wow. that's a great article. His wife sounds like she's awesome, too. Our thoughts and prayers to her and their children.

Guys, I realize we're all still in mourning as a man we all aspire to be like has left us. Please keep posting pictures and stories from many of his finest hours. I have some more that I will pull up through the day. Chris can keep inspiring us even having left us. Tell his stories so that each of us is reminded to live life to the fullest daily. Each day is precious, and if anyone Chris reminded us to push our limits on all fronts. Some times, it seemed that I'd get a daily dosage of smacktalk from Chris forcing me to raise my game. No doubt, many lifted their game the same way.

As I said earlier in this thread, the only thing we leave in this world when we pass on is the impact on those we leave behind. Chris, you WON on that front.

Thanks for this pic, Dev. Of all the ones on this thread, my favorite is the one of him crossing the line at Tupper with Matty. But this one you posted is pretty damn awesome. Look how happy he is. He knew he nailed it and he was so proud. After this was taken he turned right around and started looking for all of his buddies still out there, including me. He was four years my junior but he always treated me like i was his kid brother. He caught me on my way past the Mobil toward the Mirror Lake out-and-back and he knew i was hurtin. Couple miles to go to the finish but in my head it was 20. Then i hear this voice: "Bring it home, Kev! Bring it home!" And there he is in that blaze red EN jersey hanging over the fence to get my attention. "I'm waiting for you!" he yelled. "Enjoy it!"

Here we are at the other end of that Whiteface ride. First time that Chris and I did the summit on our road bikes. We raced down Whiteface like we were kids street racing, complete disregard for the possibility of death....high fives at the top and bottom...and then in a completely benign marathon, he leaves us!

"All I can think of is that God thought he was awesome, too, and he needed him. That's the only way I can explain this."

To use her words, that is awesome.

That was his specialty. He enjoyed watching others succeed just as much as he enjoyed experiencing it himself. Back at IMLP '10, I was redlining in the same vicinity heading up Main St. Chris spotted me and came out onto the street. He knew where I was, mentally, but he also knew that I had enough in the tank to get it done, physically. He ran up the street, telling me that I was killing it and encouraged me to stay strong and run it all the way in. He helped me clear the final hurdle that day, and was genuinely pumped with the end result of my race.

His name became synonymous with many of my annual adventures. I keep thinking that we'll arrive in LP next spring and head down to the pub, where Chris will have pints of beer and hours of conversation waiting for us out on the deck. I keep thinking that we'll share another white-knuckle ride down Whiteface, or that we'll cross paths with him out on some race course where he will invariably yell something that's simultaneously witty and inspirational. I'm sad to think that these things won't happen again - but glad that I grew to anticipate them.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell

...his spirit will be there next time you have a white knuckle descent down a mountain, saying something along the lines of "Quit braking you wimp....brakes will only make you slower getting to the finish line..."

Good point Dev. I keep reading these posts and thinking, I have nothing profound to add, because I only met Chris at two AmZof "after parties". I certainly don't have a breadth of stories to tell and I feel like I don't want to diminish those stories of long term friendships and training sessions and yeah, After-training sessions :)

But I do have some pics, so I will share those and then maybe I can come up with some words. I am honestly having a really hard time concentrating on my work the last couple of days. His death just seems so incomprehensible to me. We have had two people in our cycling club die in separate incidents, due to being struck from behind by vehicles. But this is so different, and harder to process.....

As sad day to be sure. We will all be at a loss for his absence. It is somewhat comforting to know he has lived a life fuller than most, even with this early exit.

This is one of my fave pics of Chris, here with Dave Roche at American Zofingen May 2010. I had met Dave (and Tetsuoni and TriBriGuy) at Du Worlds in North Carolina in Sept2009 and got sucked into the whirling vortex that is the lemmingness of AmZof. Tetsuoni's beet beer had yet to be invented and all the other available brews held no appeal to me so I brought my own pre-mix cosmos with highly refined plastic dollar store martini glasses for the "after party". (the only reason there is a Long Course Race is to provide entertainment to the Short Course and Medium Course racers while they re-fuel post-race) In my pre-race terror (have you seen that bike course????), I neglected to ice the cosmos so I had a hard time getting the ST boyz to partake with me. Dave and Chris joined in though :)

As I only know Chris as an athlete, he was always the "before, during and after" Party at training and events.

