{"id":1221,"date":"2011-04-01T18:09:05","date_gmt":"2011-04-02T02:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2011-04-01T18:09:05","modified_gmt":"2011-04-02T02:09:05","slug":"tepe-desert-ironan-tepe-az","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/?p=1221","title":{"rendered":"Tepe Desert Ironan &#8211; Tepe AZ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ello John!<\/p>\n<p>I was having some trouble uploading my pictures\/story on the samstone website but did want to share my wonderful experience.<\/p>\n<p>I received my SamStone 1 day prior to tackeling my biggest athletic acheivement to date: The Tempe, AZ Ironman Race.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; Just prior to setting out to complete a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run, I received a Samstone from a family friend, Cheryl Leach.&nbsp; Admittedly, I was a little skeptical when she asked me to carry a rock with me on the 140.6 mile journey.&nbsp; Afterall, I had spent the last year training and spending money to be the lightest, fastest, and most aerodynamic I could be!!&nbsp; She briefy shared the touching story behind the special stone and I was committed. I could not pass it up.&nbsp; What touched me most is how your family in its darkest time made one of the greatest gifts of all:&nbsp; donating Sam&#39;s organs.&nbsp; I have been active in the Donate Life campaign and hearing your family&#39;s story renewed my interest and commitment to this life-saving cause.&nbsp; Thank you for the gift.<\/p>\n<p>Where is Sam you ask?&nbsp; Well. 2 places actually.&nbsp; One stone started with me in the leg of my wetsuit.&nbsp; He saw a beautiful sunrise and jumped in a balmy reservoir the morning of November 21st.&nbsp; He then joined my second stone in my bike bento box (along with gels, salt tabs, and a Cliff bar)&nbsp; as I set off into the Tempe desert.&nbsp; At mile 73 (when I was 100% sure I was going to finish this race) I dropped one stone at a breathtakng location in the desert very near a modest memorial site for someone that passed away.&nbsp; Sam #2 finished my bike ride, transitioned into my tri top pocket and hit the road for the marathon.&nbsp; After seeing the same sun we started the day together viewing set againest the moutains, Sam and I turned the corner and bolted into the straight away to complete the ultimate atheletic test: THE IRONMAN.&nbsp; Sam and I finished in 12hours and 2 minutes.&nbsp; Now my SamStone sits next to my Ironman Finisher medal.&nbsp; We did it!!!!<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for sharing and I look forward to checking back often to see where Sam&#39;s travels bring him next.<\/p>\n<p>God Bless,<\/p>\n<p>Krisa Urchell <\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010_11%20Ironman%20Arizona%20077.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"2010_11 Ironman Arizona 077.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010_11%20Ironman%20Arizona%20002.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"2010_11 Ironman Arizona 002.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ello John! I was having some trouble uploading my pictures\/story on the samstone website but did want to share my wonderful experience. I received my SamStone 1 day prior to tackeling my biggest athletic acheivement to date: The Tempe, AZ Ironman Race.&nbsp; Yes.&nbsp; Just prior to setting out to complete a 2.4 mile swim, 112 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-placed-samstone"],"geo":{"latitude":33.2251244,"longitude":-111.9694748,"description":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/samstones.org\/WordPress1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}