I have some friends coming in to race Rocketman 70.3 with me–one from California, one from Tennessee, and two from North Carolina. Actually, I’ve never met one of the guys from NC, Adam.

Adam is coming down with Dirty Matt. And a friend of Dirty Matt’s is a friend of mine.

Just to stir the pot, I sent out an email asking how everyone’s training was going and where everyone logged/shared their workouts. Obviously, my only intention here was to get some trash talk and good-natured insults started.

Adam was the first to respond. Like just about every other triathlete, he has a blog.

But his blog is different. A lot different.

On October 31st, 2010 my beautiful wife and I became parents for the first time. That’s the day I became Annabelle’s dad. Annabelle was a beautiful, delicate, incredibly tough little girl. She was born with a neural tube defect called anencephaly, cutting her short life to a beautiful 41 minutes.

I had to stop right there the first time I read it. I’ve re-read it several times since, and it gets me every time.

Annabelle

That’s simply unfathomable.

Now Adam races to honor the memory of Annabelle. The charity he supports, Eleonore Rocks, provides rocking chairs to parents of terminally ill children. They aren’t engaged in a multi-year effort to cure anything. They just want to bring a little bit of comfort to families who have limited time with their kids.

Adam isn’t raising money for a free race entry or to win a new bike. His goal is to raise $4,100–$1 for each of Annabelle’s heartbeats he and his wife got to share with her.

Please consider sponsoring “One Minute” to honor Annabelle’s memory–more if you can. Adam is committing hours and hours of blood, sweat, and tears.

I know not everyone has the means to make a contribution. But you can still help:

  • Share Adam’s story with your friends and family using Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, fax machine, whatever
  • If you have healthy children of your own, never forget how fortunate you are.
  • If you are physically active, take a minute during your next swim/bike/run to appreciate your own health.
  • If you aren’t physically active but have been thinking about getting started, do it. Today.