Sad Story About Fellow Triathlete...

Ugh.

That is so terrible. And you can' t be mad at the driver, he saw the cyclist, moved over and tried to avoid him. Just terrible.

Wow, that hits close to home for me.  

yea, I ighly doubt there was anything the driver could have done to prevent the accident.  He moved over and was giving him room, lost control from a blow out...  The odds of things coming together just right for that to happen are so low it truely was a freak accident.

Who know, maybe if the driver was going faster, the blow out would have happened after he passed the rider, or if he didn't give the rider a wide berth, he wouldn't have hit the thing to blow his tire. 

i'm very new to the whole triathlon scene but i never knew so many athletes get hurt or killed on thier bikes, its so sad to hear or read about it...

when ever i have to leave for work, or workout or anytime i have to leave my son i always give him a kiss and a hug and I say to him "I LOVE YOU" because you never know...

I'm not very good at putting stuff together like this and I know it's easy to have a good idea and then hope someone else picks up the ball and runs with it, but this post got me thinking.

This hits very close to home, both literally and figuratively.  His wife must be completely and utterly devastated.  A small gesture on our part might be a huge blessing to her right now.  Can someone think of a way that we can all put our names to something or make some kind of message/card to send to  her to let her know how many fellow triathletes' prayers and thoughts are with her?  When my brother died the smallest gestures by other people were huge to me.  Hundreds of people came out and expressed their sympathy and some of them hadn't been in touch with any of us in 20-30 years.  It was done to honor him and our family and maybe we could make the same gesture to this woman, who probably has no idea how many people are reading this article and sympathizing with her.

Any ideas?

Maybe we can talk with Ron/Mike about an official BT card/e-card something to send to people when something like this happens...

I mean, how much of this article could be about you, or me?  Just change the names and the event and it's most of us!  Some, not even the event. 

Bicyclist struck by minivan, killed

Peoria man, 47, was training near Princeville for triathlon

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

BY ANGELA GREEN

OF THE JOURNAL STAR

Jesse E. "Jay" Jackson, 2401 Alta Road, Apt. 102, was headed east on Route 90 a half-mile east of Feuct Road just after noon when he was struck from behind by a minivan that blew a tire.

"He was already signed up to be in the triathlon," his mother, Dot Jordan, said tearfully from her Peoria home Tuesday night. "He already had his airline tickets to go."

Jackson was training for the Disney Triathlon in May, and his family, including his mother and two young children, was looking forward to going and cheering him on.

News of the fatal accident ravaged the family.

"But Daddy's my best friend," a confused 8-year-old Jesse III told his grandma after the coroner had visited. "Does he have a pulse at all? Is he breathing."

The driver of the van told sheriff's deputies he was traveling east and saw Jackson in his lane ahead of him, hugging the shoulder of the road.

The driver, whose name was not released, veered toward the center line to give the bicycle more space, then reportedly felt a tire blow out. He lost control of the vehicle and it struck Jackson.

Jackson was pronounced dead at the scene, Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll said. An autopsy is scheduled for Thursday.

The minivan driver was ticketed for failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident.

Jackson, a car salesman, had the day off Tuesday and had swam at the RiverPlex that morning.

He called his mother just before he left for his bike ride.

"He said, 'Mom, I'll be in touch by 1.' He was supposed to call," Jordan recounted. "I knew something was not right. He always calls."

Unnerved, she picked up her grandchildren, Jesse III, 8, and Shannon, 6, from school.

"Something is not right," she thought. "It's 3, it's 4, it's 4:30."

Jackson and his family moved to Peoria about four years ago. He and his wife divorced, but Jackson and his mother, Baton Rouge, La., natives, stayed.

He really got into fitness just a couple of years ago, Jordan said.

"He had it all together. My goodness, he started training a couple years ago. Jay loved triathlons. He said, 'Mom, some of these young people are swim coaches for Bradley. I'm 47 years old.'

"He had it all together. I was so proud of him. . . . This is something a mom, no matter how old she is, should never have to hear."

Angela Green can be reached at 686-3142 or [email protected].

Believe me I am open to any better ideas here, but if no one has any I could try to write something (there are better writers here, I'm not hell bent on doing this myself) and we could all put our names to it.  McFuzz could print it up and send it to the memorial?

Throwing this out there.  What do you guys think?  The signoff at the end felt a little cheesy but I wasn't sure what else to write.  Should we put our individual names there?  Ideas?  Criticism?  Don't worry about hurting my feelings, criticism is welcome. 

Dear Dot Jordan,

We are writing to express our sympathies and sorrow at the news of the loss of your son.  You don’t know us and we’ve never met you or your son but we shared a kindred spirit.  We are a group of triathletes and triathletes-in-training who have gotten to know each other through a website.  Many of us identified strongly with Jay’s story in one way or another.  It may have been his commitment to training, doing a two-a-day workout,  his age or his young children.  Some of us are registered to compete in the same triathlon he was training for.  Others live right in your area and saw this on the local news.  Most importantly, we recognized in Jay the satisfaction that tri training brought to his life and the joy he felt at becoming an athlete during this part of his life.  It is a joy that we share with each other.

None of us ever really think that something like this will happen to us.  It is an awful and senseless tragedy.  We cannot offer you answers why this happened.  We can only express our sorrow at your loss, and let you know that as you cry there are others who cry with you.  We will keep Jay and your family in our hearts and prayers.

May you find peace and strength when you need it most.

Sincerely,

Your friends at beginnertriathlete.com.

If you are asking me I say sure.  I was throwing it out there for people to comment/add/subtract on the content.  If you guys think it's good to go then I ask what's the next step?

Print it out, sign it with your name and keep the BT stuff at the bottom.

Just my $.02.

Here, take a look at this.  Maybe Ron can give us a better logo?  If McFuzz is willing, perhaps he can watch for the obit or mail it to the tri-club he referenced in his post?  As hangloose said, kill this all you want...I would just like this to move forward if possible.

And, of course, we should get Ron's approval to even USE the logo.  Do we NEED the logo at all? 

Hangloose, it brought tears to my eyes.  I'm sure Dot would be touched by this.