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By now, most of you know that the main purpose of our expedition is not only to educate ourselves, but those around us and inspire them to learn more about the world they live in. In the back of our minds, we have always wanted to have the expedition become a vehicle for education and especially for kids. Our education initiative has taken shape over the last several months and we are very excited about some of the relationships we have developed with schools and educators here in the Denver area and across the country.

We have partnered specifically with the Denver Center for International Studies. DCIS is a 6-12 magnet school in the Denver Public School System and one of their main focuses is on international culture and education. All students must take one of several foreign languages and classroom learning is centered around geography, international relations and cultures. We will be doing several excitng things in conjunction with DDCIS. One of the projects we will be participating in is our "day in the life" section. We are going to follow one of the students at DCIS around for a day, filming them before school, at school, participating in after school activities and interacting with family and friends. As we travel around the world we will show children in other countries what a day in the life of an American student is like, and conversely, will be filming various "day in the life" segments of students in those countries to share with the kids at DCIS.  Other projects we are working on include helping students learn about media and video production in the context of an international news show that students will be producing and the student selection and production of a photography exhibit in conjunction with Global Denver. 

Additionally, we will be producing both photographic and video content focusing on things such as food, clothing, dwellings and other culturally relevant topics to enhance what teachers are already providing in the classroom. Our expedition will offer the students at DCIS a unique and exciting way to learn more about the countries that they are studying.

Initially, our main focus will be our interaction with students and faculty at DCIS, however, once we have fine-tuned the program, our content will be available on an open-source educational website we hope will serve as a resource to students and educators all over the country. We already have interest from educators in schools and districts in several states and with help from the International Social Schools Association based out of the University of Denver, lesson plans and curriculum ideas will be available to a growing network of educational institutions. Ultimately, we hope to develop this educational initiative into its own self-sustaining, non-profit branch of The World By Road.

The education initiative is a worthwhile endeavor, but entails a lot of work. Heading up our educational initiative while we are on the road will be Jessica Sherwood. Jessica will act as a liaison between the expedition members and our partners to help insure that the content we are providing will be useful to educators as they teach their students about the world around them. Jessica comes to us with a wealth of knowledge in both non-profit management and education and we are excited to have her on board helping us out with what we hope to be the start of a great resource.

For those who are interested, we will be giving a school-wide presentation at DCIS on November 29th. We hope to have some local media coverage of the event so check back soon for more details.

It has been a little over a week and I realized that I did not update what went down up in Boulder at the 24 hour race. I ran on a relay team with 8 other individuals and I am proud to report that Team Go Fast Addiction won the open division. As a team, we completed 168 miles in the 24 hour time period with most of us running 3 shifts or 21 miles. I ran a shift late on Saturday afternoon after Eric S. and I completed a nice ride in the Boulder heat. My next shift came at about 4:30 on Sunday morning and it was actually quite fun. The sun was just starting to rise and the temp was perfect for running. I then completed the last shift of the race at about 11:30 with 30 minutes to spare. With the exception of the last leg, when the mercury had risen into the 90’s, I was able to run fairly consistent 7 min/mile splits over the 7 mile course. All in all, it was a fun weekend, and I got to hang out with a great bunch of people. Congrats to Greg, Christine, Eric, Scott, Eman, Bobby, Carrie and Jenna!

I also met some truly amazing runners - those who competed in the 24-hour and 100 mile divisions. I don’t know how they do it, but they can take a beating, run forever, and do it with a great big smile on their faces. Many of these people have finished the daunting Leadville Trail 100, which makes the Ironman look like an afternoon joyride. (I actually finished reading an article about the Leadville race and some sick and twisted part of my brain got excited and wants to do it someday)

Eric S. also convinced me to run the Bolder Boulder with him this past weekend, although it did not take much convincing on his part.  For those that do not know, the Bolder Boulder is probably the largest 10k road race in the country, with about 47,000 finishers. It has been a Memorial Day tradition in Boulder for the past 28 years. I have run the race on several occasions and have always had a good time… not just in the race itself, but in joining thousands of others after the race in Folsom Field to celebrate members of the armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice. It is also a great opportunity to bump into people who I have not seen in a while, namely my coach Mike Ricci. I have been avoiding him due to the fact that I have not really been putting in a great deal of effort towards training for this little Ironman thing coming up. I guess seeing him at the race showed him that I am committed to staying fit, although Monday was supposed to be an "off-day" so he obviously knows I am not following his schedules.

