ALS Warrior needs your help

As some of you may already know, I have been racing Triathlons over the past 3 years. Last weekend I just completed my first full distance Ironman race. A grueling endurance event that consist of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile marathon. It was a great experience and I will be doing another one in August. So before tackling another event like this I wanted to share with you some insight into at least one thing that helps motivate me to do this. Last year I was lucky enough to qualify and race in the Ironman 70.3 World Championship race in Clearwater, Fl. During that even I became what is refered to as an "ALS Warrior". You can read the complete story here. My wife Delane and I, along with her family have witnessed the affects of ALS on our family, which lead to two family members passing in recent years. (Andy, Delane's father and Darrell, Delane's brother). ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death. Currently their is very litle known about the cause of ALS and their is no known cure. Approximately 5,600 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with ALS each year. The incidence of ALS (two per 100,000 people) is five times higher than Huntington's disease and about equal to multiple sclerosis. It is estimated that as many as 30,000 Americans may have the disease at any given time.

As an ALS warrior I wanted to help raise awareness and funding for research by using my Ironman events as a platform for getting the word out. Therefore, I had a custom helmet painted with ALS warrior on it. I will be racing with this helmet in all my future races. Please help me spread the word by forwarding this email to others and/or donating to the ALS foundation via the links below. You can see the helmet Pics as well to the left. Who knows maybe with the helmet I might even go a little faster in my next race.

Thanks for your help in advance! The links below can be used for contribuitions, education about the disease and information on how donations are utilized.

ALS Foundation

http://alsa.org/

If you want to see a real Ironman - checkout Jon Blaise in Kona competing with full on diagnosed ALS; the first person to ever do this and the guy who started the war on ALS in the TRI community.

Jon Blaise in Kona