EE Newsletter - September 20, 2017

Hello, Friends:

It may seem that Exceeding Expectations has gone quiet for the past few months, but these kids have been anything but quiet during their summer vacation.

We’ve been having regular summer run and bike training sessions and we’ve seen some great improvement in several areas.

The kids who are strong runners have been building their endurance and speed with the goal of qualifying for a slot to compete in the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) event in San Diego in October. The other kids have been working on their 5K speed and our new bikers have been working on developing bike skills for upcoming triathlons.

        

 

Last weekend was our final summer event where the kids laid it all out there.

Seven kids competed for five slots to CAF by racing nine miles. In past years I’ve set the requirement at 11 years of age. However, we have some killer little ones, and I just couldn’t leave them out of this. They raced their hearts out and here are the results:

Ricardo (14), Raul (14), Arian (12), Ahris (9) and Richard (9) will be our EE representatives at CAF this year. Their times ranged from 1:00 to 1:13. These kids can run!

 

Other kids ran varying distances (6, 4 and 2 miles) and awards were given to the top finishers in each distance.

But no one went home without a medal. Everyone who finished any distance, including parents and toddlers, received a medal which represented the hard work they’d put in all summer.

 

With the arrival of Fall, the kids are returning to school. Excitement is running high for our three new college freshman, Ana, Joseph and Jocelyn. Other EE members are returning to college, with three kids -- Josh, Jesus and Archi -- going into their fourth year.

 

We also had a wonderful event in August when Marlene, one of our original EE kids and a 2016 graduate of UCSD, married a wonderful young man. He’s in a graduate program and Marlene is continuing her work with plans to return for a graduate degree herself. Many of you have watched Marlene grow up with EE so you can imagine how emotional this was for Lee and me and we couldn’t be happier for her.

              

Next up is the Tram Challenge in October where many of our accomplished runners will be testing themselves on that beast. After that it’s CAF, at the end of October.

A real treat at CAF this year is that Nik, one of our EE originals, a UCSD graduate and several-time EE representative to CAF when he was younger, will be helping us with the five 2017 kids. Talk about things coming “full circle!”

 

As always, we thank you for the huge part you all play in Exceeding Expectations.

Our success is your success and we are very grateful to each of you.

 

-Cherie 

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Note from Lee:

Take a close look at the five kids going to CAF, especially the medals they’re wearing. Cherie entered five Ironman 70.3 races this year, including the World Championship in Chattanooga last week, and won them all. Her medals are now very special mementoes for five great kids.