Crossing the Finish Line

I escaped from Alcatraz and it only took 45 minutes!

On Sunday I completed the San Francisco Triathlon at Alcatraz, it’s one wild race! In fact I had such a blast I think it’s one of my favourite triathlons to date.

It all starts in the wee hours of the morning, setting up transition in the dark at Marina Green and then catching the bus to Pier 3 for the boat to Alcatraz. That’s 1,800 athletes packed onto a boat sailing off at 6:15am as the sun peaks behind the Bay Bridge, quite surreal.

Given the extremely windy conditions the previous day, they only let 4 of the 12 test swimmers even attempt the swim and the rescue kayaks capsized, it was a relief to see the mirror calm sea as we headed to Alcatraz. The conditions couldn’t have been better.

Ready to Start

The pros lined up on the outside rail of the boat and come 7:00am were off, quickly followed by the rest off us piling out of the door and jumping into the chilly waters. It’s hard to describe the feeling of being in the middle  of the San Francisco Bay, looking one way at the Golden Gate Bridge, another at Alcatraz looming large, another the sun silhouetting the Bay Bridge and finally the San Francisco skyline in front, surrounded by a 1,000 other swimmers. One word, WOW!

Jumping Off

You don’t swim directly to the swim exit at Marina Green, if you did you’d end up at the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead you swim further east, more towards Aquatic Park and then let the current drift you westwards. After 1.2 miles or so you hit the makeshift steps and climb out of the sea.

Next stop, a 25 mile bike ride up and down and around the bendy streets and hills of San Francisco to the Great Highway and back. It’s a bit hairy in places, the lumps and bumps in the road nearly knocked me off more than once. You want to go fast on the downhills to make up for all the effort you put in to get up the other side, but you’ve got to have some balls to go all out on those roads!

Sand Ladder

Back from the bike in one piece, legs a little tired from the hill climbs and it time for the bit I like the least, the 7 mile run, the other wild part about this event. The run is more cross-country than the normal road race. Despite nearly being out of action during the first mile when my left knee gave way again, I was able to stay with it and have to say I really enjoyed the run. It’s mostly along dirt and gravel paths, up steps, ducking through an underpass, along a cliff path, down the road a bit and then along the beach in the sand to the 400 step sand ladder and then return.

First in Class Finish

I finished in 3 hours 51 minutes, the swim took 45 minutes, the bike an hour and 35 minutes and the run an hour and 16 minutes, finishing first in my class (physically challenged athletes) and setting a course record for my class (since it’s the inaugural race).

I’ll be back next year to defend my title!

You can view more pictures of my race on Facebook or watch me finish the swim and cross the finish line below.

On the fundraising front, I just want to say thank you to my top donors this last month, Sam, R2, Hemant, Lea Ann and Prashant thank you so much.

I’m over the $5,000 mark with 6 races done. I’d love to reach $6,000 before my next race in 2 weeks and with your continued support I’m sure I will!

By making a donation you will directly help a challenged athlete in need.

Help me raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation

Based on my personal experiences I believe there are 6 primary needs. So what are they?

The first need is the need for co-creation:

People support things that they create, if you want to enlist people to a common cause allow them to be part of the creation process.

The second need is the need for decision making:

Business is not a democracy, progress requires someone to make the call and then for everyone to align. Decisions are best built on a foundation of mutual respect and there can be no hidden agendas.

Notice the tension between these two needs? Collaboration helps people feel vested in the process, but at the end of the day someone has to be in a position of mutual respect and make the tough calls or there’s no action?

The third need is the need for stability:

Things take time, people need a period of stability to be able to focus on getting the job done. If  there’s constant change or new ideas keep coming thick and fast it’ll just disrupt people’s flow, lead to lack of progress and frustration for all.

The fourth need is the need for instability:

Mix it up from time to time; question the status quo; look for ways to make things even better; identify new opportunities. Don’t get too inwardly focused on day-to-day execution or the next great idea will pass by unnoticed.

Again, notice the tension? People need stability to effectively execute, the vision, idea or direction can’t be constantly in flux, yet get to myopic on getting the job done and innovation grinds to a halt.

Now, while the first four needs relate more to execution, the next two are all about heart and soul.

The fifth need is the need for a compelling vision:

Vision is the track along which the train rides, without vision co-creation runs amok and decision making lacks a framework of reference and cohesion over time. Vision provides people with a sense of purpose to what they are doing. If there’s one thing that needs stability, it’s the vision of a business.

