"Living with the freedom to do what I want"

The title of my newest blog entry comes across rather differently than it suggest, but is straight the point of this entry. I do have such a freedom that I basically can do nearly anything that I want to at any given time. This is something that most of us never process through out our daily routines. How fortunate are you?

In short, I was inspired to write this blog because of so many people out there that are disabled in some fashion and just would love to do what I do for one minute. Surrounding myself with ultra competitive people in my work environment as well as within my peers, really pushes me to strive for success in my life. Namely my athletic life, since the majority of people who surround me are extremely active. How many times have we been disappointed about a race or a game because of the outcome? I didn't run that PR or I didn't beat this person.


We all really need to be thankful for so much in so many ways its incredible. As an example, MS is a large problem amoung the world and in the US. 2.5 million people worldwide and 400,000+ are affected by this disease which eats away at your bodies protective nerves. How many of these people affected are debilitated? As I wake up to go on an easy 5 miles run, I don't think about these people who struggle to just get out of bed much less run somewhere. As a goal for myself this year, I truly am going to be thankful for every step I take whether its running or walking down the hallway,road or a trail. Life could be so much different at any given time, why don't we realize how great so many of us truly have it; riches, fame and power is nothing compared to being able to give someone a hug or a hand shake with total comfort.

In short be VERY THANKFUL

Tri Recap: Savannah; Time to Tri

After my good friend Logan Beytagh moved back to Tybee Island, Ga this past year, I decided to look for a triathlon out his way. I knew that I had just completed the Boston Marathon, followed by my 1st half ironman, followed by a sprint triathlon followed by a 10k, followed by a International Distance Tri "Over the mountain", but with 2 weeks of no races, it seemed like something "FUN". Driving down for the trip, I tried to remember everything I could to bring for the race but most importantly I wanted to enjoy my time and visit to the beach.


Thinking about bad I have been running of late following everything, I put a tad more focus back into the run over the 2 weeks leading up to the Savannah Tri. In the process I also inked in with "Studio 7 Multi-sport" with Coach Lance Leo, in order to really give a shot at improving my multi-sport status. TrySports also spoke with me about being my main sponsor and offered full support of my attempt to give this Triathlon stuff a real try. Confidence was high knowing that in the near future I would have the backing of several credible sources in the community that believed in me. Lastly, I received a call from a highly respectable trend setting Chiropractor in Scott Greenapple about the possibility of joining forces with his office, so in the span of a couple weeks I really had a lot going on but moving forward in a positive manner.



Onto the race, the day before I went on an easy ride with G$ rocking out my Team USA one piece that is way too small, it was pretty cool hitting the roads with it on though. Afterwards I hit the beach with Logan's friends, drank some beer, played horseshoes and hit the ocean of course. Exactly what you should not do before a race! This was a fun trip, so no pressure and no worries about the outcome of the race tomorrow. Going into the race I had seen previous results where it seemed a local legend Jerry had claimed several victories over the years at this race and was obviously a phenomenal cyclist, so the comp would be good.

The morning of the race, I woke a little late after watching part of Avatar into the night and G$ was really pushing the issues to get things ready and to hit the road. Dave Cross was in town, so we followed him to the race site because he had a Garmin, all the while G$ was worried that we were loosing our way. Arriving just a bit later than we wanted, G$ high tailed it to the packet pick up and said I will see you at the start. "alright" I say and look back to Dave as we talk about random stuff and maybe getting in some kind of a warm-up. Looking around in the transition area, I notice a lot of REALLY nice bikes equipped with Zipps and disc wheels, at first I get a little worried but then I just think back to my college running days. These skinny guys would do stride outs before the race and everyone would get nervous because "that guy looks good, he is skinny" but I just didn't care what you looked like or what you had.

The swim was great for me being that it was only 500 yards! I had a good swim warm-up for a change and tried to keep my focus of really going hard from the beginning. Being up near the front was great for a change, I even got to draft behind someone for about 100m. After reaching the transition, I grabbed my bike, helmet, sunglasses and took off quick. After a mile I had passed about 3 people and some guy came ROLLING past me, So I did my best to go with him but I just couldn't match his effort. From mile 3 on, I watched 2 guys about 200m in front of me take turns trading pace efforts and it just made me livid.


After giving my best efforts to catch the 2 guys in front of me, we hit transition and I was 5th hitting T2. "TIME TO ROCK" is what I kept thinking, so I hit the road and knew I had to throw it on the line in order to catch a few guys, so as soon as I had my shoes on I was flying out of T2. After passing the finish area just before the mile, the announcer called me out, "#58 from Charrrloote, NC Chris-tapher Lamperski is eating up the competition and will most certainly catch 2nd place but does he have enough to catch Jerry?" in his european accent. This jacked me up even more and shortly after I passed the next couple guys and moved into 2nd overall. "Where in the hell is 1st place? Am I in 1st place?", is all I thought at that point. The guy who was in the lead was on the far side of the lake and I never saw him until I hit the 2 mile mark, so I pushed onward. I was getting updates from spectators once I hit the 2 mile I heard "he is 50 seconds up, go get him!". Once we hit a small turn around I came back through and the same guy said its only 22 seconds!

