Quinn......

Since I'm not into the official blog towards the Ironman and charity donations, I thought this would be a good time to introduce you guys to my oldest son, Quinn, a.k.a. "Kuya" (that's what Cody calls him). For those of you who don't know my wife, Knikie, is Filipino. In the Philippines the oldest of each generation is called either Kuya (if it's a boy) or Ate (if it's a girl). Quinn is the Kuya, pronounced kwia and he fits the role to the tee. The role is basically, as I understand it, a liaison between the parents and the kids. This includes all the cousins. Which means when there is a large family gathering Quinn is expected to keep the kids entertained and organized. Later in life it will mean answering life questions and giving advice. It's a lot of responsibility, especially when your little brother is "special".

Quinn demonstrates more patience at nine years old than most adults. You see as cute as Cody looks, he's not the easiest guy to live with. Cody rarely has any concern for anyone, but Cody. He also gets frustrated very quickly and Quinn usually catches most of it. Now when Codes gets mad he usually hits, pinches, kicks and in some bad situations he bites. Quinn never retaliates, he just takes the beating and reports back to Mom and Dad. He is always kind to his little brother and helps him out every chance he gets. He's Cody's hero, best friend and punching bag.

It's that kind of self discipline and heart that I'm going to have to draw on to finish this venture.

I just hope I have half of what this kid does. If I do I'll make it with ease.

They both started school yesterday. Cody is in an ESE class and Quinn started 4th grade. They absolutely love going to the same school and I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

On a seprate note my next training race is this weekend, down at Tradewinds park in West Palm. Hope to see some of you there!!

Looking forward

Round two.

Well last week I went into what I was setting out to do. This week I'm going to delve into the how.

Think I'll start with the charity side of things, since I have already had a few people ask about how to donate or when the donations are going to start. I plan on using the Janus Charity Challenge to set up my donation site. The really cool thing about the Janus Charity Challenge is that it lends us the opportunity to add some more money to our donation at the end of this thing. See Janus has a small competition going at each race between the people trying to raise money for each of their respective charities. The top 50 get bonus money added onto their donations. Here is the list from the Janus website:

As a reflection of our commitment to the program and the athlete’s efforts, Janus makes additional contributions to the beneficiaries of the 50 top fundraisers at each race in the following amounts:

1st Place Individual : $10,000 donation

2nd Place Individual : $8,000 donation

3rd Place Individual : $6,000 donation

4th Place Individual : $4,000 donation

5th Place Individual : $2,000 donation

The beneficiaries of the next 30 highest fundraisers who raise a minimum of $750.00 will receive an additional contribution of $750.00 from Janus.

The beneficiaries of the next 15 highest fundraisers who raise a minimum of $500.00 will receive an additional contribution of $100.00 from Janus.

They will also allow me to have a donation web page on their site that will allow for completely safe and secure online donations to the charity of my choice, which of course is the NODCC. I won't be able to set up my site until I'm registered for Ironman Florida 2010 (IMF) and Janus is set up for next years race. I will register for IMF the day after this years race on November 7th. I have already signed up to volunteer for this years race. By volunteering I will have a slot saved for me in next years race. That way I don't have to worry about the race selling out and me not being able to get in. I'm really looking forward to volunteering. I'm driving up with a group of friends, some of which will be attempting the race next year as well. Super excited about that trip!!!

Once the charity site is setup, I will contact the NODCC and see what they can do to raise awareness to our little adventure.

As far as the IM race itself, well that's going to be a little harder. I'll probably start developing my training program over the next couple of months and running it by the wife (it's going to take up a bunch of time). Hoping to include a marathon, Half-Ironman Florida, and at least a couple of 100 mile bike rides in my training for the big one. I'll have plenty of support from my family, friends and great group that I belong too, the Treasure Coast Triathletes.

A quick update on Cody!! He got his new hearing aids last Friday. We found out a few months ago that his hearing in both ears is severely impaired. They are working great so far, he talks a little quieter, his speech is improving and he has been keeping them in his ears, which I thought was going to be the biggest problem. The hearing aids are actually made by the same company I work for, Siemens. I've been really impressed with everything so far. Hopefully it all continues to go well.

IronCody

To make a donation please CLICK HERE, you can also get caught up on what this blog is all about! 

Well I'm about 3 months out from what will be my year long endeavor to become an Ironman and in doing so raise as much money as I can for the NODCC. For those of you who might not know what an Ironman is or the NODCC I'll give you the readers digest version of each.

An Ironman is an individual that completes a race that consists of swimming 2.5 miles, then biking 112 miles, followed by running a marathon (26.2 miles). All three sports are completed in that order and you must finish in less than 17 hours.

The National Organization for Disorders of the Corpus Callosum (NODCC) is a nonprofit corporation established in 2002 by professionals, parents and individuals with a personal commitment to understanding corpus callosum disorders. Their mission is to to enhance the quality of life and promote opportunities for individuals with disorders of the corpus callosum and raise the profile, understanding and acceptance of these disorders through research, education, advocacy and networking.

Why the NODCC? Because my son Cody was born with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum. Which means he is missing the part of the brain that connects the left and the right hemispheres. It largely affects his coordination, speech, and overall brain function. The NODCC was our only resource for explaining what Cody's disorder meant for him and us. They hold an annual conference that is open to anyone who wants to know more about the disorders of the corpus callosum. The topics range from, how it affects people and their lives who have it, to how to manage the schooling and financial aspects of raising a child with the disorder. We attended the conference in 2005 in Greenville, SC. We left with a much better picture of what raising Cody was going to be like and more importantly some of the things that we needed to do and not do. It was priceless.

Why Ironman? Well after Cody had finished his first neurological-psychological evaluation last year, the doctor, said that Cody works harder to just be normal and go through his day like all of us. I asked how much harder, she replied about 20 times harder. It's 20 times harder for him to walk, talk and play like any other kid.

I have been running triathlons for over 3 years now. I have completed several sprint triathlons (400 meter swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run), a handful of olympic distance races (1500 meter swim, 40 kilometer bike, 10 kilometer run), two half-ironman distance triathlons (1.25 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) and the famous Escape from Alcatraz triathlon. All of those races were difficult and took a huge effort by me mentally and physically. However, none of those races are as difficult or challenging as Cody's day to day life. Cody is already an Ironman in my book. The least I can do as his father is attempt to meet the high standard he sets everyday at least once. Hopefully, 140.6 miles later, I can do that and in the process help the organization that has helped us and Cody.

I'm going to attempt to continue to blog about everything to do with this undertaking, setting up the donation site, my training, Cody's progress and of course the Ironman event. My goal is to continue to post a blog at least once a week, starting now and continueing through the race in November 2010.

Hopefully it will inspire some of you to donate or look for some other way to make a difference in someone else's life.

For more information on the NODCC go to www.nodcc.org, info on Ironman triathlons go to www.ironman.com

As this thing continues on I'll provide more info on the race and the charity.

The picture is of Quinn my oldest and Cody at the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon in San Francisco, CA. They are patiently waiting with donuts and chocolate milk for me to get out of the bay.

Thanks in advance for your support!!

Cale