The sixth need is the need for an empowering culture:

Culture is the fabric that knits everything together, it must provide people with a sense of autonomy, an opportunity to master what they do and stamp out internal politics. An empowering culture combined with a compelling vision provides all the motivation in the world for people to give their all to the business.

What would be the top 2 needs that you excel at satisfying? Does your business contain a balance of people to ensure all 6 get meet at a high level on a day-to-day basis? Are the needs getting meet in a positive way that’s good for the individual, good for the business and good for the world at large?

More to come in my future posts on business…

Initial Prototype Development

Unlike my usual posts, that relate more to my personal life, I’d like to write some posts that are more based on my professional experiences as I’m in the middle of a three-month break after leaving Kaboodle, the company that I co-founded back in 2005.

Some of you may not have realized that at the same time I had my accident in February 2006 that resulted in the loss of my left hand, I was right in the middle of launching Kaboodle. Whilst I was adjusting to life with one hand I was also working on making Kaboodle a success and experiencing the ups and downs of high-tech startup life, experiences that included the low of nearly being out of business to the high of selling the company in August 2007.

Before I get more philosophical about what I feel it took to build a successful internet business let me share a little bit more of my Kaboodle story.

In July 2004 I was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Versant, a medium-sized software company, I’d been there 8 years, first joining their European organization and then growing to the point that I transitioned in early 2000 to the headquarters in the US. Four years later I found myself unchallenged and de-motivated. I needed a change and so after a three-month transition I left October 2004. I had no idea what to do next, continuing my career and going to work for a bigger software company just didn’t grab me, I needed a new direction, something that would stretch me.

Well, during my transition, Manish Chandra, at that time Versant’s VP of Marketing, asked me if I’d help gestate an idea he’d been toying with since earlier that year. He’d pulled together a group of people to meet at his house Saturday mornings to kick it around. That was the beginning of Kaboodle.

Working Out of the Garage

Initial Site Deployment

In January 2005 Manish and Chetan Pungalyia, the other co-founder, committed fulltime to Kabooble and we were off. We moved into Manish’s garage and spent the first 4 months refining a prototype to prove we could build the underlying technology behind the Kaboodle concept (in those days we were Chaboodle Labs) and fundraising.

Everything came together in May as we closed $1.5M in angel funding and started building the Kaboodle site for real, the 3 of us plus Chetan’s cousin, Alok, who’d joined a month earlier.

Our alpha site was ready that September and as we continued to build the site and the team, we planned for our official ‘beta’ launch and next round of fundraising (in a startup you never stop fundraising). Somewhat last minute we decided to launch at the Demo conference in February 2006, a high-tech showcase event. You can see Manish’s pitch below:

After a successful launch and with our fundraising close to closing I headed off to Colombia for my ill fated paragliding trip.

Early Kaboodle Team

Well, my accident took me out of the business for 3 months. Thankfully we had enough critical mass of people (by this time there were about 9 of us in the company), that my departure didn’t completely derail the business. However, fair to say it probably took until October that year for us to regain our direction. End of 2006, going into 2007, was a dark time for us as we faced the need to raise additional money, but lacked the business results and compelling vision to build a strong story for new investors. Our original investors, whilst very supportive, wanted to see growth as proof we had a real business. And so, in October we got real about what it would take to be successful, what had resonated with our users and what we were all about. The holiday season was upon us and since our chosen niche was in the e-commerce space, if we were going to make it work, now was the time.

Solid execution through the end of the year gave us the momentum to work with our existing investors to extend our financing, but come end of January we were out of cash and out of options. We either closed the extension to our financing or we closed the doors. Thankfully, we got the commitment from our investors; although Manish still had to go pick up a check from one of them so we could pay payroll prior to the financing itself closing. That was a close shave.

Acquisition Celebration

From that low, we continued to focus on our core business and of course fundraising, come May 2007 we were deep in discussions to finalize the terms for our next round of funding with an East Coast Venture Capital firm. Then just as we were finalizing our financing in New York we got a call from Hearst Corporation, they were interested in talking to us about an acquisition. From that first meeting things snowballed and by August, Kaboodle was acquired. Myself and Manish stayed on and built Kaboodle into a top 150 website in the US with over 16 million visitors a month, but, after 3 years post-acquisition it was time for me to move on to find my next challenge in life.

In the process of building Kaboodle I have learnt a lot about what it takes to start a company, build a team and make a success on many dimensions and since I’m taking a bit of time out it’ll give me a chance to reflect and capture my thoughts so I can share them with you all.

Vineman Finisher

On Sunday I took part in the Vineman Ironman 70.3 triathlon in Sonoma, a triathlete’s version of a trip to the wine country.

