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About Me...I never liked to stand still when I was a kid. Active was where my heart always belonged. I just wanted to be outside and have fun. Sport has always simply been playing to me, but I dig in and go at it hard. In September 1993, when I was 19 years old I got a cold that turned into the flu. By Christmas I could barely walk or move. The short version is that I have 3 different kinds of arthritis throughout my entire body – every joint as well as all my tendons and ligaments. It also affects my muscles, skin, bones, and even some of my organs. There is not one place on my body that isn't in terrible pain all day every day. One of my healers once jokingly told me I deserve an award for how messed up I am. Despite all the years of pain I refuse to give up who I am. I am an athlete by heart. Pain doesn't stop me, it only slows me down, but hurrying has never been my thing... On top of athletic-y kinda stuff, I have a pretty deep artistic side to me as well. I like to get my hands into some driftwood to do wild crafting and carving, or simply writing and drawing. I think it's important to nourish the balance of both the physical and creative/artistic sides of life. It makes life so flavourful.
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A Pivotal Change...
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In the fall of 2002 I met someone who changed everything for me. Her name was Lorraine. We met at a hospital in Mexico in November 2002. She had breast, brain and liver cancer. She died a couple months later. At Christmas time Lorraine told me to bring what I had to the world. It was the last thing I heard from her before she passed on. I don't know how to articulate how overwhelming that was for me, but I was very honoured to hear it. The weight it has put on me was something I didn't know how to handle then, nor do now. I never will! This amazing woman has enabled me to dream of impossible things and power massive adversity to pull off some extraordinary stuff. I don't stop dreaming of, and looking past impossible because of her.
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Expressing Myself Through Triathlon
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My triathlon life turned into a monster of its own. Charging through the pain that I do has had a crazy impact on many, many people, which has landed me in newspapers, magazines, radio shows, as well as let me do speaking engagements, win awards. I l think it is important to give back, so I have also created and donated awards. It is all very overwhelming for me as I am a pretty low-key guy. I can't get away from attention when I get out and charge though. After I did a triathlon in 2006 a man approached me who really wanted to hold my hand. It struck me odd, but he then told me he had AIDS and I just made him realize how lucky his life was through seeing me race in the pain I was in. I didn't know what to say to that, but it was a catalyst for change. I was still really struggling with Lorraine's wish, and that kind of pushed me over the edge. I have never understood why people say the things they do to me, but I am not blind to it. It was the man with AIDS who made me realize that I had to really dive into all of this stuff I was doing.
I took to writing things about my pain, my training, my life, and my triathlons by accident. I have shared some of those stories and people have loved them. I have since taken to writing about other things too here and there. Through it all I have been consistently asked to write a book for 20 years. I started this web-page as a place to share some of my stories and thoughts...whether about myself, those who inspire me, or just whatever. |