Kyle Pease Foundation: We're On The Road Again

Though Willie made it famous, Kpeasey is putting it into practice over the next couple weeks, taking the Kyle Pease Foundation on the road.

 

As I'm writing this, we are in the midst of the "Boston Sweet Tea Pahty", with our own Atlanta Hawks tossing the Celtics into Boston "Hahbah", while the Braves scalped the "Sahx" in the final game of their four game set. How good it feels to rub it in the face of our social media director "Tahd" who makes the "Bahston" area his home.

 

Now that that's out of the way, we have a busy couple weeks on both the speaking and the racing circuit that will take us from coast to coast. At the end of April, Kpeasey was all over the state of Georgia, enjoying races in Augusta and Atlanta.

Little Miss Naomi has been on a roll, racing  every weekend throughout the month of April. We are so proud of her and thrilled that fans think of the Kyle Pease Foundation whenever they see her race. She is becoming one of the many familiar faces of KPF.

Brent and I, along with Michael Ragan and Naomi, joined Greg Smith and Marin, at the Pace Academy 5K (Marin's school) last week. We were also joined by Jim Balckburn, Tina Marie Hicks, Cary Liner and Joltin' John Pulliam. Well represented team of KPF blue.

 

We are so excited and honored to be speaking next week at SAP Financial in Philadelphia. How fitting that Brent and I get to speak in the "City of Brotherly Love".

 

We will be following that up with a trip to the left coast where Zappos.com Bay to Breakers 12K on May 15th.  Curtis Ward will be joining us in San Francisco and enjoying the beautiful sites the city has to offer. We will also be speaking at two locations in "The Golden Gate City" while raising funds for KPF.

Don't forget to sign up for the Jake Vinson Family Grant. You can visit our website to apply.

Getting ready to pack the suitcase, blast some Willie and get on the road....again. Remember, Where there's a wheel there's a way.

A Wave of KPF Blue To Take Over Publix Half This Weekend

Among the hundreds of unforgettable moments we have experienced since the birth of the Kyle Pease Foundation, in a mere 48 hours we will be in the midst of experiencing the Grand Daddy of them all.

 

When the starter's pistol sounds on Sunday morning, Publix Georgia Half Marathon, 28 KPF athletes and their volunteer will be crossing the starting line, representing the largest contingent of  half marathoners to ever don KPF blue. That's right, over two dozen athletes and nearly 100 volunteers will be rolling through the streets of downtown Atlanta for 13.1 incredible miles.

 

I am absolutely overwhelmed at the number of people who will be participating and envision a wall of blue traveling through the city. This is our biggest year to date and every year we continue to grow.

Personally, Publix is my favorite local race, not only because it is in  our back yard, but also because I am of course a long time Publix employee. It gives me great pride working for an organization that sponsors this incredible hometown race.

The crowds will be amazing especially around the Rally Corner at Virginia Highlands and I can't wait for the wheels to hit the pavement. 

We would like to thank all of our sponsors. Children's Hospital of Atlanta  has come forward to be a supporter for this race as well as a special thanks to all of our other wonderful sponsors.

If you're in the Atlanta area, this weekend, please come out and cheer on our athletes, as well as, meeting the athletes on Saturday,  March 19 at Gordon Biersch Restaurant in Buckhead where we will be hosting an event to thank our volunteers, rev up our athletes and meet our friends and fans.

 

If that isn't enough exciting news, we will be joined by two incredibly special guests who will be running with us this weekend.  Brent and I are so excited be joined by Amy Downes and Kamran Zokai, the incredible duo who helped Brent and I complete the NYC Marathon when our running chair disintegrated. We are thrilled to be hosting them for the race and help that the KPeasey faithful will thank them for their willingness to help us last November.

Together We Wheel ~

KPF is Hitting the Pavement Running in 2016

Before we begin our regularly scheduled blog post, Brent and I, as well as the rest of the Kyle Pease Foundation, would like to take a moment to offer our sincerest sympathies to Major Kim "Rooster" Rossiter, his family and the entire Ainsley's Angels of America family following the loss of their daughter and inspiration to so many, Ainsley. Ainsley left us all earlier this week and will be forever missed. Please take a moment and think of this incredible little girl and then go hug your child and all those close to you. Life is fleeting and we need to experience the joy brought to us at every possible moment. RIP, Little Angel.

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Last week Brent and I kicked off our 2016 season in Augusta, GA at the Dr. Seuss is on the Loose 5 and 10 K. This of course makes me want to do the next part of the blog in Dr. Seuss type rhyming.

 

Six K-Peasey athletes ran and ran,

But did not eat Green Eggs or Ham.

They participated in the Seuss 10K

We'll save this rhyme for another day.

 

Our Augusta family really loved the fact that we traveled down there and they were absolutely the hostess with the mostest.  It was great to get our wheels back on the pavement after a couple winter months of hibernation. 

 

Next, we are gearing up for Charles Harris 10K this weekend in Atlanta, followed by one of my favorites, The Publix Half Marathon.  We have more than twenty athletes signed up so far and there is still time to get involved both either as an athlete or as a pusher.

 

This is the five year anniversary of the Kyle Pease Foundation so we have a lot of things planned for the foundation, personally and for all KPeasey athletes. We are VERY excited about everything that is going on.