From the sound of things, he carried this through all aspects of life! I was recently telling my son that the social interactions that we learn through partying are important through the course of life. Sounds like Chis honed those skills well in youth and leveraged them nicely into adult life, even with a bunch of skinny, boring, Type A athletes, who are generally incapable of talking about anything other than splits and bike gear...

I didn't know Chris-
but just read through all of your thoughts. I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes.

I didn't know Chris, but I always enjoyed his posts and race reports-from those it's pretty easy to find out what kind of racer he was. From all of your tributes and stories it's pretty easy to find out what kind of person he was. It's apparent that he did both as wide-open as possible, and touched a lot of lives along the way.
As a husband and father of 2 young children this situation absolutely breaks my heart, and like many of you I'm holding onto my family a little tighter these days.
To his family and friends, I'm sorry for your incredible loss and you are all in our prayers. Here's hoping that the memories stay vivid forever.

Craig Pollard

I am pretty new to the tri scene and to ST and obviously did not know Chris. Our only interaction was last week when I asked ST what I should get for Christmas -- he advised me that you always feel better with Zipps (Heds are fine for training he said, but they are not Zipps!). It is amazing that a grown man can be sitting at work reading about someone he didn't know with tears in his eyes - but that is exactly what is happening right now. The stories and pictures are amazing...especially the article up above. He truly sounds like a great person and I know he will be missed greatly by those who knew him (and those who didn't it seems). Just reading all of this makes me want to be a better person, a better father, a better husband, a better friend...I am sure if we had met, we would be friends - not necessarily because I would be worthy of his friendship, but because it seems that was the kind of person that he was. My deepest thoughts and prayers are with his family.

I ran Philly this weekend too, but I was so rushed getting home, and so busy at work, I only found out about Chris’ death at 5AM today, when I was just checking up on the Endurance Nation site. I’ve been teary-eyed all day.

I’ve known Chris for only a few years, but sappy as it might be, he was my hero. He was like the starting quarterback who was nice to the dorky kid (me), for no other reason than he was just decent to everyone, no matter what. To me, he was like an older brother; I felt he was looking out for me, and only wanted the best for me. He was always telling me that I was much faster than I used to be.

We initially met on the Endurance Nation forums, but I got to know him much better at our local tri club workouts, Tuesdays in the summertime. He was the first to stop to help fix a flat. He always slowed down to talk to me on the run for a minute or so, before he ramped up his speed again. I was always included for post-workout drinks at Lakeview. Not something the fat, slow kid is used to. I saw him frequently at races, he helped me in T1 IMLP 2009, he was always encouraging.

He was snarky, funny, but never mean. He was the light; people were drawn to him like moths. Notice how in pictures, he is usually in the middle.

I’ve never heard him brag about what he’s done, just how awesome these other guys are (ML, Kevin, Dev, etc.). He talked up Epicman, and I showed up for the Thursday Whiteface climb because he said it was something I had to do once. Yeah, that was me picking up the rear in June. I think I did it more for him than for me.

He always made me feel as if I were one of his best friends, even though I know I wasn’t. I bet a lot of people here feel the same.

I remember talking to him in transition at IMLP 2011, about 6:00AM. He was torn. He really didn’t want to swim without the wetsuit. He didn’t think he had a shot at Kona, but he “didn’t want to take it off the table.” He didn’t want those Slowtwitch boys to give him crap if he beat them with a wetsuit when they were going for a Kona slot sans wetsuit. I wanted him to go for Kona, and get to Kona, for him, but also for me. We want our sports heroes to win the big one for us, not them.

To me he will always be the man in the arena.

I will miss my friend.

My condolences to Jennyfer, the kids, and the rest of his family.

All I really know about Chris I learned in 15 minutes this past July.

I drove 11 hours up to New York for IMLP, under-prepared and with a lot of personal stuff on my mind. Thursday at the Slowtwitch Lake Placid Brewery meet-up, I found myself having one of those awkward occasions where I just don't feel social at all. After a brief "hello" and introductions all around I seated myself at the end of the bar. Up against the wall and keeping to myself I must have looked as uncomfortable as I felt. It seemed like an eternity passed while I tried to come up with a plausible excuse for making an early exit. First pint was gone before I could come up with anything reasonable so I ordered another, immediately wishing I hadn't, as I was really dying to get out of there. Shortly after the second beer arrived Chris separated himself from the group, pulled up a stool and started firing off questions, engaging me in a 15 minute one-on-one conversation. It was an act of human kindness that appeared as effortless for Chris as it was deliberate. We were joined by a few more eventually, and though I never did really come around socially, the evening certainly ended better than it began. I can't tell you anything about our conversation that night as I don't remember a single thing that was said. There was one thing that was not said, however, as it would have been admitting my weakness that night. "Thanks, Chris...thanks."

