TEAM DAWUD

Hi there...What follows is an account of a wonderful experience. I only swam a half mile today, but as part of a special relay, I feel I got as much out of this day as I have had in finishing an Ironman...without the mind numbing pain and all of course..


The above image was not captured by a professional....but hey, I am getting ahead of myself. Thats Aminah pulling the carriage with her son, Dawud in it. But first, lets set up what this was about.

This is North Coast Harbor in Cleveland. To the left, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. To the right is Browns Stadium. I don't know who the guy in the shot is...someone who just happened to be there.

This is Dawud. He is 10 and has cerebral palsy. I had just met him and his parents. We were teammates on team #129 and we felt Dawud had to get his arm marked like the rest of us.

Thats Aminah, his mom, and Dawud's dad..Dawud Sr. Mom was gonna pull Dawud in the carriage for the 16 miles on the bike and dad would push Dawud the 3.1 miles. They had never raced before but trained hard. The bike, the carriage and Dawud accounted for about 140 pounds or so. Mom said she was ready. The family has been connected with United Cerebral Palsy of Cleveland and Dawud has shown many improvements in many areas. His speech and many other factors.

We were getting excited right before the swim. I was in the sprint relay and women 35 and under wave for the swim. The swim was a half mile. Dawud was anxious for the race to begin. I smoked the swim folks. Was fastest person in the relay portion of 9 teams.. Not sure it was exactly a half mile because my time was quicker than usual..however the time is not the big deal here, right??? After the swim, I sped into transistion, gave Aminah the chip and then shook Dawud Sr's hand.

Then Aminah towed Dawud the 16 miles... What effort. You saw the so called action shot at the top of the post... She need roughly 90 minutes to handle the tough hills-the wind--and exhaustion... What a huge effort!!!!!

But she did it!!! Thats her getting to transistion, all flushed and excited!!! Dawud had a cellphone and called his dad a couple times to tell him where they were. I loved that!!!

Dad changes the stroller out for the run. Take off the bar. Add the wheel for the front..and off he went... Folks, I was amazed. He runs 7 miles a day usually. He did the 3.1 miles in .......(Drum rolll.....) under 9 minutes a mile!!!!!!!! Wow!!!..He was so fast that I did not get my camera going fast enough... I missed him. However, Trish from UCP sent the finish photo thats at the top of the post. Thanks to Team Myles..

They did it!!! and I was so proud to be on the team.

Team shot!!!! Dawud Sr. says he wants to race more and I think Aminah has the bug. A while after our team finished..one of my new buddies finished.

Thats Kristen Minnick carrying daughter Julia across the line. Kristen did the whole triathlon and towed Julia and then pushed her for the run. I had featured her in a piece a week ago. Kristen was amazing. I was so happy for her.

And isn't Julia a gorgeous little girl??? Congrats to Kristen!! Thats hubby Jeff with us.

Finally, I can't thank the folks at United Cerebral Palsy enough for their help. I have made buddies for a long time. I was told all the families raised money for the cause and close to 90 thousand was raised. Of course, Dick Hoyt deserves credit for this as well. The legendary Ironman inspired many of the families when he spoke in Cleveland last fall. Its just amazing what can be done when CAN is the word we focus on.

Life is a BLAST!!!