9 Months to Tri

[Brett] OK, Chris has mentioned this a few times, but here’s the story: I moved to Arizona on April 2, 2008. There are so many factors that went into this decision and it all boiled down to this mindset: I don’t ever want to look back at my life and say “I wish I had”. Kristen and I have been out here a few times and really fell in love with the scenery, weather and the outdoor lifestyle. Also, this place has a ‘vibe’ that you need to be here to appreciate. Also, I got a great job offer from a really cool company working for one of my best friends - that sealed the deal. K and I bought a house with the mindset that we’d be a destination for our friends & family to come visit and come to love this place as much as we do. Also, our choice of homes had our kid Ian in mind with plenty of things to do. Those things are an awesome community center with 2 pools (lap & recreation), basketball, tennis, rock climbing, full gym and miles of hilly trail for mountain biking or hiking. This is also the perfect place for me to train; hills, heat, pool, gym and this incredible invention - bike lanes. It blows my mind that they actually allocated the space for bike lanes on most of the roads in the area. I will need some serious bike training leading up to IM Louisville in August.

Watching Chris from a distance has some pains and joy; I am so proud of all he has accomplished and he continues to push himself with a great outlook for achieving his goals - and I am also bummed that I can’t be there to help him over some hurdles. When I was in CT all it took was a quick visit to my office or the 5-minute drive to the gym for Chris to unload some of his problems. Now, I’m not pretentious enough to think I ever solved any of his problems, but I was always available for some advice. I chat with Chris time to time via instant messaging, but with the 3-hour time difference and the impersonal nature it’s clearly not the same.

So, I call on everyone who’s a supporter of Chris to help fill the gap that I left by leaving him before he reached his goal. He’s doing an amazing job at motivating himself to meet his goals and his blog posts show how hard it is to balance work, life & fitness. We’ve all been there in life where we have enough opportunities to quit and start making excuses - most of us fall prey to using excuses to cover up quitting before we reach our goal - and Chris is doing an admirable job of holding up his end of the deal. I hope to be back soon to see him in action, keep up the good work Chris!

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