 

Please let us know about races in tour area as the foundation can travel and support races around Georgia and the southern region. Where There's a Wheel;  There's a Way, I've been know to say. This helps us to involve athletes from all over and to share our message with a wider audience. We are also able to speak to schools, businesses and civic organizations, so please let us know if you have a contact we can connect with.

 

Earlier this month, Brent and I were honored at the Georgia House of Representatives by Representative Pat Gardner. The House gave us a resolution for all of our hard work with the disabled in the Atlanta area. Representative Gardner purchased a book for every member of the house. We received a standing ovation from members of the House. Quite a moment.

March is Disability Awareness month so many local schools are doing programs in March surrounding the event. As I said earlier, if your school is planning something, please let's discuss bringing Brent and I to the school.

Lastly, don't wait to sign up for the Jake Vinson Family Grant. The application can be found on our newly designed website at www.kylepeasefoundation.org.

KPF Hitting the Ground Running in 2016

Happy New Year and welcome to the 2016 kickoff of the Kyle Pease blog. We have so many incredibly exciting things on tap this year that I'm not even sure where to begin. 

We will be hitting the ground running this week as Brent and I will be speaking in Atlantic City, NJ and will be making a couple stops in the Philly area. Seems only fitting that the Pease Brothers speak in the City of Brotherly Love.  Our speaking topic will be New Beginnings focusing on the NY City Marathon and how we were forced to change our game plan and execute a new plan from scratch. In sport, business or every day life this is a valuable lesson to learn from. 

We are also gearing up for another speech on my birthday..February 19  speaking at a local organization. Nothing is a better birthday gift for me than sharing our message to new audiences. In fact, if you would like us to speak at your business, school or civic organization, please let us know. 

We recently spoke and signed our book at TriCoach Georgia in Athens and had an incredible visit. Check out the story and more photos in this link. I'm the good looking guy with my cap on crooked.

On the race circuit, we are gearing up for the Publix Half Marathon to be held on March 20th where our goal is to gather the largest group of KPF runners ever...to date our largest contingent of KPF athletes has been 22 in chairs being pushed by 72 volunteers. Whether or not you have competed with us before this is your opportunity to participate. The application is on our "newly designed" website. We will match you up with a three person team of your relative speed so there is nothing to stop you from joining us. 

NOTES OF KPF INTEREST 

• It's not too early to sign up for the 2016 Jake Vinson Family Grant. 
• We will be blogging consistently this year  on the blog...once per month so stay tuned. 
• See our new website and share on social media 

Our book, "Where There's a Wheel, There's a Way" continues to

get some superior reviews on Amazon. Please take a moment and post yours there as it really helps others make a purchasing decision. We would also love your creative photos of you and the book for our Facebook Wall of Fame. 

If you haven't purchased your copy yet, we urge you to do so. All proceeds go to help the foundation so your purchase is a Win-win. 

Until next time, Together We Wheel, 

Kyle

Brent Takes The Wheel as Brothers Blog About Bolder Boulder

It was quite an adventure at the Bolder Boulder 10K last weekend in beautiful, breathtaking Boulder, CO. It was great to spend time with Brent and to hit the ground running, literally and figuratively. We made some awesome connections and our sponsor Newton Running once again rolled out the red carpet for us.

The race itself was very unique due to the altitude in the mountains of Colorado. We weren't accustomed to running in the thin air so it definitely added to our time. That never dampened our spirits and we powered through it, one wheel and one foot at a time.

I'll now hand it over to my brother Brent for his portion of the post. Kpeasey out. 

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What an amazing race experience.  Well, maybe except for the altitude!! Boulder sure knows how to throw a party, that's for sure! The Bolder Boulder is one of the biggest 10k's in the country and Kyle and I were excited at a chance to compete!  We arrived in Boulder later Thursday afternoon and spent the day getting settled. This race was different from many for us as it was just Kyle and I competing.  The race was Monday so we had a few days to explore and enjoy Boulder!

Sunday night we had the opportunity to hang with our favorite folks from Newton Running, some of their elite/pro athletes and their Ironman Foundation Team.  We really cannot say enough great things about Newton Running.  They are a company with even better people at the helm.  They continue to share so much around so many different communities and it is wonderful that we are even just a small part of it.  Of course we wouldn't run in anything else anyhow :). 

Monday morning we walked the short two blocks to the race start and got settled in.  IT WAS cold.  Not exactly late spring air, but it was good for running.  Someone had told us that the hills were tricky and that the altitude might be harder than we thought.  Well they weren't kidding!  By mile two, I felt like I was out of air completely! Kyle was pushing us along, willing us to get moving just a little quicker.  The people of Boulder are very much into fitness and outdoor recreation so there was constant cheer along the road for us.  The finish was super cool! 

We finished into their football stadium and even caught a glimpse of ourselves on the Jumbo-tron!  Possibly one of the coolest parts was that once the last runner is finished the elites/pro runners finally start.  Kyle and I got to sit and enjoy some popcorn while the real race played out on the big screen.  Super impressive to see those guys run and might have even given us some added motivation to go even faster!! 

All in all it was great to be able to run together and we hope to get some of the KPF athletes out with us again next year!! 

 Photo credit: Top photo David Zalubowski/Associated Press