USA Today Sports Active Alliance

Hey guys! This will be my last post on this website, but I really wanted to get the word out about an exciting partnership because it’s new and in progress right now.

I have joined the USA Today Sports Active Alliance as Premiere Ambassador. It means integrating into their network of races across the United States to enthusiastically promote and show YOU why you should sign-up as well. There are a few things I am very passionate about; endurance activities and the related “reminds me I’m alive” suffering, travel, food and wine. And because I mix them up so well, if I do say so myself, this also presents me with opportunities to eat my way through see new places, learn about them and integrate them into my journalism work. Win!

Check out the Alliance’s race line-up. Although I was headed into my last foot surgery, once I took a good long list at the races (and sister races) represented and thought about what the Alliance aims to do, I knew I had to sign on.

For example, check out The Santa Rosa Marathon, “America’s Premier Wine Race,” and recall that I went to wine school in France and essentially run just so that I can drink wine every day. Yes! Or the California International Marathon, which is a point to point, net downhill course and the #1 Boston Qualifier. By the way, there is still time to register for that one on December 4th. I will be in Macau that day but plan to spank that race in 2017.

Speaking of races I’ll be at, last weekend I was in Hartford, and this upcoming weekend (10/15) is the Baltimore Running Festival. Please come say hi at the expo or after the race finish and at all other waking moments I will be in a bib eating seafood somewhere near Inner Harbor. After a recent press trip to Charm City, I fell in love with the food, military heritage and the museum culture so I am very excited to return.

Then, I will be at the Charlotte Marathon for Veterans Day weekend and the November 12th race. I am long overdue for some Southern hospitality and the food scene is kickin’.

Here are a few photos from Hartford. Make sure to read the second photo’s caption because it was one of my favorite narratives from race weekend:

Lastly, I said I’d deliver my new website several months ago, but I have been very busy — understatement of my life — shifting all my medical care away from the VA system. This is no small or inexpensive task to someone who has never had regular health insurance or navigated that system. So, my ever-busted and broken foot has finally been fixed via bone fusion, bone graft and joint reconstruction at HSS, significantly upping my already impressive bionic-ness with more hardware; plates and screws. I haven’t walked for six weeks and won’t for a while yet, and I won’t run until late December. (And for the record, yesterday marked the double-broken-foot-marathon anniversary, my last race, so I have been out of the game for a while!) HSS has also taken the helm on my cervical spine and NYU is spearheading the mending of my precious brain. So, this past year my health came first. I take great pride in pushing honest content with no frills, bullshit or pretending to be something I am not. This was just not the sort of stuff to sit and write about. It was the sort of stuff to take control of, kick in doors (with my good foot) and fix so that I can go back to crushing life, because that is the sort of content you will find from me; travel, food, fitness, motivation and the intersection thereof.

And about the medical stuff, don’t worry, there’s a big silver lining. I will convert any and all medical misfortune into valuable content to help others understand the system as best I can and motivate others to get better. I have been cautious to slowly start my advocacy based on what I know to be true, not based on my feelings and emotions surrounding injury and its (mis)management. Let me pause, for someone whose income, livelihood and personal satisfaction largely revolves around mobility and on-point cognition, this self-control has been a major accomplishment. Go me.

Everything I’ve made time to work on behind the scenes (several new journalistic contracts, teaming with a travel agency, maintaining ties with my awesome sponsors, picking up new ones) has been so that I can blow 2017 away – in real time. And you will hear about it soon. Yaaaaaas.

As always: #CRUSH #KILL #FITWITHALIFE