For whatever reason, it seems like the holidays have been particularly long this year.  With both Christmas and New Year's on Thursday, businesses and people in general seemed to shut down for a full two weeks.  Not the worst thing, it gives all of us a chance to spend time reflecting on the past year and planning for the new one.  And now its here.

We open registration for LA on Thursday with a new (and better date in our view) of October 4th for the race.   It will be our 10th Anniversary and appropriately it will coincide with the 25th Anniversary of the Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles.  More on this later, but we will be a part of the year-long celebration of those games.  Last year, we selected Ready, Set, Gold! as our Official Charity for LA and we will be working with them again this year.   RSG came about through the bid for the 2016 Olympic Games by the Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games (SCCOG) and everyone felt so strongly about its mission that it continues today.  The program brings Olympians to schools in the LA Unified School District and programs have been launched to help fight childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes. I have visited the schools myself and loved the programs and the interaction.  It makes perfect sense for us to be involved. 

One of the great features of being in this business is ability to benefit worthwhile charitable organizations.  I am proud of the fact that every one of our events benefits at least one and in most cases many charities.   There are many different models including direct donations, volunteer support, community service, and participants raising money on behalf of the charities.   Our direct contributions were over $100,000 in 2008 and money raised on behalf of charities over $1 million.   The charities include UC Irvine (my alma mater) where we benefit the rowing program at our Newport Beach Triathlon; United Cerebral Palsy our very involved charity at the Cleveland Triathlon; Avalon Schools and the Catalina Conservancy on our Catalina events; the C.A.R.E. Program at Long Beach; Stand up for Hope; Leukemia Society Team in Training in Dallas, and literally dozens of others in various capacities and amounts depending on the event--and of course, RSG! at LA.

Next time you enter, I hope you'll take an opportunity to explore some of your options to support those you care about personally.