This is my first 70.3 mile event, you might remember my previous attempt at this distance ended with my bike crash two weeks before the race last October.

A 70.3 Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride, followed by a 13.1 mile run. The plan going in was to only do the swim and bike as I’d been having knee issues since my half marathon last month. My coach Paul Kinney recommended I leave my running shows behind so I wouldn’t be tempted to do the run. The concern was not to jeopardize my ultimate goal of completing a full 140.6 Ironman this November. Whilst I knew it made sense I was torn by the idea of not completing the race.

Vineman is a beautiful course that starts with a swim in the Russian River at Guerneville, followed by a scenic ride through Sonoma that winds its way to Windsor High School and from there a run out to La Crema Winery and back.

Swim Start

It was up at 4:30am Sunday morning and heading off to Guerneville at 5:15am to setup my bike transition and get ready for my wave to start at 6:54am. Thankfully it was a misty morning (you can see it above the water) that boded for cooler temperatures for the first part of the race at least.

I had a great swim, it’s a really easy course as it’s hard to go too far off track, the river is quite narrow. In places it was so shallow that my hand hit the bottom and I saw a number of people walking along…not quite in the spirit of Ironman! I came out of the water after 47 minutes feeling in great shape. Given I was not planning on finishing the race I had a nice leisurely 12 minute transition (the pros were out in 1 minute, by comparison).

Finishing the Bike Ride

The bike really is beautiful, winding through the wine country past vineyards and wineries, all helps take your mind of the 56 mile ride ahead. I must say though, that the roads are a tad treacherous; twisty, bumpy and narrow (they aren’t closed to traffic). Made for an exciting experience, especially with the two sets of train tracks you have to cross (given my prior run-in with train tracks). I finished the bike in 3 hours 8 minutes, averaging just under 18 mph.

Exiting for the Run

Felt in great shape, felt strong and I know Paul had recommended not to do the run…but I had set up my shoes in the second transition just in case and what harm could a little run do anyway? And so off I went against doctors orders.

My focus was just on enjoying the race, originally I’d wanted to complete it in under six and a half hours, now I just wanted to finish safely. The run is a tough one, rolling hills a good chunk of the way so I kept it to mostly walking with a little bit of slow jogging mixed in.

Crossing The Finish Line

Good news is I had no knee issues and whilst I faded somewhat on the second half of the run I still completed the half marathon in 2 hours 54 minutes for a total race time of 7 hours 11 minutes. And to be honest I felt in great shape, if I’d been fully fit and hadn’t just taken a month of training whilst I was travelling in Europe (not the best of plans) I think I could have got close to the 6 hour mark.

All-in-all I was ecstatic with the race, it gave me great confidence that my running issues are behind me and that I’m well on my way to preparing for a full Ironman this November in Cozumel. I’ve got 4 months of training left and $5,000 to raise for CAF.

You can view more pictures of my race on Facebook or watch me finish the swim and cross the finish line below.

Just want to say thank you to my top donors this last month, Martin, Chris and Nghia, thank you so much. I was just shy of my $5,000 goal to mark the midpoint of my challenge with $4,679, for those of you waiting on the sidelines, go on, click the button, I dare you.

By making a donation you will directly help a challenged athlete in need.

Help me raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation

Riding One Handed

Racing Around One handed

Before I lost my hand I loved to ride my Suzuki GSX-R750, amazing bike.

I used to have an earlier model back in the UK and bought another one in 2005 after getting my bike license in the US.

After I lost my hand I sold my bike and bought a Toyota Prius instead, great for my 90 mile commute, but not quite the same acceleration. I’d always said that one day I’d get back on a bike again.

Well at the weekend I finally did, although not quite what I had envisaged (need to be more specific on that old goal setting thing). We had a BBQ at my brother’s place on Sunday here in the UK to celebrate Kerry’s birthday, had some old friend’s around who we haven’t seen for a good few years and there were a number of children in attendance. Unbeknownst to me Sean had a little petrol powered kiddies bike…well, can’t say no to that. So after the children had all had a go it was my turn, i-Limb hand, bike and me. Look at that smile!

My GSX-R750

i-Limb Hand Parts

They very kindly let me spend the afternoon with them talking about my experiences with my hand, allowing me to play with their new i-Limb Pulse hand and touring the production area where the i-Limb hands are built.

i-Limb Production Area

They had a very cool display in their production area that shows an i-Limb hand exploded apart so you can see all the components that go into making it, I though it was very cool at least.

It was funny, the production area just looked like a regular office, I was expecting something more industrial I guess, but no, it’s 6 people sitting in an office environment, working on different parts of the assembly and testing process. Apparently it takes about 8 hrs or so to assembly and test a hand.

