No matter what the controversy is that surrounds Lance Armstrong, you have to give the guy credit for extreme mental toughness in the name of a powerful cause to fight cancer. So many celebrities talk a big game, it’s nice to see one that gets it done. This is an excerpt from an article I recently read:
“Lance took Jimmy V’s message and ran with it (ESPN Magazine)
By Chris Fowler
Lance Armstrong was suffering big time. He had collapsed into a hotel bathtub loaded with ice cubes. The tough facade, maintained for the crowds and cameras, had been stripped away. After 26.2 miles of punishment from New York City pavement, his legs screamed in pain. This was agony he never felt on the bike.
Those same legs dominated the planet’s supreme sporting test seven times and made it seem pretty easy.
I’ll never forget Lance strolling into the small, elegant bar in the Hotel du Crillon, fresh off the post-race podium on the Champs-Elysees in 2003. Just minutes earlier, he had finished his most demanding and frightening Tour de France. In three tumultuous weeks, he had fended off constant attacks from rivals, swerved down a steep grassy slope in the Alps to avoid a crash, and been slammed to the pavement after hooking his handlebar on a spectator’s souvenir.
And there he was in the bar, still in his cycling shorts and yellow jersey, settling into a red velvet chair to chat, downing a beer while his three kids climbed into his lap. The only evidence of the huge strain was the relief in his smile. But that’s how it always went: race like hell for three weeks, crush the competition, then party into the Parisian night.
So the e-mails after last November’s New York City Marathon were surprising. “Dude, it was pure hell!” … “The hardest thing ever.” ”
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I am excited to join a great panel for an upcoming Software Association of Oregon event called 
