Wheels4Life Presentation at Jantar das Massas

It was quite and honor to have the stage for a few moments to highlight the efforts of everyone who has put in an incredible about of time and money in to this project over the last few months.

Seven children from Ratones school in Florianopolis joined us on stage to receive their brand new Houston Bike. All of these children were selected by their teachers, not only for their necessity of the bikes, but also for earning good marks in school over the last year.

I had a chance to rap out with these little guys for a bit and it was great to see their enthusiasm for receiving the bikes. Despite the heavy rains that night all of them wanted to ride the bikes right away back to their house, so I know these bikes will get some good use out of them!

Race Recap

Wow. What a day!

Glory to God for giving me the desire and ability to compete in such an amazing event.

My plan race plan was to pace well enough to make sure I finished and did not have to suffer any injuries…Well, 11 hours and 48 minutes after the starting gun, Fernanda and I crossed the finish line.

Thanks to those of you who have supported this entire Ironman effort over the last 6 months.

From all of you who have hooked up the amazing swag, deals, discounts, and goodies…on bikes, shoes, gear, and everything else, to everyone who has passed along helpful training tips, coaching, advice, sports rehabilitation, and finally to everyone who shares in the vision to make this world a better place and have contributed to the Wheels 4 Life Project, I give you all my gratitude and appreciation.

I especially want to thank my sponsors who contributed to making this whole project possible. It was their commitment to improving social wellness and ultimately having a passion for triple bottom line business that made this dream a reality.

The collaboration of people all striving for positive progression in this world is probably the most valuable thing I have experienced in this entire process. Whether it be companies who share in the vision to run their business serving both people and planet, or all the amazing people in the triathlon community who delight in encouraging each other to overcome new heights and challenges, the truly inspiring take away is the beauty that occurs when we put the greater good ahead of ourselves in effort to make this world a better place!

We are all ready looking to sign up for another Ironman this year and would love to be able to continue the momentum from this project. Perhaps we continue to provide transportation to those in need with Wheels 4 Life, or perhaps there are other things we can do that promote positive progression. Either way, we will be sure to enjoy the journey along the way as we collaborate with all of you!

Scotty and Fe

Race Photos

the morning of


Willy and Scott - Willy is 80 years old and has done over 200 triathlons. This was his 20th Ironman! What a stud!


Getting on the Bike..and stopping for my special needs bag


lets go for a run? and a little reload!


a little bit motivation



and the grand finale!

coming down the final stretch

Bikes Arrived !!!!

Finally we get to the W4L project!

There have been tons of people all contributing to make this work and that has been a blessing to have everyone’s support. Ill thank everyone in a later update.

However, when there are so many people working together the amount of coordinating needed to make things happen can be overwhelming… so when we got the call from Milton at Della Bikes, in Florianopolis, that the 25 bikes from Houstons had arrived it, was a huge relief.



Milton donated the time of his staff to set up each bike. When we arrived, there were 4 people working on getting bikes together and Fe and I jumped in to help as well. It takes about 1 hour to set up each bike so big thanks to Milton and his staff for the help.


We had already organized for 2 of the recipients from the newspaper (Jornal e Diferente) to receive their bikes that afternoon so Fe, Alberto, and myself packed 2 bikes in the car and headed out to make the deliveries.

Our first stop was to Biguacu, Santa Catarina, to the house of Flavio De Souza. Flavio was one of two people who were nominated from the newspaper by people in the community to receive this bike. He lives up in the hillside of a small town and will use this bike to get to his work. He works down in the local lumber yard cutting wood for residential use.


Next stop was to Palhoca, Santa Catarina, to the house of Maureci Pereira. Maureci is 63 years old and works as a brick layer. His specialty is carrying the huge bricks and rocks to and from job sites. He does more manual labor in one week than most of us do our whole lives. He plans to ride this bike the 35 mile round trip to and from work each day. His old bike was so rusted over that the wheels stopped spinning. He was so stoked to get his shiny new bike that he invited us over for lunch any weekend day we wanted.

