I hope you all enjoy the Weekend Warriors report now being sent directly to you. Mike
MICHELE CREPEAU did the Marine Corps Marathon 10k in Washington, DC yesterday, 56:09. Best moment…last mile, slapping hands and thanking each of the 25+ Marines in uniform with their hands out, Natalie Merchant's Kind and Generous playing on ipod, wow I had a lump in my throat & wave of emotion that almost stopped me on my race. Thank you to all the marines and military for your service and for the inspiration. Special kudos to all the charities for raising over 7 million!!!!!
JIM GARFIELD, AMG joined Active Europe’s LAURENT GAUTHIER and ACTIVE co-founder MITCH THROWER in participating in this year Challenged Athlete’s Triathlon in La Jolla Cove. This annual year event has raised over $21 M since 1994. As always the race was challenging and exciting. The CAF athletes are always inspiring!!!
ARCH FUSTON spent all day Sunday at the Challenged Athletes Foundation event in LaJolla. We accompanied a special guest of CAF and their "Operation Rebound" program for injured soldiers, a long-time family friend Lt.Col. Tim Karcher. Tim lost both legs above the knee in June in an attack in Iraq. In just 4 months, after 126 liters of blood, and countless surgeries, Tim and his family of 4 made it out to San Diego to "see what's possible". What they found is a world of opportunity. As CAF's special guest, Tim was presented with a brand new hand cycle to get him going on his road to recovery. I fully expect that this time next year, Tim will be a participant in the race. When you hear someone say "attitude is everything", Tim epitomizes that. Something we call can learn from.
I received a message from DAVID PAN in the China office saying that they had a football match (assuming soccer) that lasted 4 weeks and they failed to win. WOW 4 weeks that must have been one heck of a shootout!
The Sports and Endurance teams in the San Diego office had another kickball game to determine bragging rights. Sports overtook Endurance by a score of 9 to 5 in a hard fought contest. Each have now won a game with the rubber match to be determined. DAVE ALBERGA also played but had to leave the game with a calf injury in the 2nd inning, we play tough! MIKE REILLY was the referee and received no respect because of his controversial calls. Fun was had by all (except Dave)!
KRISTIN HARTOS AND MAREA BLUE traveled to Boston over the weekend with our rugby team (the San Diego Surfers) for the USA Rugby Division 1 play-offs. As the #2 seed going into the 12-team play-off, we earned a bye on Saturday (lucky for us, since it was rainy and cold). We played the Valkyries out of Austin, Texas in the quarterfinal match on Sunday -- who had narrowly beaten our league rival Belmont Shore (Long Beach) 7 to 5 the day before to advance.
The weather was much better on Sunday with plenty of sun and a strong breeze -- and we were ready to play. We scored our first try just four minutes into the match to go up 5-0, and never looked back. We dominated in the rucks and were able to retain possession and get clear ball out to the back line to run in the open field. We won the match by a final score of 39-0.
We will travel to San Francisco to play for the National Championship on November 6th-8th. The semifinal match on Friday pits us against the Atlanta Harlequins. The Seattle Breakers and Northern Virginia (NoVa) face off in the other semifinal. For more information about our team and the upcoming games, please visit our website at: http://sdsurfersrugby.com.
BRET HARRIS in the SD office this weekend attempted his second summit of Mt. Whitney 14,505 feet (4,421 m) in California with a couple of buddies. The last time I made the trip was in the middle of summer with perfect weather…however I soon realized that climbing in the winter is a completely different story! And when the locals tell you that crampons and ice-picks are a must…they aren’t messing around! Most of the climb was pretty smooth and we had great weather…but due to the late hour of the day, the unknown factor of the softening snow on the switchbacks and being struck with a severe bout of altitude sickness, we were forced to turn around just shy of the summit.
MICHELLE NATION Product Manager in SD on Saturday teamed up with my friend Melissa to complete “the Great Urban Race” in San Diego as “Team Fairy Princess”. Teams of two solve clues, find checkpoints, complete challenges and navigate the streets by running and/or taking public transit only (in matching outfits/costumes). This was an AWESOME event and I can’t wait to play again next year. http://www.greaturbanrace.com/
JESSE HAMMOND and his wife EMMY along with MICHELLE VALENTI participated in the 108-mile Death Valley Century Ride in California on Saturday. They conquered the 108-mile course over desolate desert roads in just less than 10 hours (sounds like fun)! Despite temperatures rising above 100 F at times (and pretty much zero shade), we had a great time completing the longest ride any of us had ever done.
Very fun race!
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