10 years in the making: {part deuce} Pimping cars, trucks, hogs & a failed business

  After my most recent post entering into the last 10 years of my life and delving into how I got where I am at this point, I hit a mini wall. Have you ever been inspired to do something and then after about half way into completion, just loose that focus? Well that's where I am right now, but I am sure as I tap away at this $300 refurbished Acer laptop (big $$$) it will dawn upon me while I started this in the first place(as a note excuse the random side bars that I go through, it actually helps paint part of my life). So here I am, its 2005 and I just purchased a little condo unit in South Charlotte, I fixed it up, it was my nest baby for 2-3 years I thought anyways. Managed to make it through some neighborhood mischief (break-in) and I never seemed to settle quite into place. I remember to this day, after someone smashed into my home and stole my belongings, I was carrying a hand gun with me frequently with an angry trigger to say the least. One time my girlfriend woke me up because she heard a noise and I was grabbing my pistol just as my roommate yelled out it was just him! Wow what an experience, he thought he was near death and I was thinking, am I am about to shoot someone?

  Sorry for the side track, as I am moving along through the chain of command at the local running shop, I hear about a financial job where I could possibly have an "in"from a former rival cross country runner in college. Now, I am officially going to be a legit adult, I am getting into finance, dressing up for work, getting a 401k, and drinking coffee as a regular habit during break time. It was pretty exciting initially, I had always seen the people scurrying in uptown as I would occasionally pick up my grandmother(retired wachovia employee) during her lunch break to grab a bite at El Cancun. I was on my way there, business suits and slicked back hair, maybe some flashy shoes to go along with my proper suit and tie. Well not exactly, I was wearing button downs and polo's to work mostly, because it was REAL laid back, almost to the point where you didn't care as much, people even wore shorts and sandals sometimes!

   During the last semester of school I purchased a newer vehicle (VW Jetta) and promptly decked it out with custom wheels and an insanely loud sound system, then I ran across a deal on a friends truck for $1200, so I went for it. Most people would have labeled it as a "POS" (piece of shh) with the paint half missing and dents throughout but I saw the beauty in it as I scrapped off the "Redneck" sticker. This was not the typical vehicle most business class people would drive around but after all I already had a car that was dependable, this was my "project". Managing to do most of the body work by myself, my good friend took the truck into his paint booth and sprayed it out for me, midnight blue with flake, it was SWEET!. Next on tap, the "Twinkies" also known as 20's, yep, I was rolling on dubs and I decked out the interior with a new MP3 player, custom console subwoofer, all new carpet and seat covers, tinted windows and flow masters! I was riding dirty in every way, most people would stare at my custom "whip" and wonder who was inside, not imaging a skinny white guy with glasses, bumping that new Nas CD. This was another side track, but it also gives you a sense of were I was coming from and my sense of style from the environment of which I was raised, on the west side of Charlotte, not a particular hot spot for the upper class.

   New job, 2 pretty sweet vehicles, things are going pretty awesome for me, I have been piecing together my condo, something is missing. It's time to get my HOG! Well not quite a hog but close, a Honda Shadow chromed out with Vance and Hines pipes, man it was a beauty and bust your ear drums loud! One of my close friend encouraged me to get one with him so I pulled the trigger and well....he didn't! thanks Rob Dietz! This leads into my next juncture of life, "Running Happy" and "RunningOne", a new business venture with one of my closest friends. After running the Myrtle Beach Half Marathon in fun "joe boxer" bright yellow boxers with friends Beth, Kara and Rob, we noticed something spectacular. People LOVED the smiley face on our boxers and thus began the concept of "Running Happy". {For the next few paragraphs I will bold the font, so that I may paint you a much clearer picture of the ensuing chaos.}

  My business partner and I had experience in the running specialty industry, we spoke about the common frustrations of the particular business and eventually THOUGHT that we could own and operate something that could really take off and be even better than anything locally. We started small with operating a coaching service to a group of about 30 people, which was exciting seeing some of the athletes improve rapidly with tons enthusiasm through the cold winter months. Phase one complete, phase two, let's begin selling products to our clients, how can we do this? Hmmm well why not just jump into the world of online sales, yea that sounds AWESOME! Wow things have progressed quickly, being a business owner was a dream of mine always, what could go wrong? We have an official business account at this point, 25k to use for products and whatever else we saw fit in the business. While working my full time job, in between breaks and lunch I was contacting vendors about product that we were seeking. Reebok and Fila came easy as we stock piled shoes into a spare room, along with hammer nutrition and fuel belts. Looking at the credit card statement and then walking into the spare room, I expected it to be filled floor to ceiling but not even close, wow owning a retail business is EXPENSIVE!