With 1st in sight and over 1/2 mile to go I knew I had it in the bag permitting that I didn't fall. G$(on his 1st loop) was just in front of Jerry who was in 1st, once I approached I told him to keep it rolling. It was great just knowing my legs finally came around after being dead for weeks and that i would be winning my 1st official triathlon. Nearing the finish, I slowed it down a bit in cruise control but I heard the announcer saying that I would be close to a course record, so I kicked it in to cross the tape. "I can't believe I just won, but you deserved it" is the 1st thing I thought of.

All in all it was a great day for me, I was 12th out of the water, I think I had the 6th fastest bike, I ran 15:40 for just over 3 miles on the run course according to my Garmin, won the race and set a new course record. Time to hit the ocean and celebrate!!!

Shout outs to Glenn Carroll for a 4th place finish in his age group and to David Cross for winning the Overall Duathlon Title. Special Thanks to Justin Breland & Angi Klick of TrySports for your support, Scott Greenapple of "Greenapple Sports & Wellness" for helping me stay healthy and to all of my peers out there whom I get to run,swim, or ride with on any occasion.

Australia: Update for a visit

Just a brief update on my proposed plans to visit Australia in the near future which i haven't commented on lately. My plans are still intact to visit "Down Under" come the 1st weekend in October in order to race in the Western Australia Duathlon Championships. I am awaiting the opening of registration for the race so that I can actually have it checked off of my list.

My next goal is establishing a time line as to the length of my visit. Throwing a wrench in this mix is the fact that I will almost certainly be making a stop in NZ and am thinking about having a couple day layover in order to compete in a running race there. Luckily for me, one of my best friends is actually moving to NZ in August so I will have somewhere to stay for a couple days.

I am so thankful to have so many people that support me in so many ways. Some have helped financially and other have helped by providing me with kind and supportive words. My hope is that by mid July I will have my plane ticket purchased and only have some minor trip details to lock up.

We all have dreams. In order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.

Their are certainly times when I think, why don't I just act like a normal person? Finish a good days work with dinner with some friends while chatting over a few drinks and heading home to relax on the couch. That sounds just blissful at this point, I think its something that I often battle with and have battled with over the years. Trying to lead a busy social life while kind of half assing my training for whatever event is in the forefront.

Now that I have signed on with Studio 7 and Lance Leo as my fulltime coach, I have fully committed myself towards attaining some proposed goals in 2011. 2010 is basically a wash for me as I am using it as my building year for triathlons, to gain strength and experience. Putting in a full years worth of dedication and hard work should reap some major benefits come 2011 race season which will be specifically planned out permitting I stay injury free.

Sometimes I wonder what separates the "men from the boys" and it basically seems to boil down to hard work in endurance athletics. I kind of like what Bill Bowerman once said with pushing yourself to limits.

"the real purpose of running isn't to win a race; it's to test the limits of the human heart. A teacher is never too smart to learn from his pupils. But while runners differ, basic principles never change. So it's a matter of fitting your current practices to fit the event and the individual. See, what's good for you might not be worth a darn for the next guy."

"Testing" my personal limits is certainly a goal of mine and in order to do so appropriately I have realized that I must cut certainly luxuries out of life to attain this. Luckily I can keep my head on straight while staying focused on ultimate goals in life, with the main one being "Happy" and "Content" with life. Along with achieving my individual goals, I hope through my coaching service as well as volunteer work I can impact other people's lives in a positive way....this is what really matters.

New events that pop out of no where

Last night I posted that I accepted a position at "Greenapple Sports & Wellness" as a Chiropractic Aid which to many is a shock because of some other prior stated plans. The initial goal of moving to Australia has been scraped at this point in time, because after adding up the benefits of this job opportunity locally, I felt that it was in my best interest to stick around.
Greenapple Sports & Wellness has a very good name in the community and the possibilities of expanding my coaching business can actually be increased through this avenue as well while interacting with clients. Now down to my goal of heading to Australia! Mike Kahn shocked me by announcing that he would start a fundraiser while he is preparing for the NYC marathon to assist me in my journey "Down under".
I want to state that I am still traveling to Australia, but for a much more brief stint. The goal with heading Down Under will be to knock out 2 races, one being a duathlon in western Australia and the other being a BIG olympic distance triathlon on the gold coast. In the Duathlon I will be able to race one of my best friends in Cody Angell and its motivational to say the least. Every time that we have raced each other we pretty much "Lay it on the line" trying to break each other from the get go with crazy surges and maybe even some classic "Lance Armstrong" stare backs during the ride.

Thank you to everyone who has donated $ for my trip, I will not be moving there BUT I will still be heading over to race some amazing competition and what it boils down to is that it will cost exactly the same to get there. I will continue updating my blog with updates while leading up to my trip as well as triathlon recaps. next up: Over the Mountain