A true sign of summer for us around here is the arrival of the Philly Tri. I can remember when this event had about 500 people, and people were using their kids bike helmets and ones that were made of foam, now thing have changed. Over 5,000 people and two days of racing in great weather with a stacked pro field. The people that do this do a first class job, and it really has become one of the best races in the US in a major city. The roads are all closed, and pretty smooth. Flat run and yes, ask anyone, the River isn’t that bad!
Tom didn’t race due to his continuing recovery from surgery, but plenty of Racing To Register athletes did.
Bob Pugh, 3rd in age group, top 50 finish overall, Matt Noone-2nd in Olympic Aquabike overall, Josh Sloan-3rd in overall Sprint Aquabike. Many other team members had personal best times on a fast course.
Probably more critically, we registered over 100 people for the National Donor Registry, and collected some much needed donations. Thanks Phila Insurance!! and the Philly Tri for the help on the booth, for the second year we have had tremendous success at this event in creating awareness and educating people on the fact that we must increase the donor base.
We will do a more formal announce soon, but we are very pleased that the expanding roster of athletes flying the RTR logo is expanding with the addition of Seun Adebiyi. Seun is originally from Nigeria but graduated high school in the US and started college….at 14! He then went on to graduate Summa Cume Laude from U of Pittsburgh, at 14 he placed 4th in the US in his age group and beat the Nigerian 200 meter National record, he missed qualifiny for the 2004 Olympic trials by a mere tenth of a second.
Seun was also a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship. He is a graduate of the Yale Law School where he was also on the law review.
Seun was diagnosed for Lymphoblastic Leukemia and stem cell Leukemia,a rare combo and deadly. After undergoing massive chmo and full body radiation he underwent an umbilical cord transplant, approx 18 months ago. With the help of DKMS Americas Seun held the first ever marrow registry drive in Nigeria, and recruited 300 people in one afternoon. Now Seun has set his goals on qualifying for the Nigerian Olympic Skeleton team, a task he can accomplish and is training full time for.
Seun embodies what Team RTR is all about: inspiring others through sport to make a difference and join the marrow registry.
Tom and Seun will be setting speaking dates to tell their combined story of RTR, its mission, and the true example Seun is of this.