  Often times I was the "NO" man, in the mix, every time that money was requested to be spent I essentially freaked out.  "Running Happy" even established their own trademarked shirts, shorts and singlets for sale. Some sales begin to come in as the excitement and debt was building into a combustible bonfire. At some point with the chaos of a start up business, we decided it would be the best thing to just go ahead and look into opening our own brick and mortar location. After all, we were dedicated and wanted this to be a full time gig, with freedom to do what we see fit. As whispers around the running community built, more and more people found out about our plans to open a "new" competing store in the area. The local shops, did not take a liking to this very much and began to pressure our vendors to stray away from us. The pressure was truly on now, we scoped out a location(lease signed) for our new AMAZING STORE, looked at retro fitting fee's and thus finally signing for a small business loan. Luckily my business partner covered our A$$ and made sure there were loop holes in each contract if we needed to back out. My stress level was unbelievably high, do I really want to do this? it could burn bridges with some people as well as put me into tremendous debt. As stated there was a lot of "hear say" going on with old co-workers and random people in general, so I made a huge leap of faith and contacted one of our soon to be competitors and did I mention former boss, Tim Rhodes.

Makes the World Go Round!

   I still remember the day I walked into the store and my former co-workers were in shock that I even set foot inside. After breaking the shock with a big smile, while being very nervous, we discussed how I actually set up a meeting in an effort to clear the air about our intentions out of pure respect for a touted business man whom gave me a chance to start within his company. After discussing several of our conflicts, some which were very touchy, an hour or so flew past. There I was, sitting across from a well respected business owner, of whom I used to work for and he was being sincere with me about the hardships of owning a small business.  To this day, I truly commend Tim for being professional during our one on one meeting, as well, I truly will never forget what he said to me as I left his office. "Chris, I want to see you succeed, I do, I just don't think you realize how difficult it is to run something like this. If you ever need something, let me know, but I am here to protect my business on the same note". Honestly, I could feel the sincerity in his voice and just the way he made eye contact. After this meeting I knew it was time to have a final sit down to discuss our future as small business owners.


   Eventually, the decision was made to scrap our new "Running Happy" store, but what to do with all of the product and etc, the debt had piled up. Wow, about year had passed since I purchased my home, I had a truck, car and a nice motorcycle sitting out front and the possibility of a new business in tow. Luckily we crossed paths with some other business men looking to expand their triathlon store from Charleston, SC called "TrySports". They wanted to open a new location, they had the money, I came to the table with experience and drive, a natural fit. After unloading some debt with traveling to some marathon expo's and selling our items, things began to level down a bit. Still nicely in the hole, I decided that something just had to go. I sold my car, FIRST, then I sold my beautiful hog, I had to pay for the debt somehow, right? After all of this, I still thought the best way to cap off the rest of the debt would be to open a new line of equity on my home, it wasn't for much and it was at a low rate. OK, things aren't what I thought they were going to be, BUT at least there was another option in the cards. Eventually after interviewing several times, I decided that my stable career in finance would have to do, the specialty industry just zapped any enthusiasm I had for it once before, I needed a break, just one job and to be normal. After all I think I was only 23 maybe 24 at this time?

   Crazy huh? things were really looking up as I was leading a pretty standard life, I even had a few toys to play with and living nearly stress free. Putting my stress level into words concerning this segment of my life would be difficult, but just to say it bluntly, I was having a pretty hard time with it all. Luckily I took a much needed step back and just led a seemingly normal life for a few more years until I found it time to really venture into something that was my passion. In this between time, I got back into my running regimen, somewhat, you could say. I was doing about as much as I needed to in order to keep most of the weight off while not limiting my weekend excursions into uptown Charlotte. After all when I was at school, I wasn't partying quite like a rock star as most did, I still needed to get it out of my system, plus I had a passion to just hit the dance floor.



