Amazing friends and family: a week after my first post and roughly 140km of cycling, 23 km of running and 9.5km of swimming later, we are at $3,700!! Training continues and for those of you who would like to donate and haven’t had a chance to do it yet, I am reposting the initial message from a week ago below. Plenty of time to show support for a good cause! I am now officially a fool for setting a goal that you guys have quickly attained but let’s keep pushing for more. Much love. “Dear Friends, As some of you know already, I am now an addict! No need to worry though, if any addiction can be qualified as a good one, mine probably counts as such. Last summer, I competed in an Olympic distance triathlon in NYC and I seem to have trouble stopping – I caught the bug – and I am now going for more. I enjoyed the training leading up to the event and therefore figured I would make it part of my routine. But this message is about much more than my training and an athletic event. When I first lined up for my start, I realized that many people around me were participating to the race as a gesture of recognition, solidarity, or commitment. They were doing it for a person they lost, a person fighting for life, and/or to bring awareness and raise funds for a cause they believed in. A lot of participants were athletically motivated but more importantly they were emotionally engaged and that inspired me. More inspiring than most though, were the people who were coming back from serious injuries or illness and others who have lost limbs and even blind people who were taking on the challenge with a “buddy” to guide them through the course. Needless to say that I felt the triathlon in itself was a challenge and although I was satisfied with finishing, I wanted - scratch that - I needed, to add a new dimension to my training by contributing towards a goal beyond what I had done. This season I am competing in multiple triathlons including my “home” triathlon in NYC on August 3. For the NYC triathlon and in order to make this a more impactful event, I am coupling my training efforts with a fundraising effort. There are a lot of causes that deserve attention and I am choosing to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society “LLS”. Details about LLS can be found on their website at lls.org but in a nutshell, it is a health agency fully dedicated to blood cancer. It provides a wide range of services such as research, public policy and patient services to name a few. LLS is set up for this type of fundraising; they have a dedicated team called “Team in Training” that provides a structured training program and other support for athletes who are competing in various athletic events and who are fundraising for their cause. In case it wasn’t clear already, I am really after your money My goal is to raise $2,500 dollars by August 3 – the date of the race. Put another way it is less than 3$ per Facebook friend! Now I know you get bombarded with Facebook requests for various (and worthy) causes and it can be overwhelming. I am guilty of ignoring some of these requests but if you read up to this point, then you are the audience I am targeting! ANY amount will do and it is pretty easy to make it happen. I set up a page for my fundraising efforts at: pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/choostri14/esayeghvw8 Please visit the page, give some money by clicking on the “Donate” button, and make me look like a fool by helping surpass my fundraising goal! Starting today and until race day I will begin updating the page and my FB page with amounts raised, training schedule, pictures and news from other events I am participating to as well as other useful information. Also, if you happen to be in NY in the summer, feel free to come cheer on the course – the finish line is in Central Park and you can find more details for the race map at nyctri/ If you have any questions or need any additional information about donating or the event itself, you can also email me at eliassayegh@gmail. Thank you for making a difference. Elias”
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 07:54:09 +0000
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