Pledge Week 15: And That's A Wrap!!!

Times eaten fast food this week = 0
Total pledge amount this week = $35 (7 days * $5)
Total pledge amount to date = $540 ($600 contributed to date)
Funds raised to date = $3070

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And so the fundraising comes to a close and I just squeaked by the required amount! Whew! That was close! But a very special thanks to everyone who contributed to my cause and to support Ava and all the other NF fighters out there!

(Photo credit: https://herdfoundationnagpur.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/international-thank-you-day-january-11/)

And while the fast food challenge comes to a close, I think I'll plan to keep up the strong work and resistance to this indulgence as much as possible. At the start of the challenge, I weighed it at a respectable 175 lbs but with a rough 20% body fat, not exactly great triathlete numbers for a guy only 5'7". Given the change in diet and the extraordinary amount of training, I weighed in at a much leaner 170 lbs with only 15% body fat. So 5 lb net loss but also a 5% change in body composition means some pretty darn good gains! Hopefully I can avoid any holiday weight gain and keep trending upward for next season!

Today I also finished my last big brick for the season. About 3 hours of biking and 5 miles of running. It was a little rough as I went to my good ol' hills in Palos Verdes. IMFL won't have any hills, but I wanted to hit up ol' Faithful. And you can see why!

But it's been a great, character building journey of first finding my lows and the depths of my struggles, pulling myself from those depths and rising to new heights as an athlete, as a person and translating that newfound confidence and zest for life to all aspects of my life.

I also can't thank CTF enough for giving me the opportunity to partner with them and raise awareness for NF! And then partnering with just the sweetest little girl in Ava who is fighting her own amazing fight! I mean she is my great inspiration. In those dark depths, I dug deep and mentally asked myself why I couldn't continue. Why I couldn't fight through pain or fatigue because Ava fights through so much more every day! And so she has been my motivation to continue pushing forward, pushing for excellence and just pushing to be the best of me!

This journey has been crazy and now I'm exactly 2 weeks away from Race Day! I can't wait!!!!