  This leads into my last segment about my trial and error training sessions with my "running career" or lack there of. I was racing VERY frequently from 2005-2007, I would roughly say I raced 3 times a month sometimes 4 or 5, but my mileage was limited. Quite frankly it was almost NON- existent, I was running on Wednesday and racing on Saturday, but what else did I do on the other days? ZUMBA, yes I said it, I jumped into the world of cardio dance at the Harris YMCA heavily! Looking back I realized that I often ran the 2.75 miles to class and back so, let's chalk it up to 15-18 miles a week including races. Tuesday and Thursday nights upstairs at the Harris YMCA, yea I was one of 2 or 3 guys in their but I was mostly fine with that. For some reason, I felt more comfortable wearing my "Fueled by god" shirt to class, but I was rocking it out. Lots of women would come up after class and comment that I was pretty good, CONFIDENCE LEVEL bounces up one more notch! Fairly confident in my natural abilities, I managed to stay in the sub 17:30 range for the 5k's and then the unthinkable happens, 2 races in a row. Rob Dietz Smashes me at Tour De kale (17:58 for me) and then Cody Angell, the newly dedicated runner smashed me at the Summer Breeze 5k (17:26 for me). Time to train, sorry Zumba, I need to start running again, I miss you just writing this....seriously!

  This was a very extensive dive into my world, I would say the majority of the people that I know and began to know closely, would have no idea that I have been through a few of these life experiences. yes this entry was jumping all around like a Mexican jumping bean, pimping trucks to zumba class but it ties my life together through those difficult and educational years. King of the world, I had everything and more than I needed, was I ready to tackle the world of Proprietorship? HELL NO! I must say, looking back, I am so grateful that the attempt was faltered to open my own business. At 23 you think you know the world, I did, Now I am 28 and understanding the true structure of wisdom.

"Life's failures lead to life's monumental successes"


  On Sunday morning I will be competing in the Western Australia Triathlon State Sprint Championships, who's who of triathlon will be competing, so I have no stated expectations, but to just give it my best. 


   Following my recap I plan to wrap up my "10 years in the making" installment where I will jump ahead to the past 15 months of my life and how everything drastically changed for the better. 


"Taking the time to understand how you tick as an individual is a key to every one's life, we can cram our self into societies cookie cutter pattern and let life pass us by, OR we can reach deep inside and discover what tools we all have to offer in this huge world of the masses." - CL

Thank you, Thank you! Farewell Party + Big Fun 5k

  After speaking with Rebecca Thomason just weeks ago about my departure to Australia, she offered to host a "farewell" party in my honor at her household. She basically set up everything on her own, with giving me freedom to invite friends to enjoy the gathering with. I am so thankful and most importantly fortunate to have so many amazing friends like Rebecca to celebrate my journey with.

  Once at the party, we all realized that this scavenger hunt was some serious business, as it involved a lot of running around all the way to the uptown area and back, all the while in costume! I decided to pass and stick around to catch up with some old college buddies to play catch up the best we could in an hour's time.


As the farewell gathered more and more people, I was very delighted to see that so many people showed up to enjoy just a last hoorah for me. Check out some of the pictures below to see how much fun it was!

I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who came out to have one last laugh with me. It was a very special time for me and I don't take my friendship for granted with each and everyone of you. After the scavenger hunt was complete I was greeted with some cash in hand from the proceeds of the party, which made me pretty excited knowing that this would more than likely be enough to ship my bike down under! Thank you thank you thank you


$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

As a conclusion to this post, I woke up saturday morning bright and early after about 2 hours of rest and jumped into a 5k that started directly across the street from me in the Blakeney Shopping center...The event was amazing in fact, one of the best local 5k's I have ever seen put on in the area. I knew that if certain precautions weren't made, that the course could be cut slightly short simply by taking a few corners a certain way.  The course is USATF certified but I think a few of the turns were taken sharply to trim the course down a bit. As a disclosure to all interested/current clients of PRC, my preparation for the race was extremely against the rules of all recommended advice I would typically give.

