14 Hours, Number 21, and a TON ‘O Pride!

Well, she did it. My youngest daughter, Shea, had her first baby. A boy – 6 pounds, 21 inches, and way cuter than the genes he inherited from his grandpa had anything to do with.

Shea’s my baby… my last one. When she got married over a year ago, it was a tramatic experience for me. (Those last ones… especially girls… are always special.) But last night, after 14 hours in labor, and two and a half hours of pushing, out popped Brentley. And man, was grandpa proud!

You may be wondering why I’m sharing this special part of my private life with you, when we may not even know each other, or perhaps haven’t met in person or haven’t even spoken on the phone. It’s a valid question, and the answer is simple.

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U.S. Marines, Bike Racing, Angels, Your Loved Ones and Your Clients

For more than 28 years, I’ve been involved in running, cycling, and triathlons, and I’ve had more than my share of success, including several State and National titles, and Senior Olympics and World Senior Games championships.

In the process I’ve also had a fair amount of injuries, including several high speed bike crashes that caused some pretty bad road rash. No broken bones, but a lot of pain, discomfort and scars. But nothing like what some of my fellow team members experienced last Saturday.

The “Tour of Utah” is called “The Hardest Stage Race in America.” Unquestionably, the hardest of the Stages (or races within the race) starts at Park City and ends at Snowbird – a total of 96 miles, including 11,000+ vertical feet of climbing. This particular Stage is called “1,000 Warriors” and 100 percent of the proceeds are donated to the educational fund for the dependent children of wounded U.S. Marines who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I was scheduled to ride this race but was out of town attending Eben Pagan’s program that weekend. But several members of the team that I ride with entered the race and here’s a report from one of the members about what happened…

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