TouchBionics have just released their next generation i-Limb hand, called the Pulse and I had a chance to try it out. It’s got a number of innovations, one that gives it it’s name is the ability to pulse the motors in the fingers when gripping something to increase the grip strength. It seems pretty effective, I tried it by holding my own arm and as the motors pulsed for a couple of seconds you could feel the grip ratcheting down.

i-Limb Pulse

The hand is also programmable/configurable via bluetooth. They have software that you can install that connects to the hand real-time and allows you to adjust the way the hand works. This would allow me to program different grip patterns and the way they are triggered. So for example, I could configure it to close all fingers except the thumb and first finger, which I would then be able to open and close, useful for working on more intricate things or typing on a keyboard. I can also program different delays, triggers or sensitivity thresholds for the fingers. The hand is a fraction lighter, more slimline and much, much stronger, the knuckles of the fingers are now made from aluminium instead of plastic. All-in-all I love the developments and can’t wait to get my hand (excuse the pun) on one.

Waiting to Cross the Start Line

On Sunday I completed race #3 in my 10 races in 10 months to raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation, my first Half Marathon in San Diego, that’s 13.1 miles. The was part of the Rock-n-Roll series of races with bands playing along the course every few miles that sure made for a fun race.

I felt more nervous about this race than I have since my very first triathlon nearly 2 years ago. Over the last 3 weeks I’ve been having persistent leg and knee problems whilst running, that and the fact that running is my least favorite part of doing triathlons.

Up until now I’ve only had to train to run 10km (just over 6 miles). But, as they say, if you don’t like doing something best to just get out there and do it, well that’s what I say anyway. So I thought challenging myself to a half marathon would force me to improve my running.

And so there I was on Sunday along with 30,000 or so of my closest friends…yep, there were over 34,000 competitors, another first since I’ve never raced with that many people before…it took over 30 minutes just to get to the start line! You can see the start line there in the distance on the photo.

Running a Half Marathon

My plan, as per my coach’s instructions, was to run/walk the race, run for 6 mins and walk for 1 min to reduce the impact on my body. Of course all that went out of the window once I crossed the start line and started weaving my way between all the runners in front, I just couldn’t walk and let people pass me, that just didn’t feel right. So I ran for the entire 13.1 miles including the up hill and freeway stretches, it was the cambers and the down hills that put added pressure on my left knee…but, physically I felt good and maintained a 9 min 15 sec per mile pace completing the first half of the race in an hour, as you may have seen from my tweets. Then the race was on, could I break the 2 hour barrier? (Not bad since I’d originally wanted to complete the race in anything under 2 hrs and 30 mins).

The second half of the race turned into a balance of trying to preserve my knee but maintain a 9 min / mile pace. At the 11 mile mark I needed to maintain a 8 min 30 sec pace, so pushed harder…at the 12 mile mark with 1.1 miles to go I needed to be closer to an 8 min / mile pace, and pushed a little harder…as I got to the 2 hr mark I was just short of the 13 mile marker and started to sprint (as best as you can after 13 miles) to the finish and that’s when my knee finally gave out, barely 100 yards from the finish. At that point I hobbled to the finish at close to a walking pace, but still managed to complete the race in 2 hrs 1 min 45 secs!

So all in all I was really happy with my race and time and my knee continues to recover, Monday I was limited to a 30 min walk to get blood flowing again but Tuesday I was back to my training regime with an hour swim in the morning and 75 min bike in the evening. No rest for the wicked.

My next race is Vineman on July 17th, my first 70.3 mile Half Ironman, this will be a real test for how my training is progressing ready for my full 140.6 mile Ironman this November in Cozumel.

You can see more pictures of my race on Facebook or watch me cross the finish line below (look to the top right of the video).

On the fundraising front I’ve reached $3,569 so far, big thank you to my top donors in last month, Sathya, Jay, Christina, Robert, Mum & Dad, Eric, Richard, thank you so much. Help me reach the $5,000 mark by my Vineman race in July, it’s real easy to donate online.

By making a donation you will directly help a challenged athlete in need.

Help me raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation

5th in Class

Sunday was my first race of the season for the Challenged Athletes Foundation at the Avia Wildflower Olypmic Triathlon at Lake San Antonio.

Every year they put on a festival and weekend of Triathlon races and I’d heard it was a great event…and it didn’t disappointment, a real party atmosphere combined with some serious racing.

The course was certainly challenging, the 1.5km swim was straightforward since it was in the lake, I completed it in a record time for me of 37mins (5 mins better than previous).