  My warm-up included, waking up, walking across the street to get my packet, walking back and then taking a 15 minute hot shower, followed by a 4 minutes run in the treadmill, then a 15 minute rant with various people before realizing the race was to start in a mere 2 minutes. As the bad decisions piled up, I decided to go ahead and take off my shirt, it was only 40 degree's out, why not? Arm warmer's and a hat, fun times. In short the gun fired and everyone took off directly uphill out of the shopping center. I was getting left right away by young kids, old men, women and maybe even a few baby joggers. there were 2 things that I realized about a 1/2 mile into the race;

1. I was behind Justin Breland and Kent Morris by a fair amount, just basing off of our current 5k times, I should certainly be in front of them, as well as the grey haired guy in front of them with basketball shorts. 
2. Pezz was pretty far up the road on me, crap I need to pick up the pace or I will get rolled by a girl!!! She is legit, yes I did have an excuse to fall back on from my lack of sleep and wealth of hops in my stomach, but I had to man up. 

I managed to pass Pezz at the mile mark, debating on whether to help her pace or to continue on, I decided to catch up to some other guy who was sporting triathlon gear and went out "balls to the wall" with the ballers.   I was feeling surprisingly great, so I decided to just basically sprint for about 200 meters to lay the law down so to speak. After I hit about the 1.5m mark, I realized that the rest of the race I would be completely alone, maybe I should push it? na cruise control to stay in front of Pezz was all i really cared about, so as I approached the line not having wore a watch, I was completely surprised to see 15:49, 50, 51...15:56!

Big South 5K 2010
                         Charlotte, NC 10/23/2010
             UNOFFICIAL Results by Queen City Timing Services
                 RESULTS POSTED ON www.queencitytiming.com

Place Div/Tot  Gen/Tot  Name                Ag G Bib   City         St Chiptim Guntime Pace  
===== ======== ======== =================== == = ===== ============ == ======= ======= ===== 
    1   1/23     1/420  Matthew Elliott     25 M   858 Rock Hill    SC   14:45   14:45  4:45 

    2   1/11     2/420  Ricky Flynn         23 M  1472 Lynchburg    VA   14:53   14:54  4:48 
    3   2/23     3/420  Jordan Kinley       26 M  5621                   15:33   15:33  5:01 
    4   3/23     4/420  Chris Lamperski     28 M  1058 Charlotte    NC   15:56   15:57  5:08 
    5   1/51     1/435  Stephanie Pezzulo   28 F  1486 Waxhaw       NC   16:17   16:17  5:15 
   

My new approach to racing will not involve a garmin but by racing off of feel alone as it seems I have been able to adapt to paces much more appropriately in that manner. 

Pictured with the Eagle is a good friend, Scott Helms who left from uptown Charlotte with a headlamp on in the early AM to make it in time to run the course in order to complete his 20 miler along side PRC member Dusti Jensen. great to see both of them knocking 20 miles out like it was nothing!

Running for Ta-Ta's

About 6 weeks ago i decided that I wanted to set a goal of running a decent 5k once again since I had been mainly trying my hands in the multi-sport arena this spring/summer. Since TrySports was sponsoring the "Run for the "Ta-Ta's" 5k in Wilmington, NC, I figure why not give it a shot?

Perhaps with some training I could be under 16 once again and if things went according to plan, I could get down into the 15:40 range in this 6 week span. Well after some very surprising workouts in basically a 2 week span I was feeling more and more confident. I managed a stellar (for me) 4 x 1 mile track workout in Charleston, SC and then an even more surprising sub 22minute tempo on the Common Market solo run. After all of these events seemingly lining up for a fantastic 5k performance I headed off to West Jefferson for the Blue ridge relay with my new teammates "Bear in Mind". After a spectacular trip with new friends, I was left a bit fatigued but I felt confident that this would be my best post BRR recovery yet. WRONG.


Something flared up in my calf and Achilles on both legs and I was VERY limited with my training regimen. This really left me at a loss as I was finally gearing up to be in great shape before I ship out across the world. Now here I am running very 3rd day at a far from brisk pace for anywhere between 3-5 miles. I was fortunate to attempt using a new product on the market called the "helix calf sleeve" to see if it could help at all. Well long story short, i was walking by 1.75 miles with a big knot in my calf. Luckily after speaking with Dr. Clay Gasparovich at Greenapple Wellness, he worked on my legs the best that he could.


