Back in January, I stated that one of my goals for 2009 was to participate in and complete three triathlons. I did one in June and another in July, and now it’s time for the last one.

This is the big one of the season for the Amarillo triathlon community. Last year was my first year to do it, and it resulted in a memorable experience for me. This is the 4th year of the event. It was started by a high school friend of my wife’s after his son was born with a rare neurological disorder. As I’ve discussed here, they discovered that their little boy would never be able to walk, ride a bike, care for himself or communicate much. So the dad began participating in triathlons. Why? Because he could. He started running, biking, and swimming because he could do those things and because his son would never be able to.

I love that. As I’ve written before, it’s a simple and inspiring way to celebrate your blessings. It’s a way to embrace life and be grateful for what you have. Something as common as the ability to move around is a gift.

So, anyway, I do triathlons, too, for a lot of the same reasons. On Saturday, I’ll be participating in the Tri to Make a Difference sprint triathlon, which is a big fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network. All the participants have been asked to help raise money for this cause — all proceeds are used to purchase equipment for the neonatal and pediatric intensive care units at BSA Hospital in Amarillo, Texas.

I don’t ever ask for money here — unless you count asking you to buy my books as asking for money (in which case: guilty) — but this year I thought I’d try to raise a few bucks for a great organization.

So what do you think about sponsoring me in this weekend’s triathlon? I have a pretty humble goal: to raise $300. I’m thinking we can reach it.

If you’d like to sponsor me in the Tri to Make a Difference triathlon, please click this link and head over to my sponsorship site to make a donation in my name. You can pay via credit card. I appreciate it.

To further inspire you to give — or possibly to inspire you to click out of my website as soon as possible — here are photos of me performing the three triathlon activities.

Swim (this is me at the Amarillo Town Club sprint tri a few weeks ago in July):

Bike (at last year’s Tri to Make a Difference, with vomit covering my left leg. Also, my apologies for showing a little more skin than I usually do in my blog posts.):

Run (the finish at last years TTMAD):

Thanks for your (potential) donation on my behalf. You guys are great.