By Jason J. Marchi, Courier
Correspondent:
For 26 years, Jim
Clark of North Haven has worked a high-stress
job prosecuting career criminals to help keep our streets safer. Now he’s added
a new feather to his cap, one that had him swimming, bicycling, and running in
near-100 degree heat to raise money at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s
annual triathlon fundraising event in Washington
D.C. this past September.
Jim’s motivation to
participate in the Sept. 14 triathlon—and to demand so much from his
57-year-old body—was to honor the memory of his nephew, Mike Hirsh, who died of
lymphoma at the age of 28 in 2004.
“The point was to
make the effort on behalf of all those who suffer from leukemia, lymphoma, and
lesser known blood cancers,” Jim says.
To prepare for the
triathlon, Jim joined Team in Training, a program of the society in which
athletes are coached and trained to prepare for each of the triathlon’s
endurance events. To urge on Jim’s participation, his wife, Nancy Walker,
joined the support staff of triathlon participants.
The unique aspect of
the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program, according to Nancy, “is that they
offer organization and training and get people who might not otherwise be
interested in fundraising to become involved and give participants something to
work for.
“If you asked my
husband to go out and raise $8,000, he wouldn’t have wanted to do that,” she
continues. “But if you said, there’s a triathlon, and other people will be
doing it, and we’ll organize a team, and we’ll have coaches for you, and all we
want you to do is raise a little money and help a good cause—that becomes the
incentive. Without the sports participation aspect to the fundraising you feel
like you’re just asking for a handout.”
Two thousand
like-minded participants from across the country convened in Washington D.C.
for the weekend-long event. Despite the early morning start, it turned out the
triathlon happened to be on one of the hottest days of the year.
“It was a brutally
hot and humid day,” Jim says, and he had to swim 0.9 miles in the Potomac
River, then bike 24.8 miles and run 6.2 miles though the streets and parks of
the nation’s capitol through all that heat.
Despite the
challenge of the weather, Jim successfully completed each of the racing events,
although he admits disappointment in his time, which clocked in at 3 hours, 5
minutes, and 4 seconds.
“With temperatures
and humidity in the 90s by the time I finished, I’m disappointed in the very
slow run time which caused me to miss the three-hour goal,” he states.
Jim comes out on top
anyway, as a winner of a different sort. He ranked number 11 when it came to
fundraising, and those who contributed in his name helped him reach nearly
$9,000, far above his initial goal of $5,000.
Back home, Jim has
already settled back into his legal, and his hobby of writing feature articles
about women’s basketball for both print and online sports magazines.
“I like women’s
basketball because you can understand it,” he says. “The brand of basketball
that woman play is more team oriented than men’s,” and for Jim, who knows quite
a bit about team training and sports participation.
Pictured: When not
prosecuting repeat crime offenders as an assistant state’s attorney or writing
about woman’s basketball for sports magazines, Jim Clark has become an athlete
to help raise money in the battle against blood cancers.
Photo by Jason J.
Marchi
To nominate a person
of the week, email Jason Marchi at j.marchi@shorepublishing.com or call
203-245-1877 x 6166.