Great Response

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.