless wetsuit. Seeing how far a mile is in open water is quite intimidating and I had never swam that long a distance in a race, but the horn went off and off I went. I tried to settle into my stroke early, but I was getting kicked, punched and overall, just annoyed with the hundred or so other swimmers in my wave. I finally got halfway through and got dialed in and comfortable. It was a bit disheartening to take about 15 minutes to finally get comfortable, but when I did, it felt good. 37 minutes and change after the horn blew, I was out of the water, peeling my wetsuit off and running to the transition. I sat down, put on socks, and my cycling shoes, put my sunglasses on, and finally my helmet. I was wearing my tri suit under my wetsuit so that was convenient. I took off like a bat out of hell, and strapped on my gloves during the first mile, and then settled into the aero position. The first 7 miles or so were fast, lots of flats and downhills. I must have been averaging well over 21 mph when the hills hit. The rest of the bike course was a lot of climbing and not many flats or downhills. With about 5 miles left on the bike, I caught up to one of my teammates, and when i saw him, I knew I was killin' it on the bike. Come to find out, Rob was 4th overall out of the water, and over 10 minutes ahead of me, which meant I had made up over 10 minutes on the bike. He saw me and pulled away, but not a big deal, he's in the age group under me. This was a great thing though, because Rob is an absolute animal, and he's already done Ironman New Zealand and a half ironman in New Hampshire. He's a serious athlete and to know I was right there with him was satisfying. I finished up on the bike, and had a fast transition into my running shoes, and also put on my visor. Then I was out for a 6.2 mile run and my legs felt fresh. I took off again, planning to negatively split the run, in other words, run faster as I got further into the run. Turned out nobody passed me on the run, and i was seeing people going the other way, on their way back and I was picking them off, one by one. The one hill on the course was quite brutal, but I knew I could make up time on it, so I pushed hard up that hill. I really was negative splitting, and before I knew it, i was crossing the finish line. I did the run at a 6:37 per mile pace, which is 7 seconds slower than what I wanted, but that's ok. I simply ran out of race. Had that run been 10 miles, it would have been a different story, but I ended up placing fourth, with a time of 2 hours and 37 minutes. A very respectable effort for the longest triathlon I've done thus far.
This weekend I will be racing with my team at the HealthNet Connecticut Club Championships in Shelton, CT. It's the same distance, but not as hilly of a course. It's a sure bet that all of the best in CT will be there and I'll be ready. On Sunday, I am running in the Fairfield Half Marathon, and I'm not sure if I want to take that easy or try and set a personal record for that distance. The only reason why I'm even thinking about blasting that race is because of how flat that course is, I think it'll make for some fast times. All and all, I'm extremely happy that it's officially race season. I can now see the results of the past year of training. Have a great week and weekend everyone. Thanks for stoppin by!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Welcome Southington (and beyond)
Thanks for visiting. Please sign the guestbook, underneath the countdown, on the right-hand side of this page.
82 more days. 82 more 24 hour increments. 82 more days until I put myself through pain like I’ve never felt before. 82 more days…
The date was August 31, 2007. I was on my way to the Bronx and I thought to myself, “It’s time to tell my father.” I called my father, fully knowing what he’d say: “Are you out of your mind?”, “Do you know what type of commitment this requires?”, and etc. I placed the call and my mother picked up the phone. I told her I needed to talk to dad. Somewhat paraphrased below.
82 more days. 82 more 24 hour increments. 82 more days until I put myself through pain like I’ve never felt before. 82 more days…
The date was August 31, 2007. I was on my way to the Bronx and I thought to myself, “It’s time to tell my father.” I called my father, fully knowing what he’d say: “Are you out of your mind?”, “Do you know what type of commitment this requires?”, and etc. I placed the call and my mother picked up the phone. I told her I needed to talk to dad. Somewhat paraphrased below.
My father: “Hey, Tone, what’s goin’ on?”
