Kick-Off!

This post is coming a few weeks late, but Team in Training's summer triathlon kick-off event was pretty powerful stuff, and I wanted to make sure I mentioned it.

Before any season of endurance events (half-marathon, marathon, triathlon, etc), Team in Training holds lots of informational sessions, almost on a weekly basis in every borough, as a way to recruit people to join the team and raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As I mentioned, Jess and I went to one in December, and then another one in January, which is when we signed up to do the triathlon. At these events, you get to hear a little bit about TNT and why the fundraising we're doing is so important. After we signed up, we had about six weeks of just waiting for things to start, while TNT held many other recruitment events. It all led to the Official Kick-Off, held on February 24th at the New York Blood Center on 67th Street.

Jess couldn't make it because she had to work, and I barely made it, having scheduled the first day at my new job (did I tell you I have a new job? And it's actually somewhat related to my fundraising? More on that in a separate post), a kids' playwriting event back in Astoria, and the kick-off all in a 10-hour period. I was beat, having commuted to Astoria and NYC twice in one day, but had a feeling it'd be an event I wouldn't want to miss.

I walked in and saw a pretty awesome group of people, all filing in to take their seats. (This auditorium eventually became standing room only.)

So this was the group I was going to be spending the next five months with. I looked around and wondered how many would always be strangers to me, how many would be people I recognized at different events, and how many I'd wind up becoming true friends with, having bonded over this intense goal. No time to find out, though, as Director Veronica Perez took the stage to introduce herself and tell us more about the importance of our training and fundraising.

She then introduced her support staff, the triathlon coaches, and the mentors. Before long, there were at least 50 people standing on the stage. These are the people taking us to the finish line.


Mike Woods, meteorologist from Fox 5's Good Day New York also talked for a short time. I love this guy -- I watch him in the mornings from the gym. He said he'd be doing the training with us -- I was skeptical at first, but in the past two weeks, I've seen him at two group sessions, so I'm guessing he's serious about it. He doesn't know it yet but I plan on beating him in the triathlon.

One of the very best things about Team in Training is their "Honored Teammate" program. Honored Teammates are people who have been affected by leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers. They're at the information sessions and at our group training sessions -- they're the people who remind us why we're doing what we're doing. This is Murph. Murph spoke about how cancer affected his life, how he lived in denial about his diagnosis, and how hard the disease was not only on him, but on the people around him. He spoke of TNT (and their parent organization, LLS) and how important their work had been to his struggle for survival. I'm not doing his speech justice, but it was profound and powerful and moving. And Murph's family -- his mother, his wife, his beautiful baby -- were in the audience to hear the whole thing. Wow.

Honored Teammates are not just people who have worked with the LLS or TNT. They're anybody you know who has been affected by cancer. You'll hear about George, Jessica's grandfather and honored teammate, and Melissa, my honored teammate, in future posts.

Wrapping up our kick-off event was Scott Willett, our head triathlon coach. Scott runs Tri-Life, an unbelievable coaching program, and he is 100% dedicated to us each week in helping us reach our triathlon goals. Seriously, we get a six-to-eight page e-mail every week with detailed training tips for every single day. Some might grow to dislike Scott for his unbridled enthusiasm at any moment, such as when we ran in the pouring rain and wind last Saturday. Not me. I love this guy.


At this point, none of us had any idea what we were in for -- and to be fair, we still really don't know, as he's starting us off very gentle and easy. I have a feeling he's going to kick our asses. I'm really excited about it. He told us all about what our training would entail, and assured us that he -- and all of our triathlon coaches -- would be there for us every step of the way, willing to answer any questions or give us the personal attention we need. People like him are why I signed up in the first place...but people like Murph are why I'm sticking around.

And with that, the Kick-Off was over. I sat in one of the front rows so I could take photos, and every so often, I'd turn around to look at the sea of enthusiastic triathletes, many of them new like me, some of them veterans of both triathlons and Team in Training, but all nervously excited about the road ahead.