Catch UP! GEESH!

OK... make yourselves comfortable b/c this might take awhile! I haven't posted anything in so long I need to play some catch-up. Might have to do it in multiple posts to make it easier on everyone... including myself!

Last Saturday... the 8th, I organized an event for one of the local bike shop tri-club/teams! Let me back up a bit and fill in some blanks...

A few months back while I was in Bend I wandered into a bike shop while there and ended up meeting Matt Lieto. Turns out that Matt is a professional triathlete! (you might recognize his last name b/c of his older brother Chris). In addition to being a completely low-key, laid back, dude type... he's also an extremely strong and talented endurance athlete in the early stages of what promises to be a very big career in triathlon! After much poking and prodding and begging, Matt agreed to come to Eugene and do a little "triathlon talk". Despite scheduling him on the opening morning of the Eugene Celebration... attendance was pretty good and I know everyone benefited from his experience and advice.

The OTHER cool thing is that Matt is going to start coaching a limited number of triathletes starting next year... and guess what? I'm one of them! YES! Matt and another talented endurance athlete are in the process of developing their coaching and training programs and should be up and running and ready to accept applications in the beginning of next year. Obviously this is a HUGE opportunity for me and I'm really looking forward to working with Matt to accomplish some of the lofty goals I've set for myself. Matt stayed with me and the family on Friday night... and I got approval from the wife and the kids to move forward with Matt as my coach! For reasons I'm sure you can guess, it was important to me that my family liked Matt... considering the fact that he's the one that's going to be torturing me over the next year and a half or so. Cool huh?!

Next up? Escape from the Gorge Race Report! That'll be a LONG one!


Breathe.....