Me: “Dad, I have something to tell you” (he’s probably thinking, “Please don’t tell me you’re in a jail in Mexico”)
Father: “Ok, what’s that?”
Me: “Before I tell you, I need your 100% support behind me”
Father: “You know that’s always the case”
Me: “Plan your vacation for 2008 now. We’re going to Louisville exactly one year from today. I’m registered for Ironman”
Father: “are you crazy…..time commitment…..blah blah”
Me: “I know it’s going to be the hardest thing I ever do, but I need you behind me. I’m doing it in memory of Jared, to benefit the scholarship”
And so we talked. My mother got on the line and you could just feel her emotion about how honorable this effort was in her mind. That’s when it was set into stone, I had told someone else that I was going to make an attempt to become an Ironman, in Louisville, Kentucky on August 31, 2008. You may have saw the Ironman on NBC or ABC in past years and for those of you who have not it consists of a 2.4 mile swim (to be completed in less than 2 hours and 20 minutes), 112 mile bike (to be completed in 8 hours and 10 minutes) and a full marathon, 26.2 mile run (to be completed in whatever time you have left before midnight). It was once considered to be an impossible race and has since been the staple of endurance races. The whole race must be completed within 17 hours or it’s as if you were never even there.
What made me want to do this? What is the correlation between Jared’s life and Ironman? I will start with the first question. Rewind back a long time, 1997. I was basically acting like an idiot. Driving my parents crazy. Long story short, I came to the conclusion (with some help) that I needed to start hanging out with positive influences and quit getting in trouble. Not that I was ever in crazy extreme trouble, but it was just time to find a new group. Luckily, I was playing soccer and basketball at that point and I met Brian (Muff) LeBlanc, Mike Stasiuk and Tyler Shea, and Brian Godard. I knew these were the type of people I needed to surround myself with. I later became close with Jared Grenier, Gary Piotrowski, and Dan Kushner (Kush) during our sophomore year at Southington High School. Additionally, between freshman and sophomore years, I met Kevin Thompson, Brian Godard, Dawn Wasik, PJ Olore, Jon Denote, Ryan Clark, Doug O’Leary and our girls: Nicole Bertzos, Allison Bruemmer, Jessica Cochrane, and Mary Brothwell. Trust me when I say we were inseparable from sophomore year and on, even now. These people are like family and they are truly the best people I have ever met. I owe much of much of my well-being to them.
After graduating from Southington High School in 2001, we all went on to college. The amazing part of this is that, Tyler, Muff, Kush, and myself enrolled at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY while Jared enrolled at Western New England, Mike went to Bryant College, and others went to other institutions. Long story short, Jared was not cut out for college and Mike was not cut out for Bryant. Jared joined the workforce and Mike transferred to Marist during our sophomore year of college. Little did we know our lives would be turned upside down just one year later.
I remember the day vividly, September 18, 2003. I was studying in the library and got a matter-of-fact but somewhat serious phone call from Kush.
-“Hey, can you come back to the apartment?
-“Sure, just finished up studying”
I was humming a song, didn’t really care about anything except what we were doing that night and Kush opened the door for me. I will never, ever forget this conversation, it’s like burned into me forever. And these are the exact words.
-“It’s about Jared. He was in an accident last night. He didn’t make it”
-“What!?!?! What do we do?”
The weeks to come were horrendous, at best. I couldn’t get out of bed for days. Didn’t want to think, didn’t want to talk. We were all the same way. Although some of us left Marist to come home quicker than others. I remember the drive home back to Southington with Kush, knowing the reason we were going home was to bury our best friend. We didn’t speak in the car. Just drove. Ya know, here was this guy…..he was just up at Marist visiting us, having a crazy good time, and all of a sudden….he’s gone. How do you handle something like that? I mean I know it happens to many people, but that’s the thing….you never think it’ll happen to you. But it happened, and it happened fast. He was gone and we were left with great pictures and great memories.
