More great moments in Triathlism

1) You have to wonder if it was his own crew who rear-ended his bike
in Kazakhstan.

2) This confuses me:

"He completed a 275-mile (443-kilometer) swim in August from
Cricklade, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France, during which he was stung
by jellyfish and had to be rescued after becoming stranded on mud
flats of the Thames Estuary before crossing the English Channel."

Why do you need to be rescued if you get stranded on mud flats when
you’re swimming? Can’t you just stand up and walk? Are there lots of
jellyfish in mud flats? Wiki says that some groups like to hike on mud
flats, presumably to look at the wildlife in the area.



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-1...charities.html

Wi BLOOMBERG Sports (BSP) Date: Oct 14 2010 23:00:55

Triathlete Lawyer Travels Into Everest’s Thin Air for Charities

By Michael Buteau

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Charlie Wittmack woke up on the asphalt of
a Kazakhstan highway last weekend after being knocked unconscious when
a car rear-ended his bicycle at about 40 mph.

The 33-year-old bespectacled lawyer at Des Moines, Iowa’s Davis
Brown Law Firm said he suffered no serious
injuries, just swelling in his right knee, hip and hand. He added the
incident to the list of setbacks on his 10,000-
mile attempt to complete an intercontinental journey he has dubbed the
World Triathlon.

He completed a 275-mile (443-kilometer) swim in August from
Cricklade, England, to Cap Gris-Nez, France, during which he was stung
by jellyfish and had to be rescued after becoming stranded on mud
flats of the Thames Estuary before crossing the English Channel.
Wittmack’s latest mishap occurred in the middle of an 8,875-mile bike
ride from France to Nepal.

“It was a true miracle to walk away from that,” Wittmack said. “I
was pretty scared.”

Wittmack, who is using the expedition to raise money for
educational charities including Des Moines University’s Global Health
program and Topics Education, said he wants to reach China by Oct. 21
and complete the scheduled bike leg of his journey by Dec. 1 in India.
To get there, he will have to cross snow-covered mountain passes in
Kyrgyzstan. Due to political and ethnic violence in the country,
Wittmack is currently traveling with armed escorts, paid for by
sponsors including MIR Corp., a Seattle-based adventure travel
company.

Once he dismounts his bike, Wittmack plans to run and hike 950
miles from the Bay of Bengal to the top of Mount Everest. The
expedition began July 1. Over 11 months, the trial lawyer will cross
13 countries.

“This was just something I always wanted to do,” he said in a
telephone interview. “I’ve been working on it a long time.”

Financial Problems

Wittmack’s biggest obstacle may be money. Due to a lack of funds,
Wittmack said he biked through Poland and Ukraine alone.

The project, including the charitable donations, will cost about
$1.2 million, Wittmack said. The university’s
Global Health program will use $600,000 to provide a team of doctors
and students to educate girls in Nepal about
safe sex, prenatal care and maternal health issues. Mothers in Nepal
are 100 times more likely to die during childbirth than women in the
U.S., according to the university.

About $250,000 is being used by North Carolina-based Topics
Education to create an online curriculum tied to the expedition.
Educational modules will be used to teach students in various regions
about earth science issues such as alternative energy, water quality
and climate change.

Additional funds will be needed for translators and guides in
areas deemed “not safe to go in blindly,” said
Brian Triplett, Wittmack’s 26-year-old logistics coordinator and
communications director.

Seeking Funds

“We’re still seeking sponsorships,” Triplett said.

Wittmack’s wife, Cate, and 2-year-old son have joined him for
parts of the journey. Convincing his spouse to go
along with his plan became easier when she was diagnosed with thyroid
cancer two years ago, he said. She’s now
cancer free.

“It was a pretty scary thing to go through,” he said. “We
realized that maybe we shouldn’t be taking the time for granted so
much and maybe we shouldn’t put things off.”

Wittmack first got the idea for the trip at age 14 when he was a
member of his high school swim and cross-
country teams, he said. While working in an after-school job in a bike
store, he read books about Edmund Hillary,
the first man to climb Mount Everest, and Matthew Webb, the first man
to swim the English Channel.

Little Boy’s Dream

“It’s just an idea I came up with when I was probably too young
to know better,” he said. “As a little boy I just found myself
thinking, ‘What could be the world’s toughest triathlon?’”

In 2003, Wittmack became the first Iowan to reach the summit of
Everest, a journey he spent seven years planning. In 2008, he
abandoned an attempt to swim the 21-mile English Channel after being
pulled out of the water due to freezing temperatures after 15 miles.
He wore a wetsuit during the swim portion of his current expedition to
help withstand the cold. An experienced ocean marathon swimmer,
Wittmack finished first in the 32nd annual 12.5-mile Swim Around Key
West in Florida two years ago.

First American

When he completed the trip’s swim leg, Wittmack became the first
American to scale Everest and swim the English Channel.

At 5-foot-8 and 145 pounds, Wittmack typically spends his days
wearing a suit with a starched collared shirt at
his office. “I definitely don’t look the part,” Wittmack said. “But I
just keep putting one hand and foot in front of the
next.”

Wittmack plans to return to the law firm, which allowed him a
leave of absence for the expedition.

“I’m already missing the office,” he said. “There’s a comfort in
life when the days are sort of planned out for you and you can enjoy
dinner with your family. These expeditions strip away all of those
comforts. That’s why I do it. So I don’t take those simple things for
granted, but I do look forward to getting back to my office someday.”

Leave him the **** alone - he's trying to raise money to educate the
people of Iowa and if you've ever driven through there you know what a
desperate situation this is.

On Oct 15, 3:43*pm, Anton Berlin wrote:
Leave Britney the **** alone

FTFY

In article
,
Plano Dude wrote:

Educational modules will be used to teach students in various regions
about earth science issues such as alternative energy, water quality
and climate change.

Buzz, buzz, buzz, what soothing sounds they make.

--
Michael Press

In article
,
Plano Dude wrote:

Wittmack’s wife, Cate, and 2-year-old son have joined him for
parts of the journey. Convincing his spouse to go
along with his plan became easier when she was diagnosed with thyroid
cancer two years ago, he said. She’s now
cancer free.

Why can't we all be like him?

--
Michael Press

Why can't we all be like him?

--
Michael Press

Jesus got stung by jellyfish and run over by a bus for our sins. It's
in the bibble.