Erik Severinghaus

I believe that it is critical to live every day to the fullest and leave a lasting positive impact on the world.

A couple years ago I was 40 lbs heavier, had never run more than three miles at a time, and would have never even considered endurance events to be a realistic goal. For health, and just reasons of pride I started to get myself in shape through the summer of 2007 which culminated in me limping over the finish line of a sprint triathlon. For all the work that went into and the pride in finishing, you would have thought I had just finished Kona. It felt Great!

I’ve always been a believer in setting lofty goals, so the following year I decided to up the ante and go straight to a half-ironman. I managed to finish a pretty tough one and my confidence grew even more. At the same time, one of my best friends from college was putting together a trek to Base Camp of Mt. Everest with a target of April, 2009 which I decided I had to be a part of. Between the training for those two events, my transformation was akin to Jared from Subway – my friends literally didn’t recognize me in many cases.

Seeing a mountain as majestic as Everest, I decided that I wanted to be on top of it. Another good friend was thinking even bigger than I was, and decided that we should target climbing the Seven Summits.

That set in motion my current goals, which are to climb all Seven Summits and complete an Ironman triathlon. I don’t have specific dates for the peaks besides Kilimanjaro which we will climb in March of 2010. I am also targeting a full Ironman in November of 2010.

Shortly after returning from Nepal, the friend who had organized the trip was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer, an event that shook all of us who are close to him. We decided that in addition to fulfilling our personal goals we should use this trip as a catalyst to raise money for cancer research. As serendipity goes, I was put in contact with Endure to Cure shortly thereafter and found in it an organization that aligns perfectly with my goals.

In short, I plan to pursue the adventures of a lifetime, and hopefully do some good in the process.