Live Like You Were Dying...

Dear Friends and Family,

After completing my first ever Olympic distance triathlon in 2007 and then Escaping from Alcatraz in 2008, I could only go one way in 2009....UP. When I thought about being in the middle (actually the latter half) of my third decade of life, I figured there was no better time to ultimately test my limits of endurance, discipline, and human perseverance. To this end, in my quest to live life to its fullest, I have committed myself to train for and complete one of the most grueling endurance events in all of sports and known to man-kind.....the Ironman!

Getting there...will not be easy. Training will take over countless hours, days, weeks, and months only to, somehow, finally surrender in the end, awarding me the unbelievable gift of being in Louisville Kentucky on August 30, 2009 at the starting line to brave the 140.6 total miles of Ironman. YES...IN ONE DAY (and into the night): A 2.4 mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride, followed by 26.2 mile run, all to be completed within a 17 hour deadline.

Why, you ask? Three reasons: 1.) to reach the pinnacle of the sport of triathlon, 2.) to learn who I am and what's really inside of me, mentally and physically, ultimately testing myself to see just how long ... can I really go? and 3.) to continue to raise funds and cancer awareness in my quest as a cancer survivor to help cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

To accomplish this I once again joined Team-in-Training (TNT). For those that don't know TNT is the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's most successful national fundraiser. TNT provides coaching and training expertise in exchange for raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkins lymphoma and myeloma (blood cancers) from taking more lives. During my 10 month journey, I will not only be training, but more importantly, raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help find a cure for blood and lymphoma cancers. This is where, Im hoping, you come in. Though I have the coaches, mentors, and trainers to help with the physical part, I need your support to help me achieve my fundraising goal of $4,800.

To help me get through this, I will draw upon the valuable lessons that I learned while surviving cancer, namely perseverance and determination. In fact, one of my most valuable lessons I learned was understood upon completing six months of agonizing chemotherapy. I realized that sometimes winning isn't always about finishing first...sometimes winning is just finishing. And that's what this Ironman will be for me...a desire, a conquest, a triumph...to just finish.

Please help with your support and generosity to help find a cure for those who are less fortunate than me or you, who are battling a blood cancer right now. My team, the Society, and cancer patients around the world are counting on me to raise my minimum fundraising amount of $4,800. Most importantly, with your generosity and my dedication to finish we will have participated in the hopefulness of crossing that ultimate finish line that l eluded to earlier - a cure!

Finally, if you know of someone personal to you who has been afflicted with a blood or lymphoma related cancer, let me know and I would love to train and race in their honor or memory as well.

Please make your tax deductible donation online through this website or you can forward me a check made payable to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

We cannot control the length of our lives...only the depth. Live like you were dying.

Sincerely with much thanks and appreciation,

Frank Jr.