Category: Run/ Ride With Purpose

Run/ Ride With Purpose

2017 Great Cycle Challenge – Pedaling to Kick Cancer’s Butt!

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We did it! Angie, Brandon, and I met our goal to pedal 100 miles in June to raise awareness for kids cancer research. Thanks to generous sponsors like my employer, family, and friends we CRUSHED our initial goal to raise $500 and finished the month with over $1,132 raised for this worthy cause!

Couple of notes I wanted to share with you about this challenge:
1. We committed to do this as a family and it was AWESOME! There is something about riding bikes together that is just totally fun. We had to make special plans & effort to get out in the midst of our busy summer schedule. Brandon didn’t even get out of school until June 14! We saw great benefits to seeing our goal through to the end and had a great time doing it together.

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2. Exploring our surroundings on bike is the best. We cruised new neighborhoods in our area, visited our favorite Toledo Metroparks and even rode the brand new mountain bike trail at Oak Openings. That was my favorite! Can you believe Angie did this?!? (You gotta hear this video to get the full effect, lol!)

3. It’s not easy to ride this far. Poor Angie strained her quad pretty bad and had to miss a fair bit of the riding. She was really bummed about that. Brandon & I pressed on without her to meet our goal. It was the most he’d ridden in a month by far!
4. Cancer sucks. As hard as it is to keep pedaling sometimes – that 22 mile ride we did together in the blazing heat was a doozy – it is nothing compared to what these poor kids have to go through for their treatments. Thinking of them is what kept us going.

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5. Doing healthy activities like riding bikes feels really good. Doing healthy activities as a family is super fun. Doing healthy activities together in order to help others is AWESOME! Having a plan to follow, a goal to reach, and a special reason to do it are all great ways to keep motivated too.

6. How could I forget about our 8 seconds of fame?!? Because we were able to reach a fundraising milestone early in the month, we had our photo featured on a Times Square billboard! How cool is that?

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Run/ Ride With Purpose

2017 Hope Water Project 5k Race Report

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June 3, 2017

I enjoy running. Sounds crazy coming from me though. All my life until about age 35, I loathed running. Then I caught the triathlon bug in 2009 and started running. I found it mentally therapeutic and physically rewarding. Since 2009 I’ve run a lot. Two marathons, two 1/2 Ironman, a 1/2 marathon, too many shorter triathlons to count, several 5k’s, and LOTS of training miles.

Evidently my son has been watching me, because he took up track this spring to compete on his Jr. High team at school. Dad win #1. I’m so proud of Brandon taking on a challenge like that. He’d never done it before, and with only a couple 5k’s under his belt (including the HWP 5k last year), his running experience was pretty limited.

Toward the end of track season Brandon was in pretty good shape since he was running everyday after school. He jumped at the chance to run the same Hope Water Project 5k we ran together last year because we had such a fun experience AND he wanted to crush his race time. Dad win #2. My boy is a competitor like me. He wants to get better. Goal crusher. Always improving.

Further, Brandon understands that the race is a fundraiser for clean water in Africa which provides HOPE for health, life, and opportunity to learn about Jesus. He knows all about my 2016 Run With Purpose mission to raise money for this worthy cause as I trained for the Detroit Marathon. He wore the HWP wrist band all year to remind him that many people don’t have what we so easily take for granted. Dad win #3. Brandon sees the vision for this initiative and is interested to help. I love that his heart sees the needs of others and takes action – even for a small thing like participating in a 5k.

Since I hadn’t run AT ALL since the marathon last fall, we needed to put in some training to prepare for the race if we were going to beat last year’s time. I’m not gonna lie, the first couple runs were difficult for both of us. He hadn’t run long distance much, so he was frustrated at how hard it was at first. Since we know that any goal worth achieving will be hard, he stuck with it and saw marked improvement in the brief training period before the race. He felt confident to beat last years time by at least 1:30.