We had decided that the best, most feasible way to carry on Jared’s memory was to create a scholarship in his name; we would give it to a Southington High School senior who displayed the qualities that Jared embodied most. And so we gave our first award to Carly Wasik in the spring of 2005. We have given $1,000 dollars each year to the student that most embodies Jared’s qualities and I think that I speak for all of us when I say we are damn proud of that. This was all due to individual contributors and through our fundraising efforts. In terms of fundraising, we have had two banquet style dinners, in 2005 and 2006. They were hugely successful. 2007 came around and we really didn’t have anything planned. And then I looked in the mirror and said “Make something happen.”
Not to belittle or trivialize any other fundraising efforts, including ours previously, but I wanted to do something out of the ordinary. Then I started thinking, well some of these great organizations and great scholarships have events that have nothing to do with the person or cause they are memorializing, i.e. motorcycle rides, walk-a-thons, etc. Please don’t get me wrong, that actually helped my mentality. The thing is, Jared would have loved being at his fundraising banquet dinners. That was his style, and really, that’s our style. Socializing, eating, drinking – all with good friends. But that got me thinking that, there really are no boundaries on what we could do for a fundraiser. And my idea was born.
Here I was, a single guy, not too much responsibility, looking to take something on. I had a lot of flexibility with my job also. So I decided I’d get back to adventure racing and triathlons. I was missing competition for a while. And so I trained lightly/moderately. 2-3 mile run after work. 10 mile mountain bike ride on the weekend. And then it started to pick up. Those 2-3 mile runs were quickly turning into 10 – 15 mile runs, and those 10 mile mountain bike rides were turning into “how fast can you go” 25 mile road bike rides. All of a sudden, Mike Stasiuk (who was already in great shape) and I were registered for an adventure race in New Jersey. We raced, and we were hooked. I think at that point is when we took the plunge and registered for a 24 hour adventure race in New Hampshire. But not before I tasted the triathlon scene again.
So I raced a few more adventure races, and did one sprint triathlon. Half mile swim, 16 mile bike, 5k run. I had done triathlons in the past, and so I knew what to expect. I just figured it would be a good warm-up for the 24 hour race, which was a couple weekends later. Long story short, I won my age group and just knew that I had a great race, I felt very good. It just felt a little bit better to cross the finish line at a triathlon than anything else. The thoughts started then. I loved being on a “team” as with adventure racing, but I liked being accountable for my own successes and/or failures. Little did anyone know, I had registered for Ironman a week beforehand with intentions to make it a fundraiser because of a lack thereof. Kill two birds with one stone maybe.
The 24 hour race was one hell of a time. I raced with Mike Stasiuk and Dan Kushner, with my father (who got me into the whole multi-sport scene from the beginning! Thanks dad!) as our support vehicle/person. We were ill-prepared, the only real thing we brought to the table was fitness, and that is not enough in adventure racing. We got lost in the mountains for hours in the middle of the night. We were officially disqualified after 21 hours, 14 of which were on a mountain bike. I won’t tell you what it feels like to be on a bike for 14 hours.
And so I then told all the people close to me that I would be attempting to become an Ironman to benefit Jared’s scholarship. Not one person, friends or family, had a negative tone about it, and that was great. Hell, I knew this would be something that really is beyond my abilities but I planned on testing that. I could just picture Jared bein’ like “Yo, you’re crazy dude. Why don’t you just sit down with me and have a beer?”
After I committed to Ironman, I ran the Hartford marathon and finished in 3:42. Little did I know the injury I was carrying along with me. My knee cap was mistracking, most likely due to overuse. I went to see a surgeon at Uconn and he advised against any endurance racing and I told him that was not an option and to prescribe me something that would allow for me to compete the following August, even if I had to have surgery. Luckily, I didn’t have to have surgery but I landed me in physical therapy for 3 months after the marathon. I now have to wear a knee brace, but it’s a minor inconvenience, if you can even call it that.
So here I am. 82 days from race day. 82 days from when I can put on that jersey in memory of one of my best friends. 82 days until I can thank my other best friends for supporting me through the past year.
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