Background

I spent Sunday October 9, 2005 meeting the other 50 or so people who will be part of the San Francisco North Bay TNT IronTeam and who will also be participating in either IronMan USA or Canada. I walked away from the meeting with a pile of information to get me started, and an enhanced feeling of nervous excitement, plus a long list of new sexy IronMan toys to acquire.

The training program started with a rest day which I quickly put to use with a trip to Sportsbasment to acquire a wetsuit. It has been a while since I bought a wetsuit, and I soon got to appreciate how different they are these days. My previous suits had been for diving and windsurfing - these were thick clumbsy but warm and bouyant. After trying out 4 suits, I ended up with an Orca Speedsuit which looks as though it is designed for a 40 lb 4 foot midget. Somehow the thing stretches to cover my body like a second skin and still lets me flail my arms around in a swimmy-like fashion. Other gear aquired included a swim belt (so I can run in the water - maybe I will be able to walk on it if I hit my fundraising total), a neophrene helmet (we will be swimming in the Bay all winter!!), and a ton of sports drinks and energy bars.

Why am I doing this? Well, I am doing it to raise at least $7500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I think that this is a great organization in that a lot of the money that they raise goes to medical research. The $400,000 that our team aims to raise will provide funding for 3 full-time medical research positions at at an institution such as Stanford. Also, I get to participate in a fabulous well thought out program and achieve something that I could probably never do on my own. So check out my donations page and sponsor me!

http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/frysci.com. Thank you!

By the Way, for those of you who may not know, an IronMan consists of a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.1 mile run, all of which must be completed within a 19 hour limit.