I've decided to shut down the Think About the Children web site and use this blog as a way to keep my faithful donors and friends informed about our work. Think About the Children has two goals; first to support needy children and second to support military veteran amputees from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The current focus is rasing money for amputee veterans with Operation Rebound and Challenged Athlete Foundation. I'm racing in all three of Operation Rebounds Florida events to raise money for racing prosthesis to give something back to the amputee veterans; a sense of wholeness that comes form racing.

My next race is the Disney Marathon with my son Chad. We do not expect to burn the course up, just to finish the race, most likely in the six hour range. Disney is a very enjoyable race with over 20,000 runners and walkers.

The short term goals are St. Anthony's Triathlon in late April followed by Gulf Coast triathlon and Ironoman 70.3 Orlando on back-to-back weekends in early May. There are other races, but the triathlons are the focus of my training.

Yesterday I swam 1000 yards follwed by a 90 minute bike. Today I do my long run of 90 minutes. Tomorrow I do all three elements of a triathlon. I plan to bike 90 minutes followed immediately by a 60 minute run. Later in the afternoon I'll swim 1000 yards.

It's not easy to train long and hard day after day with no off days, but an amputee never gets a day off from the effects of his or her service to our country. When the going gets tough, I think of the good my fund raising and racing does.

The above photo was taken at Gulf Coast Triathlon last May. The race is a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. It was my second race back after a decade or more of not racing. You can click the photo to enlarge it. The following weekend I raced with Operation Rebound. That experience opened my eyes to the tremendous sacrifice of our current soldiers and Marines that seems to be lost on our media and most of our citizens. How can we fight two wars with almost no daily sacrifice by our citizens?

Happy New Year.

Tom Murray