Cedar Beach Triathlon

This is the third annual Cedar Beach Triathlon in Miller Place, New York and there were three athletes donning our Strength for Life uniforms. Jess Swanson, our Iron Man pictured on the website placed second in her age group - Go Girl! Michele Fernandez and Denise Chapman joined Maggie Fields in a relay this year and they had a great time - both in enjoyment and finishing time. Michele, Denise and Maggie are all from PTI Smithtown.

Our first experience at Cedar Beach, and the first annual triathlon, was to show our support for Denise who participated then. In January 2007 Denise was a client at Personal Training Institute working very hard. Both Michele and I trained Denise and shortly after January 1st, I asked her for her fitness goal for the year. Perplexed, she shared that she never really thought of one. After consideration, she said she wanted to compete in a triathlon. In May 2007, she participated in a rookie tri, the swim was in a pool and the distances were short. She completed it and looked for other opportunities. Denise started training and finished the Cedar Beach Triathlon in October 2007 at 2:11. That year the Cedar Beach Triathlon was a 3/4 mile swim; 17 mile bike and 5K run. What an outstanding accomplishment, and we were very proud.

I suppose the moral of this story is that one simple question started a chain of events, and successes.

Today, I met an triathlete at the race who could not compete due to some present health issues. This woman has had breast cancer and is interested in supporting Strength for Life after hearing about who we are, what we do, and more importantly that every dollar raised is used for the program.

In addition, a gentlemen approached Jess Swanson and asked about her uniform, she told him about Strength for Life and he was very interested as a cancer survivor and doctor. The opportunities are out there, thank you for putting us in their way!

"Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises." Demosthenes


Postscript
Congratulations Justin for completing the Chicago Marathon in 3:45; a 8:35 minute pace. Justin is the franchise co-owner of the Personal Training Institute in Smithtown running his first full marathon. Justin raised money for the Lupus Foundation, next time maybe he will share the wealth with Strength for Life.