In 1998 I caused a nearly fatal motorcycle accident. I broke the largest bone in my body in two places and bled half to death. My hemoglobin count was 7; contrast this to a normal hemoglobin count of 14. The orthopedist who saved my life did not expect me to walk again. He and I are glad that I exceeded his diagnostic expectations.

After two months of being confined to a wheelchair I began to walk with a cane. After four months with a cane I began to walk on my own. Two years later I took my first running stride. And I’ve been skipping since, thankful to be breathing the air and to have my leg. Since 1998 my legs have stood me shakily upright as my sister married, climbed me aloft to the top of the tallest mountain in the world, and propelled me 10 degrees across Europe with Adam.

Each morning I thank the Fates as I rise out of bed to stand on my two legs. We should be thankful. If you need motivation to understand just how much more challenging life can be, watch this video. Watching these patients toil and overcome reminded me of my hardship to the tenth power.

Fortunately the tight schedule has not impacted the workout regimine significantly, and now I have a good 3-4 weeks off that I can hit it hard. Two-a-days and plenty of rest. My family has been great at allowing me the time to rest and recover like I need. Most importantly, my 3-month old, Joshua, has finally come online with my training needs! Until recently the little guy woke up about every 1 1/2 – 2 hours (I think just to check and make sure I was getting good rest). I appreciated his concern, but it wasn’t helping much. He’s now sleeping 7-8 hours through the night. Let me tell you how much of a difference in quality of life for me and Amy that has made. I’ve attached a picture below of the mini-culprit. How can you ever be upset at that face?

Video 1: This video model from NOAA is based on over-flight observations. With each tide the oil from the spill is being pulled out to sea, and then pulled back into the bay.

Video 2: This second video is a photo montage of the damage done to the San Francisco Bay (aka. my former training grounds).

What is the moral of this sad story? If you can, and I realize this isn’t practical for most, but if you can, sell your car and buy a bike.

Grass Roots Appeal: Our idea from the outset was to build a business plan around this event that would leverage our backgrounds and the unique and exciting nature of the endeavor to garner interest from multi-sport enthusiasts. Our ability to effectively reach a specific demographic in a new and interesting way was the key to opening the door with many  companies. The most common feedback has been that big sponsorship does not sell bikes/equipment. They sell equipment when the “regular athlete” sees other “regular athletes” riding their bikes or using their equipment. When they met us face-to-face, we were able to demonstrate our ability/appeal to sell their product to their target market. Companies see thousands of similar proposals each year. What set us apart to the point where they were willing to commit? We were not just another team of pro athletes, looking for a handout. We talked with them about their companies and engaged them in business conversations. We talked about how to add value to their company.

We’ve got a lot in the cooker right now, and we’re hoping to have some great news in the coming days and weeks.  We’ll keep you posted.  Now I have to get off my butt and get to the pool again to try and clear all the sludge from my muscles.

What Motivates Us

We asked each other what we wanted from an adventure:

• I said I wanted it to have a defined goal, which basically meant it couldn’t just be a hike. I like things that are measurable and have defined ends. I like the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing a project. Mountains are pretty good that way. The summit is the goal, so you know when you’re done. And you know when to celebrate.

• Adam said he wanted a project that let him see the world at his own pace. I got the sense that his travels with our nation’s military allowed him to see the world, but he didn’t get to choose when he came and went (and I’m projecting here, so it might not be totally accurate). I’ll addend this blog story after I ask him if this is how he actually feels about his military travels.

Swimming the English Channel

We both liked the idea of swimming the English Channel. It is a 21 mile swim in 56-degree water. Swimming the channel traces its history back to 1875 when Matthew Webb (a naval captain). Wearing a wetsuit is considered “unclassy”, as is taking more than 20 hours to complete the swim. Only 811 people have swum the channel.

Biking 1000 Miles

Somehow we got to thinking that swimming the channel was a good start, but couldn’t be the whole adventure. Firstly, it’s only 20 hours. Secondly, it didn’t fulfill Adam’s desire to “see the world”.

I’ve always had a personal fascination with Edinburgh. It is such a green city, and the home of the world’s first medical school. I knew I wanted to visit it again. So I asked Adam if adding a hugely long bicycle tour to our expedition would be a clever idea. He thought it sounded crazy, and fun.

We were almost all the way there…

Naming Our Baby

Adam noticed that the northern most part of Scotland was at the 58th Latitude, and Paris was at the 48th Latitude. That was 10 Degrees of Latitude. We thought to ourselves, wow that is pretty cool.
Together we decided to name our expedition 10 Degrees of Latitude. The name stuck.

10 Degrees of Latitude visits the 7 Continents

As some of you might know I set out a number of years ago to climb the tallest mountain on all seven continents. I finished this goal in 2005, after climbing Mount Everest. It was an amazing journey, and one that I would love to repeat, with a twist (and with Adam).

Every year 10 Degrees of Latitude will be visiting a new continent. Our first continent is Europe in 2008. Every year we will invite more participants to join us in our journey. We will raise money for important causes on each continent, visit with locals, and experience the world’s cultures first hand. Join us!

One Last Thought

It is fascinating to think we will be traversing distances that are so vast that they are visible on a map. Makes me shiver.