My legs began to feel better after the use of a laser, the graston technique, and kineseo tape. After making progress Dr. Scott Greenapple, said he would like to give acupuncture a shot also. {Acupuncture is the stimulation of specific points on the body by a variety of techniques, including the insertion of thin metal needles though the skin. Acupuncture needles are intended to remove blockages in the flow of chi and restore and maintain health. The needles are solid, and contain no chemicals, as in western medicine. These disposable needles serve only as an antennae to allow transfer of energy through a point in the body.}

Never having acupuncture before, I was a little nervous and when he was sticking these needles inside on my leg I was just a bit freaked out honestly. Directly after the therapy I felt worse, as my leg was in a bit of pain, so I was still skeptical. The next day arrives, t-minus 1 day until the 5k and I manage to squeeze in 3 miles with BMAC at 7pm before meeting Jordan and Sarah at the local pub. Race morning, BMAC and I awake after our comfortable living arrangements at the Hilton, get some coffee, the usual dynamic warm-up, 3 miles to warm-up and some easy strides. i was feeling GOOD, wow what happened? I felt like a new person actually, what to expect now? Does this mean I can go out harder? What's the plan? "Chris you haven't ran much in 2 weeks! don't go crazy".


Once the race started, it was CHAOTIC as we caught up to the back of the pack women and the swerving commenced. In and out, on the curb, whoa i almost ran into someone, stop, side step, surge the gap, hop over a dog, past a little girl and we are about 1/2 mile into the race. My plan quickly became to stick with the front pack as long as I could until the chaos cleared a bit and they took off. At the 3/4m mark, it was on point when they took off, most of whom have run sub 15 for a 5k on the roads before. I settled into a groove and kept going w/no watch to look at only effort. Rounding a corner I noticed that Jordan was on the sidewalk as I passed by, secretly hoping he would hop back in to help me out, and he did! He led me out to catch the next pack which was successful and he just kept it in cruise control from then on.

Approaching the line I thought the clock said 16:30, but it said 18:30, meaning I was at 15:30 in reality since we started 3 minutes back. I knew I had a lot more in the tank so i got on my toes and hammered home passing some local guy with his teammates cheering him in. Afterwards I found out the guy I passed was a now pro triathlete and current Aquathon national champion. This made my day and has led my confidence to really build before I head out. I want to send out many thank yous starting with trySports for providing me with a race to actually mark as a goal; Greenapple sports and wellness for somehow allowing me to run, BMAC for a fun trip (another tower over here!) and Jordan Kinley for helping me catch the pack in front of me! Onward to more training!

BLOWING ROCK LONG RUN IN THE AM!!! Blog Post sure to come from the trip

"You're a D**m fool!"

Those are the words I was fortunate enough to hear while stopped at a light on Park Road while on my bike. Just waiting for the light to turn green I see the car in front of me roll down his window and motion to the side and I can hear something from the car so I pull up to right next to the window and he wants to enlighten me on what an idiot I am for riding my BIKE on the road for cars. This really made me think about what everyone thinks about cyclist on the roads around Charlotte.

This statement really made me think about my hatred for people on the roads who are so kind to cyclist. Maybe hatred is too strong of a word but that's the only thing that came to mind. It really upset me that someone was ballsy enough to motion me up to the car and tell me this to my face. My come back was "well, i do this a good bit, so keep an eye out for me, so far so good, thanks for the advice!". Riding my bike for 3 hours is not the battle for me, its fighting traffic and just counting the times that a big SUV just has to squeeze through to pass me while I am going 25mph in a 35mph zone.

Kudo's to the guys/gals who hit the roads every day with their bikes and put aside the dangers that lie ahead on the road, namely vehicles flying by at a high rate of speed. I realize that sometimes motorist see a bicycle coming and just assume that it will take forever to reach them but they don't realize that sometimes we are going pretty quick in fact. Life and times of a wanna be cyclists, I am trying to get there, hitting the trails for a run seems much easier at this point haha