Greetings from Earth,

The Race Club: Racing Is What It's All About

You can now challenge anyone, anywhere in the world, in any race you can dream up and settle it here.

In the Race Club Message Boards we have come up with a concept that is sure to change the way we race. A swimmer in the Los Angeles area is set to race a swimmer in San Diego. The proverbial gauntlet has been thrown down and we at The Race Club LOVE that! One swimmer is swimming and the other is kicking. Better than fine. But while this race was being formed the idea emerged to film the swims separately and post them on You Tube and our site. A virtual race.

"maybe when we are at practice on certain days we could all do a timed something... then all post the results for a virtual online meet/race. perhaps once a month or something... could be good!"

This is something that The Race Club can be all about, the virtual race. Take on anyone in the world, post your race here. Example: I want to race that Indian kid in a 75 free without flying to India. Now I can. All I need is for someone to time it and film it. Fins or time handicap can be negotiated beforehand. Stakes? Distance, like an unsanctioned race across the lake in central park, NYC? You can now challenge anyone, anywhere in any race you can dream up and settle it here. Race Club sanctioned (approved by me and my sister Bebe) races will earn the winner a free Race Club T-shirt, because that's what the Race Club is all about.

Diet AND EXERCISE:

The overlapping area of both my life as a swimmer and my life as a person with diabetes is diet and exercise. My adopted role within the diabetes community is a sort of role model and cheer leader, encouraging others to manage their diabetes through example. In the last five years the percentage of American that are SEVERELY obese (body mass index of 40 or more or about 100 pounds over average) has risen by 50 per cent. There are also just the regular obese people and the morbidly obese (up 75%) too. According to the World Health Organization over half the world is overweight. Diabetes is an epidemic.

All of this when you can't watch a half hour television program or flip through a magazine without quickly encountering some diet or weight loss pill advertisement. Then there are the surgeries that I don't even want to get into. Schools are serving junk in the cafeterias and eliminating Physical Education. Every day there are stories in the paper and internet about nutrition, obesity, childhood obesity and diabetes. I read an article the other day about how diets don't work. That's right! Alone, they don't work. Diet is only half the equation. It isn't protein or carbohydrates or even chocolate cake that make you fat, it's sitting around all day, every day that makes you fat.

Is this shocking? Of course it isn't to anyone in the swimming community. But I am dealing with people with type two (the sedentary lifestyle one) diabetes that haven't exercised in a long time if they have exercised at all. How do you make exercise as accessible as those expensive diet plans and pills? It's easy enough to find a gym, but for someone that is severely obese a gym is probably the most intimidating place in the world. How can we make exercise approachable?

Even if we aren't obese ourselves we are all affected. Diabetes alone accounts for an annual toll of $132 billion on our health care system. Obesity related costs total $51.6 billion annually, or there about. What should be concerning is that most of this IS preventable! It is going to take EXERCISE, not surgery and pills. It doesn't take that much exercise either. Twenty minutes a day will shed more weight than any pill on the market.

The Race Club is putting together a fitness festival that we hope to grow faster than America's waistline. I'm going to get into the details about this event in a later newsletter but wanted to let everyone know that I (along with many others) have been hard at work putting this thing together, an event that will make exercise approachable and fun. Proceeds are going to Diabetes Research.

Martin Strel Is One Crazy Dude:

If anyone missed this story, click the link. Martin Strel swam 3272 miles of Amazon River at a pace of about 52 miles a day and lost 26 pounds doing it. Exercise and diarrhea not diet pills and surgery. Way to go, Martin! You are one crazy dude. Next time you should try swimming it upstream.

Click here to read article.

Congratulations to Nick Brunelli:

Nick has been contributing to our message board for some time now and posted the big news back on April 3rd that he is engaged to Jennifer Van Assen. Congratulations to you both! You can congratulate Nick and Jenn yourself or ask him about his training, his recovery from shoulder surgery, or his preference of wedding cake, or anything else that is appropriate.

Read more.

"I got engaged after the last night of Nationals. It was wonderful! Jenn and I have known each other for a long time and the first time we really met was in a hotel just down the street from this pool. Right after finals Saturday night I brought her over to that same hotel put her in the same chair as when I saw her that first time and proposed to her! She said yes!"

And in other news,

"We're Going Streaking!"

Read article.

Yeah, uh. It's difficult to support streaker rights, mostly because they don't have any. But there is something kind of funny about it, at least it made us laugh in that movie Old School. They are freshmen in college. If you are going to pull something like that, well, at least they aren't sixty, or morbidly obese. "For the love of Phleps!" (registered trademark pending), a prank like this shouldn't ruin their lives. The stern talking to, that's what they need. They are young and as sharp as a light bulb, or as bright as a knife, whichever you prefer. They aren't sex offenders, and shouldn't be on a sex offender list. I mean, does this guy look like a sex offender?



Okay, I couldn't look at him without seeing him gyrating on my front porch. The image, it burns! Well, it's not like they were endangering the lives of others the way an under aged drunk driver might... (pause) I guess if we can learn anything from this is that if you ever find yourself naked, running in public, whatever you do, DON'T GYRATE!

Alright you,

Peace, Love, and Swimming!

I'm out,

Gary Hall Jr.