The Basics
I'm 35 years old and live in Richardson, Texas, outside Dallas. I've been married for 13 years and have a wonderful and very crazy five year old daughter. I work as a consultant in the Facilities Management Consulting industry, mostly as a business/systems analyst and software designer, for Business Resource Group.More about me:
What I'm listening to:
Right now I'm listening almost exclusively to four albums:Jolie Holland--Escondida and Catalpa. Really beautiful, often playful and funny music in a very unique style. I love her twang.
Elliott Smith--From a Basement on the Hill. A great album with a nice mix of sweet songs, sad songs and biting songs. I have listened to the whole album hundreds of times since it was released. I also like either/or and Elliott Smith.
Wilco--I'm obsessed the A Ghost is Born and listen to it all the time. I still love both Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Being There.
I also love the music of Tom Waits. He is the Alpha and Omega of awesome music.
I also listen to Johnny Cash, Lightnin' Hopkins and all country blues (Big Joe Williams, Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Sonny Terry and Brownee McGee), Eleni Mandell and Lucinda Williams, and I like classical chamber music, especially the string quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Shostakovich, Bartok and Philip Glass.
What I'm reading:
Right now I enjoy reading books about Ultras, endurance and running. I recently finished Running Through the Wall: Personal Encounters with the Ultramarathon for the second time and highly recommend it. I'm currently reading A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, a very funny book about an out of shape guy who decides to walk the Appalachian Trail with an even more out of shape friend.I also love the novels and stories of Raymond Chandler. I'm currently re-reading my favorite, The Long Goodbye.
How I Started Racewalking
I started racewalking on May 4, 2003. That day I attended an informational meeting for Team in Training, the fundraising and
endurance training program benefiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
There are several reasons why I chose Team in Training:
I was in bad shape physically and really wanted to lose weight and increase my physical fitness. At the time I joined Team in Training I was at least 30-40 pounds overweight. I wore size 38 pants and they were tight. Now I'm wearing size 34 pants and they are loose, and I've lost over 30 pounds (about 10 more to go). I'd always thought it would be incredible to finish a marathon. It seemed like an impossible goal, especially impossible for me since I had never in my entire life been a runner or walker. I had no physical activity beyond normal daily activities. Most importanly, my wife is a Leukemia survivor. On her 30th birthday she was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML). At the time our daughter was four months old, so we had to struggle with a life threatening illness while also trying to keep our family going. Fortunately we had a lot of incredible help from my wife's family.
Her treatment and recovery was incredibly difficult and lengthy. After her initial diagnosis she was in the hospital for two months straight; for two months she didn't leave the building, didn't go home, didn't enjoy any fresh air. During that time, in addition to numerous tests and scans, she had two rounds of chemotherapy, several sessions of total body radiation and finally a Bone Marrow Transplant. Fortunately one of her sisters was a perfect marrow match and she didn't have to wait for an anonymous donor from the Bone Marrow Registry.On a side note, please consider joining the National Marrow Donor Program. It only takes a small prick of the finger and a small blood sample to join, and donating marrow only requires you to sit in a chair for a few hours while they filter marrow from your bloodstream. Marrow donors are desperately needed and in short supply.
After the transplant she dealt with two years of complications and difficulties. After being confined to a wheelchair for a time she had two total hip replacements. As a result of Graft vs. Host Disease, a common transplant side effect, she has permanent lung damage and has less than 50% of the lung capacity she would have as a normal healthy adult.
All of this is to say that I was very motivated to fight Leukemia and find a cure. Team in Training gave me a way to channel my anger and my desire to help my wife. Through the Team in Training program I raised more than $3,600 for Leukemia research and advocacy, and I finished my first half marathon, the Virginia Beach Rock 'N' Roll Half. Click here to see pictures from that event. I cried when I finished because I was hot and tired and sore, but also because I remembered everything my wife went through and why I did this. There in the finishing corral, struggling not to fall over and not to throw up, I was pretty sure I would never do this again. But it only took a day or two before I thought, "I can go faster, and I can go farther."Angela will be five years post-transplant in December of this year. She is doing so well that she and our daughter Lela recently took a vacation to London alone. There was a time when Angela couldn't go to the mall alone, so this is real progress!
Why I Racewalk
Some of you probably wonder why I racewalk. I initially joined the Team in Training racewalking team because I was out of shape and had no experience running. I thought racewalking would be a good introduction to endurance sports and marathoning.I've continued racewalking because I love it! I love the physical motion that racewalking requires, and I love the challenge to go as fast as I can without breaking the rules of racewalking.
Racewalking has also given me confidence and made me less afraid. I'm usually one of the only racewalkers at events, and at small events I'm usually the only one. I'm used to getting nice comments and some rude comments. I've learned not to worry about the other racers--I'm racing against myself, trying to see how far I can go and how fast I can get there. I've learned not to be embarrassed and just give it my all. I'll never be in the Olympics and I'll never be an elite racewalker. I'm just out there for to have fun and challenge myself.