These little guys were playing soccer in the street out in front of their school right near Maureci's house. They were stoked just to have us take their picture. I think it made them feel famous! I hope he lets them borrow the bike from time to time.

Troy Wenger, Injury Correction Extraordinare

Since football I have been working pretty regularly to get my shoulder in working order; surgery, rehab, rest, weight training, yoga, pilates, cortisone, different rehab, prolo-therapy…..

After trying just about every method of treatment available I was introduced to Troy Wenger, who has done an incredible job helping my shoulder move again. There is no doubt about it, Troy is an answer to prayer!

Over the past couple years I have flirted with the idea of triathlon as I heard so many people, including former athletes, really enjoying the competition and camaraderie that surrounds the sport. But as you can see from these photos I knew my shoulder would never let me swim.

But then about after about a year of working with Troy things started to loosen up and I gave swimming a shot. Slowly but surely the mobility started to come back and I learned how to swim. At first I used swimming as a tool for rehab and then slowly debated whether I could sustain swimming long enough to actually compete in a triathlon.

Keep in mind that from all my experience surfing I knew how not to drown, but I never actually knew how to swim…and had never swam more than fifty meters without stopping in my entire life. So learning the intricate techniques to swimming has been challenging and fulfilling adventure.

Thanks Troy for taking as much interest in getting me well as I do. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would never have even conceived the idea of triathlon, let alone Ironman, if Troy had not been working on me the last 2 ½ years.

Things still are not perfect but they are much better!

So Many Fruits!

Seriously, you gotta love going supermarkets in countries with tropical climates where the varieties of fruit out number the cars on the road! We picked up a bit of everything including; passion fruit, bananas, acai, acerola, and frozen cashew fruit.

Try this one next time you get your hands on some cashew fruit (same tree as the nut but not the nut, the fruit)

Uma Delicia

4 oz coconut water

4 oz frozen cashew fruit

2 scoops of Manitoba Harvest Pro 70

Brasil: Wild Parties, Gameshows, Fighting Monkeys...this place is awesome!!!! Oh yeah, and the bikes arrived!

Wow. Things are starting to heat up as we get closer to race day. Seems like there is tons to talk about.

Fe and I are trying to mix in some normalcy in between training; organizing the W4L project, going to wild parties, appearing on a local game show, and fighting off the miniature monkeys!


Robson and I getting ready for a quick ride.


This is how you get your uniform ready when you work for a non-profit.


What? A 6 years old's birthday cant be called a wild party? This is Fe and her family...Little Bruno is a nut...he doesn't go to bed until 2am every morning? Who does that?


We actually did make it to a grown up party. Who can say no to free sushi? This is the best marketing agency in all of the south of Brazil...and it just happens to be Fe's brother's....Fabio




Seriously...how did we end up on a game show? That is me in the Top Left and Fe in the middle. Then me again in the yellow and blue LRG polo in the back. Our team lost...but it wasn't my fault. I couldn't understand the questions......



These little rug rats could fit in the palm of my hand....If you look at the picture on the right that is a mommy with two (brown stripes) new born miniature fighting monkeys on her back....radical!


Also...the bikes arrived! Very cool. Full Update on that coming tomorrow!

Valeu!

A Must Read....arent they all?

So we me made it to Brasil! 24 hours and 4 legs later……but hey we made it….and right away sat down for a little cappuccino/empanada combo. Uma delicia!

Tuesday rained as hard as I have ever seen it rain in my entire life! Since the forecasts called for heavy rain through Friday, Fe and I scoped out a local gym where I could get in some biking and running. So locked indoors I was, but that was better than having to battle the rain!

Wednesday we were saw the sun poke her head out early in the morning so we rushed down to the Beira-mar (boardwalk) for a quick ride. Then back out to Jurere to get in a swim. Apparently the weather forecast is not reliable in Brasil either.

This is my version of trying to taunt the IM swim course. Do I look intimidating?

Some of the shots Fe captured are pretty amazing. Good work babe!

And finally…..check out this article that came out in one of the local papers. They are accepting nominations for 2 people to receive bikes through our Wheels 4 Life project.