Well,  my quest to complete Ironman #5 has forced me into fear-based training right now. In other words, I had better start doing some serious training because I fear what is going to happen to me if I don’t! With all of the work I have been doing trying to get this little around the world trip going and holding down my day job, I have only had the time to get in about 60% of the workouts my coach has given me. Basically I am going out to Germany to have a good time, and if there is a beer garden on the marathon course, I may stumble in for a few brews and pump up the crowd.  However, I still want to finish the race… I have yet to DNF a race (did not finish), and I am not about to start after flying 6,000 miles to do it.  I also do not want to end up in the Krankenhaus (hospital), therefore, fear-based training has commenced.

The race in Roth, Germany is now only about 6 weeks away and I felt that I needed to get some more running in. So what better way to get running in that signing on for something this weekend that most people would think is completely unnecessary- The 24 Hours of Boulder! This is a running race that simply put, consists of how many miles you can run in the span of 24 hours. O.K., relax now, I am not completely out of my gord… I am on a relay team - Team Go Fast Addiction - with some other runners and triathlete friends who needed some extra competitors. We each run 7 miles laps in shifts and right now, I can expect to run about 21-28 miles over the course of the 24 hours. I have at least three shifts depending on how others are feeling,  including one at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning, but hey, I have been up running that early in the past - back in my college days in Boulder except for the fact that I had yet to go to sleep and I wasn’t running towards something but rather away from the cops. (joke… sort of)  However, like a true crackhead, longcourse triathlete, I, along with a few others are bringing our bikes out to the race with the hope of getting in a 4 hour ride in-between my shifts. Hey, I said I was right in the middle of fear-based training. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know how it went.

There has been a lot going on the last few weeks and I have had a lot on my plate. I am trying to juggle a "normal" job during the week, work on all of the necessary preparations for our expedition and in addition, I am also trying to fit in the training to compete in my 5th Iron-distance triathlon coming up this July in Roth, Germany.

Those of you who know me, know that pushing myself physically and mentally is part of who I am and I have come to love and be consumed by the challenges presented in the world of triathlon, and especially the Ironman: arguably the world’s toughest single-day endurance event. (In case you did not know it starts with a 2.4 mile open water swim followed by 112 miles of cycling and is capped off by a full 26.2 mile marathon) If there is anything that I do regret about participating in our expedition, it is that I will have to put my love of training and competing in triathlons on hold for a while. (Although undoubtedly I will have plenty of other things to challenge me physically and mentally throughout the course of our travels) Training for an Ironman is a huge commitment. Training can average anywhere from 10 to 15 hours per week for me personally and given that there are only 24 hours in a day, work, expedition planning and training all add up pretty quickly. The one invention that makes it more bearable and enjoyable to put in those long hours and hard miles of training, especially on the bike, is the MP3 player. Music can help keep you focused, help you to maintain intesity and cadence, can help to take your mind off the pain and can relax you. Recently, a company called Fitbeats has added another dimension to the usefulness of the MP3 player in fitness training. They have created training intervals for both running and cycling that are challenging and come in a wide variety of sets: from warm-ups and cool-downs to high intensity intervals and abdominal workouts. For the serious competitor or the novice looking for some additional motivation and coaching in an enjoyable package, Fitbeats is for you. They even have their own customized MP3 player that is perfect or running and cycling. Be sure to check them out when you get a chance, you may actually start to look forward to getting up at 5:30 a.m. to get in a run before you head off to work!

Steve S. and I went to the Denver International Auto Show this afternoon to hand out some flyers, check out some cool new cars and hopefully maybe even make a few additional contacts with some representatives from various auto manufacturers that we are contemplating sponsorship with. Well, unfortunately the auto show was a HUGE disappointment. The show was basically one giant car sales lot. None of the manufacturers seemed to have any of their products presented in a way that made me want to stop and check it out (although Toyota did have an old-school Land Cruiser on display similar to the one that Steve and Al drove around the world in 1965). Porsche didn’t even have a 911 Turbo to look at. I felt like I was walking around a car lot with people trying to convince me why the new Crown Victoria P.O.S. is better than last year. No cool displays, very few concept or exotic cars, and no booths about travel, racing or any other auto related stuff, just tired models standing on a rotating platform trying to convince you that the new Chevy whatever is great because it has 45 airbags in it. There seemed to be very few manufacturer reps in attendance as well… just someone who was paid to memorize the stat sheet on the car but not really provide you with any meaningful information. The audience was not really our target either… the place was filled with people who thought it was cool to take pictures of the hood emblem on the Bentley with their camera phones so they could show off to their friends who wisely chose not to pay the $10 to get in. At least I could have worked on my tan walking around the lot at John Elway Autonation and had a better time… all for free.