Bike Course

The 40km bike on the other hand was up, down and lots of up again! As you can see from the terrain map not a lot of flat stuff and look at that climb right at the beginning…I saw more than a few people pushing their bikes up that one.

Run Course

After my 1hr 34min bike came the 10km run, I started out pretty strong and then…faded fast, as you can see the run course is pretty much all up hill and then half way through you really start to climb, that combined with the heat and my heart rate was spiking over 180, so I ended up run/walking parts of the course. That said I still managed better than an average 10 minute mile which was my goal and finished the run in 1hr 1min for a total race time of 3hrs 23mins, a personal best on a very challenging course.

Not only that, but I finished 5th in my class (physically challenged athletes) and got a medal to boot! You can see more pictures of my race on Facebook.

So one race down, next one is a month away, the San Diego Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon. After that will be my first Half Ironman in July. Unfortunately I didn’t get a lottery slot for the Ironman World Championship in Kona this year, instead I’ll be choosing a different Ironman event for the end of the year to culminate my race schedule, looks like between now and then I’ll have a race every month all to reach my fundraising goal of $10,000 for CAF. I’ve reached $2,695 so far, big thank you to my top donors Dwayne, Tennille and Suzuyo, you guys rock! And to all those that have donated $100 or over, Carrie, Darcy, Kelly, Lori, Margaret, Tom, thank you so much.

By making a donation you will directly help a challenged athlete in need.

Help me raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation

Here I Come

There I Go

I’m 8 weeks into my new training regime and 7 weeks away from my first race at Wildflower and next month I find out if I win a place at the Ironman World Championship in Kona this October in the lottery.

It’s been great to get back into regular training again, after my accident last October. I’m starting to recover the stamina I lost after being out of action for 3 months.

My coach, Paul Kinney, has been working me hard, harder than I’ve trained over the last 2 years since I started doing triathlons.

Want an idea of my training week, I know you do?

• Monday – Rest day, stretch out a little
• Tuesday – Up at 4:45am, in the pool at 5:30am for an hour swim, about 2200 yds or so, then on the way home from work hit the gym for an hour of strength training
• Wednesday – Head to Sports Basement in Walnut Creek after work with my bike & trainer for an hour and 20min of spinning
• Thursday – Up at 4:45am again for another hour swim, once I get home after work head out for a 45min run down into Danville and back
• Friday – Supposed to head into the gym for another hour of strength training (don’t tell Paul, but I sometimes skip this one)
• Saturday – Long bike ride (OK, not too long yet, but they’ll be getting longer), head out at 8am for a 2 hour ride followed by a 15min transition run
• Sunday – Long run, head out at 8am for an hour run, 5-6 miles

And that’s it, 6 days a week, 8 workouts. As the months progress the distances will start to increase and my hour swims will be closer to 2 hours, my 2 hour bike rides closer to 4 and my 1 hour runs closer to 2 or 3. I’m particularly looking forward to the brick workout later in the season that consists of a 2 hour bike ride followed by an hour run, 3 times! That’s nine hours…

And I’m doing all this for a great cause, I’ve teamed up with the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) this year to raise $10,000 to support their cause.

CAF help people with physical disabilities pursue an active lifestyle through physical fitness and athletics, to give those with the desire to live active, competitive lifestyles every opportunity to compete in the sports they love. As you can imagine this is a cause near and dear to my heart and I really hope you can help me raise $10,000 for those with disabilities, including children, war veterans, policeman and fireman injured in the line of duty. By making a donation you will directly help a challenged athlete in need.

By making a donation you will directly help a challenged athlete in need.

Help me raise $10,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation

3D Printed Leg

Last week I got to spend a day at Singularity University, they were running one of their 9 day executive programs and I got an invite to come along and check it out.

Luckily I picked the day that they spent the afternoon touring IDEO’s offices and TechShop and it was while we were at TechShop that designer Scott Summit presented the work he’s been doing in the field of 3D printing.

The Naked Leg

What blew me away was he’s been working with an above knee amputee to ‘print’ him a new leg.

Essentially they 3D scanned the guys other leg, reversed it on a computer, designed in a knee joint and then 3D printed the entire leg as a single component!

Scott had a couple of reject/test legs that he passed around. Simply amazing. I can see how this could revolutionize prosthetic development. Whilst the leg didn’t contain fancy computer chips to control the knee, it’s apparently very functional and only cost about $5,000 to make. I’m looking forward to connecting with Scott further to explore the work he’s doing.

There was a CNET reporter at the presentation also, you can read his article online: 3D printing changing prosthetics forever