RACE DAY

The race venue is a 90 minute drive from home, so we woke at 5:30 a.m. to be on site by 7:30 to collect our race bibs and stretch before the start. The weather was perfect; sunny, light cool breeze, and in the low 60’s at race time. Nearly 800 people raced. With the crowd, music, different food vendors and HWP swag tents, the place was electric. It’s impossible to not get fired up about racing in this environment.

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Long story short (too late for that, lol) Brandon ran his heart out and I was at his side the entire time. He did not stop, and even pushed really hard the last 200m to finish in his record time- nearly 3 minutes faster than last year!

Running is hard work. It teaches many life lessons. Brandon is learning how to stretch past the limits his mind puts on him when his body wants to stop. The body will go where the mind takes it. That’s fortitude. That kind of mental toughness will serve him well in life. I’m glad he’s learning that now. Isn’t that what being Dad is all about? Teaching life lessons. Doing things together. Helping others. Dad win.

Run/ Ride With Purpose

We’re Gonna Pedal To Kick Cancer’s Butt!

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We have entered Team Quadzilla in the Great Cycle Challenge to fight kids’ cancer!

We invite you to join us to ride throughout June. This is what we call Ride With Purpose!

How does Great Cycle Challenge work? You set yourself a ride target and pedal it down over the month, logging your miles via a free app which is linked to your personal rider page. It’s super simple and totally FREE to join. You don’t have to be an experienced cyclist, and there is no minimum mileage requirement to pedal.

Angie, Brandon, and I are planning to ride a few days a week with our mind on the kids fighting cancer. Like us, I’m sure you know someone who is battling cancer. We are happy to know that the donations we raise help cancer research and care for these precious kids.

The Great Cycle Challenge already has 28,747 riders signed up from every state across the country. The goal for this year’s event is to raise $4 million for cancer research to develop better treatments and find a cure for childhood cancer. Why? Because 42 kids are diagnosed with cancer every day in the United States, and 38 children die every week. We’re riding together to give these kids the brighter futures they deserve and save little lives.

As we say in Great Cycle Challenge…kids should be living life, NOT fighting for it.

Hey, This is a great excuse to get on your bike! Do something healthy for yourself AND help others at the same time!

And it’s all for a great cause, to fight kids’ cancer.

To join our team, check out our team page below:

https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Teams/Quadzilla

I hope you can join Quadzilla and pedal with us this June to end childhood cancer. Please comment below to let us know your interest, or if you have any questions.

Finally, if pedaling to fight kids cancer is not your thing, but you still want to help, please click the DONATE tab in the link above to submit your tax deductible gift on our behalf. Thanks in advance for your generous gift!

Run/ Ride With Purpose

Riding to Fight Kids Cancer

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Hey Team Quadzilla! Just like last year, I’m committing to Ride to Fight Kids’ Cancer. This year, I’ve made a team that I would like YOU to join.

If you are a bike rider of any skill level, this is for you. It’s totally free to join. All you do is track your miles pedaled in June with their free phone app, or one of the popular GPS trackers and you can help Quadzilla with this worthy cause. You can ask your friends and family to ride with you and/ or give a tax deductible gift to the cause.

I’ve enlisted my family to join me this year, so we will do many of our miles together as a family. What’s more fun than a family bike ride? How about knowing that you are raising awareness and funds for cancer research while pedaling!

Check the link below if you are interested in donating to the cause AND connect with me to be added to the team!

Great Cycle Challenge – Quadzilla

Run/ Ride With Purpose

“The 2nd Smallest 5k in Michigan”

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October 31, 2016

Our 12 yr old gets the mission of #runwithpurpose. He worked really hard, being disciplined to train for 8 weeks to prepare for a 5k race. He followed his training plan and saw marked improvement in his endurance, but also in his push ups and plank hold he added to the training regimen.
Though it …didn’t work out for us to do an “official” race event, we made our own course & event – dubbed “the smallest 5k in Michigan”. Naturally he was the champion, but more importantly he learned valuable life lessons AND raised awareness for the water crisis in Africa thru the awesome @hopewaterproject .
He was super sore from basketball tryouts all week, and still sucked it up to run hard for our event. His mental fortitude will serve him well for life’s challenges. Super proud dad right here!!