Final TNT Update - Mission Accomplished

I’m so sorry that this update has been late in coming. In between recovering from the race and Galveston trip (a five-hour drive with a one-year-old is not recommended), backlog at work, and finishing my tax return, I’ve finally been able to get a proper THANK YOU message composed.

We did it! On Saturday, March 30, my fellow Teammates and I swam, biked and ran in the Lone Star Triathlon Festival at the Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX. While doing so, we also raised over $230,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help find a cure for these devastating diseases.

Personally, I took great satisfaction in being able to complete the 70.3 miles (1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, 13.1-mile run) of the endurance event. My personal goal was to (1) just finish the race and (2) complete it in under 6 hours. Well, I crossed the finish line in 5 hours and 59 minutes (and 1 second) - so mission accomplished.! With your generous donations, I was also able to meet my fundraising goal of $2,600.

A little bit about the trip. My family and I arrived in Galveston on Saturday afternoon after staying in Houston the night before (just trying to break up the trip a little). After picking up my packet and a TNT open-water practice swim in the actual water, we joined TNT that night for a pasta “carbo load” dinner which was capped off with inspiring stories from our TNT staff as well as a great success story from a Hodgkin’s survivor.

Sunday morning, I was up at 4:00 AM and meet the rest of the Team down in the lobby of the Moody Gardens Hotel at 5:00. From there we walked to the race site/transition area about a 1/2 mile away and we each got settled into our respective slots on the racks.

At just after 7:30 (I was in the second swim wave, which left at 7:35), I started the swim. The water wasn’t too rough nor cold, so aside from swallowing a little salt-water (yuck) it went well. I trotted out of the water, got shucked out of my wetsuit and went to the transition area to get ready to ride my bike.

The 56 miles (about 3 hours) of cycling actually went by fairly quickly. With the cold winter weather, I didn’t do much cycling in the off-season so about two-thirds of the way I said to myself, “Wow, this is the furthest I’ve ridden my bike since last fall!” Maybe it was the adrenaline or the moral support as I saw many other TNT members and we shouted words of encouragement to each other, but I felt much better than I thought I would. I also really enjoyed riding on the Galveston Island seawall — seeing and hearing the ocean waves and the seagulls really gave me an inner calm. By the time I returned to the transition area for the final leg of the journey, I couldn’t help but smile at the accomplishments of my team and I, both for this race and our mission.

After re-racking my bike, putting on my running shoes, and hitting the porta-potty (small bladders and 6 hour races don’t mix) I started the half-marathon towards the finish line. Running after nearly four hours of swimming and cycling wasn’t easy, but the spectator-friendly course allowed us to get some cheers and high-fives from our TNT coach and support staff who were just great. Also the running route had multiple U-turns so I got to see Derek, my TNT
mentor, as well as other Teammates up to four times during the run. Both the spectator cheering and our racer-to-racer support really helped keep us going all the way to the finish line.

Thanks again for your interest, words of encouragement and kind donations — it really means a lot to me and a lot to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society staff and beneficiaries.

Best Regards,
-Andy

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Lone Star Triathlon — Team In Training Accomplishments

• TNT had 89 participants (the North Texas chapter had 67 and Gulf Coast chapter had 22) and many family members, support staff and Honored Heroes at the event.

• Together, the North Texas and Gulf Coast chapters raised $231,000 for the cure. (The Dallas
& Fort Worth teams raised $176,800 of this.)