HOPE

Hello everyone,

I want to apologize for really not being in touch lately but that is changing as things have somewhat slowed down. I had a conversation with a dear friend of mine who suggested I get back to some reality points in this diary so I want to start with a clear message of HOPE.

A unique story here, there is a family who has been attending our signature support group meetings for 3 years now and every meeting the mother says "I come here because this meeting gives me hope". While I was doing the bike portion of Ironman Hawaii I had another experience with HOPE. It is tradition to take white coral rocks from the ocean and spell words out on the lava fields during the bike ride and when I was about 30 miles into my ride I just happen to glance to the right and saw the giant word HOPE written out. I immediately thought of Sandy who states that at every meeting and it seemed I had the wind at my back for the rest of the day.

My point in saying this is simply there is HOPE for every addict and their families. People can recover from addiction and families can rebuild their lost relationships. NEVER give up HOPE on someone or say "they are too far gone" When I am speaking to a drug treatment center, I always remind the clients, "if I can do this so can you".

Couple annoucements here, we are please to have a new Racing for Recovery support group meeting starting November 15 in Hailey, Idaho. I want to thank my friend Bart Davis for his complete support and dedication to make this happen. We are growing people and this program is helping people.

We are finalizing the plans for next years (June 10) Racing for Recovery Half and Sprint Triathlon. We will have complete information up on the website soon.

To the addict who is currently suffering from substance abuse, I want to assure you there is a better life out there and yes you are worthy of having it. Loathing and low self-esteem are common with people like US but you can regain that self-confidence and the self-loathing will slowly subside if you continue to make right choices and stay drug free.

Good luck to my manager Carri Bennet and friend Andy Campbell who are both doing Ironman Florida as I type this. Thank God I am not out there today lol. I am going to check on their progress.

Enjoy your day.

Todd