Thanks docmartin.....this part of your post struck me:

I remember talking to him in transition at IMLP 2011, about 6:00AM. He was torn. He really didn’t want to swim without the wetsuit. He didn’t think he had a shot at Kona, but he “didn’t want to take it off the table.” He didn’t want those Slowtwitch boys to give him crap if he beat them with a wetsuit when they were going for a Kona slot sans wetsuit. I wanted him to go for Kona, and get to Kona, for him, but also for me. We want our sports heroes to win the big one for us, not them.

Like you, I wanted our guy to go to Kona THIS year. Sadly, there will be no next year. Its definitely hard to move on from that. And worse yet, I missed THIS year's Whiteface climb, because our car got picked for a "random search" as we drove over the border to LP.....oh well. I had 3 good climbs with him to that summit

I've met Chris a couple times at races and drank some beers with him post-race. Seemed to be a very solid guy with a great spirit. I always got the same sense from his posts here on ST. I was numb when I heard his name on my car radio driving home last evening--never expecting to have known the person. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

I was fortunate to meet Chris G at IMLP last year (2011). He presented himself in person much the same way he did on ST... all-around great, down-to-Earth guy. He always seemed in his element. We got into a deep-seeded conversation about the appropriate number of PowerTaps to have built in to your hubs (results undecided) and the number of beers required before a race to a personal best (He and Murphy's Law beat it into our heads the infamous, "3 for a PB"). He sent me his files on IM Syracuse even though he was clear that he would not relive that race.

I can't help but be saddened. On one level, I was sincerely looking forward to racing him in the future and putting forth a race in which I might actually content against him. On another level, his family and the community at large has lost something special.

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Take a short break from ST and read my blog:
http://tri-banter.blogspot.com/

This one is also from AmZof 2010, post-race, in the pavilion. This was the first time I had met Chris, Matt (TriYoda) and Keith (KAlber), and I was blown away by the absolute camaraderie that they had. I had been following the pre-AmZof smacktalk for two months on ST, leading up to the race, but in person it was something else. I had a hard time keeping up with all the zingers being thrown back and forth. I felt like I was in the audience watching a comedy show!
LtoR - Dave Roche, Chris, Matt, Keith, me (Cathy)

This is from AmZof 2011. LtoR, I think..... John M (Tetsuoni), Chris G, me, Mike (Murphys Law), kdw?, Parkito, Matt (TriYoda) and ?

I love the smile on Chris's face in this one.

Another AmZof 2011 post-race shot. Parkito, Chris, me, and Keith Alber in the background. The smile and glow emanating from Chris.... that was just him.

I have probably told this story too many times already, but the twice that I have driven to this race, I have gotten a speeding ticket. Both times I swear it was entrapment because of my Ontario license plate - once on a downhill in the Catskill Mountains, and this year, 8 minutes across the border from Niagara Falls. Both times, no sympathy from the NY State Troopers. Both years, post-race, I plead with Chris, YOU'RE A LAWYER, TELL ME HOW TO GET OUT OF THIS!? Both times, he asks me very detailed questions about where I was, how fast I was going, what did I say to the state trooper, etc, etc? I answer all his questions, thinking Woo-hoo, he knows how I can get out of this. Both times, after I earnestly answer all his questions, he bursts out laughing and says, You're screwed, just pay the damn fine! And I'm not THAT kind of lawyer anyway :D

Knew him from EN...and met him on a free EN clinic for IMLP couple years ago...very nice man, and very real...I am so sorry for this tragedy. We never connected up at IM syracuse because my dad doesn't text and I didnt have a cell at the time, we were supposed to meet up at speghetti warehouse prior to race. He always had something very credible to add to training tips and life, I am so sorry for his family, this is a great loss. As a father of 3, I can only hope his children have the best of the best for the rest of their lives. He was a very nice man....Tragic

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The Rat Snake:
A Tribute Race at Gilbert Lake State Park, Laurens, NY May 16 2015
Follow the Rat Snake on Twitter

I just realized that the AmZof 2011 motto, which was printed on the race shirts, and which is my signature line...... is pretty appropriate these days :/

That, right there, is a classic Chris G response.

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"The right to party is a battle we have fought, but we'll surrender and go Amish... NOT!" -Wayne Campbell