Panda + Community January 2016

The Smart Panda - Running

2016 has arrived

After an incredibly busy holiday season, January has found things to be very quiet on the community side.  At the beginning of the month we visited San Diego, Anaheim, Los Angeles and Vegas.  We got to see some spectacular sights, like horseback riding in Red Rock Canyon, riding the High Roller Ferris Wheel, Rain in Death Valley, Pandas, Ironman, Lions, Ozzie the Giraffe, and many more….

The weather has been incredibly odd, with it being colder in San Diego then Detroit and from biting cold to running shorts.  So the Panda has taken the opportunity to get out and run as much as possible.  Since taking up triathlon 4 years ago I have never ran in January in basic run gear until this year.  I really wish it would stay that way, or heck maybe we should just move to someplace that is nice 12 months a year.

Soon the MS Bike Ride will be on the radar, and Officer Scott and Panda’s wife Lisa have committed to join the team this year.  Last year team butt ugly raised over $50,000 for MS research.  Looking forward to raising even more this year.  The friends and family of The Smart Panda raised almost $1000.00 of that $50,000.00.  Once registration is complete, the new donation links will get shared out, it would (will) be awesome to be a top fund raiser for MS — lets make it happen folks!

As for the running, The Niagara Falls Barrelman Ironman has changed formats this year, and it reducing its distance to a 1.5km swim, 56km bike ride and a 15km run.  The race has been very successful in the past, and yes the Panda has even been signed up, but the training commitment has been too much to do the Ironman distance, however, this new distance is much more manageable especially given the already intense working schedule this year. So if the logistics all work out the Panda will be on course this year in September in Welland/Niagara Falls! 🙂

Hope your 2016 goals are getting off on the right foot!

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