This news is just awful. Always loved reading his posts here and on ST. Very straightforward and funny at the same time. He will be missed by us all. Seems to me his favorite race was American Zonfingen. We may want to think about making this a race we send some people to.
Tucker- that would be an appropriate and beautiful way to remember Chris. He was very found of putting together "stupid people tricks" and he loved that race.
I feel like such an asshole!!!!! I was watching a close friend and the team at Arizona yesterday and never scrolled down the page to see this. I can't believe it. despite never meeting him, I was influenced by his wisdon, humor, and honesty. I feel for his family and close friends on EN. I know it is still early, but has someone set up a site to send donations to the family?
After the horrible shock of this, my thoughts can't help but go to the horror his wife must be going through right now. Are we in contact with her? Is there anything we can do to help her with the kids, with Chris? They live outside Albany, NY but are in Philly right now. Do they have family in the area? Someone that can watch the kids while his wife goes through whatever needs to be done? My in-laws live in West Chester (outside Philly) and I'm sure they would help.
I chatted with Chris about joining EN prior to, well, joining EN and he was very helpful. We actually met after the Syracuse 70.3 in 2010 but we didn't know who each other were. Syracuse 2010 was the race where Chris crashed early in the bike and ran the rest of the race with a huge bleeding gash in his leg. I saw him while standing in the chow line after the race and had to ask about the horror show on his leg. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I saw his picture here. Great guy with a great attitude. Such a tragedy.
This whole thing has me shook up. I just can't help thinking of my own mortality in all this. "The 40 year old experienced triathlete and runner" part that will no doubt be brought up in any conversation about Chris's death just hits a little too close to home for me. I can't help but see myself in that situation. I waited until this morning to discuss this with my wife because I knew she would've stayed up worrying about exactly that. As much as we've learned from Chris in life, I hope there will be something we can learn from his death.
Chris was my first introduction to EN. He always said I was crazy to tackle the Am Zofingen Long Course, but supported me the whole way. Without him I would have never made it. It is strange but for a guy who I only meet a few times I feel like I have lost a brother. A return trip to Am Zofingen was already on my mind this year. I signed up for the F1 Race last night....
@Patrick: If you hear anything about the services please let us know. I live only a couple hours away and have family in the area. Depending on the timing I may try to make my way to pay my respects.
Thanks for all of the help, advice, friendship...putting the athletics and competition aside, what I think of is how much you adored your wife and kids and seemed to have such a great perspective. It is very clear how much you will be missed down here.
I don't even know what to say. Actually, it would be my dream to check out of life during a race just like Chris...but not until I'm about 85. He was just in his prime, with a family and young children. It's just a terrible tragedy.
I wrote this a while ago but, frankly, lost my shit whenever I tried to finish it. Today was no exception...
++++++++
Patrick and I are unique on the team in that our travel to races and camps allows us to get to know a large percentage of the Team: each month we put faces and personalities to forum names and email addresses. Over the years it's been very rewarding to see connections and friendships being made by the members that extend far beyond what you might expect from people training together, virtually on an online triathlon team. I only need to drop in on Facebook and see members, current and former, connecting with each and sharing stuff based on their initial introduction to each other after having joined EN.
Chris was at the center of that and so much more from the very beginning. As I make a quick driveby of the many ChrisG moments in my head, these are the one's that stand out:
IMUSA'08?EN was barely a year old and this was our first BIG race and BIG team dinner. Patrick and I had just raced IMCDA, where we had about 20 people racing and maybe 18 or so at the dinner. However, at Placid we had 30-35 people racing and 45 people at Nicola's for dinner. I sat across from Chris and we shared many beers and many conversations, one of which was "dude, you started this team a year ago and now you've got 45 people at a dinner, with wives meeting wives, athletes meeting athletes, kids meeting kids...that must feel pretty awesome!"
Later that weekend he invited Patrick and I join him at the LP Brewery to meet the ST crew. He starts introducing me as "World Famous Triathlon Coach Rich Strauss." I'm not kidding, that's what he said, to everyone. I said, doode, chill and he says, what, it's completely true, everyone knows who you are.
Doing that stupid Whiteface TT that Patrick described. He and I had basically TTT'd for 85 miles and then we show up at the bottom of Whiteface for a climb up that damn mountain on a borrowed road bike with a 53/21 climbing gear...one my consistent smack talk threads with Chris ever since was that I wanted a rematch and would kick his ass up Whiteface .
As Patrick mentioned, Chris nearly always made it up for the race or for our camps. One such time he joined us and a few other members for our "Lake Champlain" ride -- an off-the-course loop we do that takes us down to Lake Champlain. We had a great day of smack talk and in general doing what guys do when we ride our bikes a long way through awesome terrain. I remember telling Chris he needed to bring his elbows in and relax, trying very hard to always look like you're always riding very easy, even when you're killing yourself.
Chris was always our early warning system for whack threads about RnP or EN on Slowtwitch: I would get a PM or email telling me there was something we needed to check out. More often than not he would jump in himself and always represent us well, shooting straight and telling it like it is.
A man's life is measured by the impact, both positive and negative, he has had on those around him. Read these stories and thoughts of your father from his friends, for whom he was an overwhelmingly positive influence. Cherish these stories and know that there will forever be people walking the earth who are the better for having named your father their friend. By any measure -- character, integrity, and just being a man, know that your father was a GREAT man!
It might have taken a while for you to get it out there Rich, but it was well said. I still think of Chris every day and I'm looking forward to celebrating his life at Zofingen this spring. That race is going to be pretty emotional.
Comments
Seems to me his favorite race was American Zonfingen. We may want to think about making this a race we send some people to.
This whole thing has me shook up. I just can't help thinking of my own mortality in all this. "The 40 year old experienced triathlete and runner" part that will no doubt be brought up in any conversation about Chris's death just hits a little too close to home for me. I can't help but see myself in that situation. I waited until this morning to discuss this with my wife because I knew she would've stayed up worrying about exactly that. As much as we've learned from Chris in life, I hope there will be something we can learn from his death.
Thanks for all of the help, advice, friendship...putting the athletics and competition aside, what I think of is how much you adored your wife and kids and seemed to have such a great perspective. It is very clear how much you will be missed down here.
Vince
Even Ironman.com acknowledged Chris recently...
ironman.com/columns/ironmanlife/iro...z1gzo3c54r
I wrote this a while ago but, frankly, lost my shit whenever I tried to finish it. Today was no exception...
++++++++
Patrick and I are unique on the team in that our travel to races and camps allows us to get to know a large percentage of the Team: each month we put faces and personalities to forum names and email addresses. Over the years it's been very rewarding to see connections and friendships being made by the members that extend far beyond what you might expect from people training together, virtually on an online triathlon team. I only need to drop in on Facebook and see members, current and former, connecting with each and sharing stuff based on their initial introduction to each other after having joined EN.
Chris was at the center of that and so much more from the very beginning. As I make a quick driveby of the many ChrisG moments in my head, these are the one's that stand out:
I want to speak to his children:
A man's life is measured by the impact, both positive and negative, he has had on those around him. Read these stories and thoughts of your father from his friends, for whom he was an overwhelmingly positive influence. Cherish these stories and know that there will forever be people walking the earth who are the better for having named your father their friend. By any measure -- character, integrity, and just being a man, know that your father was a GREAT man!