Several years ago when we wrote our first children’s book titled “Where There’s a Wheel, There’s a Way”, I started it off with the following stanza: “Never in my wildest dreams, though believing that I can. Did I think I’d hear the announcer say, Kyle Pease, You’re an Ironman.”
Well just as I thought that that was a wild dream, I am dreaming wild again because never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that the Kyle Pease Foundation would grow and grow and grow to a point that we would fill up a ball room in a major Atlanta hotel. But it happened, when 64 athletes and over 200 volunteers came together to support inclusion and to show what is truly possible last weekend prior to the Publix Half Marathon..
What made the weekend doubly special for our home city of Atlanta was the fact that we also played host to the US Olympic marathon trials on Saturday. This brought more than 20,000 guests to our fair city allowing onlookers to have a front row seat to Olympic history while also witnessing KPeasey history the following day. Many who watched the Olympic trials then lined the streets of Atlanta and watched our athletes motoring 13.1 miles around The Big Peach.
From the large crowd that filled the banquet hall and the very Inspiring speeches by Ryan Freesemann and Bryce Wooten. to the the race itself, there was no shortage of inspirational moments. After watching all the beautiful faces I was so overwhelmed with emotions and so proud of everything that we accomplished as a foundation that the race itself was simply the icing on the cake. It goes to show you together we wheel and together we are showing the world what inclusion is all about.
A special thank you to the Atlanta Track Club for again making our involvement in this race one of their high priorities. We feel so incredibly grateful to the ATC for helping us create such an amazing race for our athletes and volunteers. Also a huge hats of to Brent and to Shawn Gray, our new Race Operations Director, and to Kevin Enners and Lisa Switzer for their amazing work in pulling the event together.
