Dear Friends and Family,

I’m excited to announce that with the support of my amazing family I’ll be training for my second IRONMAN. I will be training to complete IRONMAN Chattanooga with Team Challenge on September 27^th in Chattanooga Tennessee. I am sure you're thinking, "Yeah, so what. Matt is running another race. He has done this before, should we be surprised?"

Maybe you’re not all that surprised but you may be surprised to know that this year my race will be dedicated to those who suffer with Chron’s disease or ulcerative colitis. I will be completing the 140.6 mile race to raise funds and awareness for research leading to a cure for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Over the next 8 months I will be swimming, biking and running while raising funds to find a cure for this disease that has claimed over 1.4 million Americans.

Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are known together as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are painful, medically incurable illnesses that attack the digestive system. The cause of IBD remains unknown. However, the effectiveness of recently developed treatment methods and steady advances in research brings us closer every day to finding the cause and probable cure of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

My base goal is to raise over $5,000 for Team Challenge and the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. I have a much larger stretch goal, we’ll talk more about that later.  Over 80% of every dollar I raise will directly fund the mission of CCFA, to cure Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, and to improve the quality of life of children and adults affected by inflammatory bowel diseases.

I have made a commitment to complete this journey in 2015 and bring us closer to providing hope, peace, and freedom to individuals battling IBD. I am hopeful you will join me in the fight against Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. You can help by visiting: http://online.ccfa.org/goto/IronMatt and donating generously to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. Donations are tax deductible, and don’t forget to check to see if your company matches donations.

Along the way I plan to share stories of friends and family who have been impacted by Chron’s or ulcerative colitis. I’d love for you to share your story with me so that together we can raise awareness! 

Donate here: http://online.ccfa.org/goto/IronMatt 

2014 Chicago Marathon

I'm Matt Eash and I'm an amateur endurance athlete. Since 2006 I've competed in both running and triathlon events. Following a visit to the emergency room in February of 2013 I was diagnosed with diverticulitis. In May of 2013,while away from home in California I experienced a major diverticulitis attack . Narrowly avoiding an emergency bowel resection, this required a 4 day hospital stay. At the time I had already been training for my first Ironman 70.3 and my first Chicago Marathon. I was told these plans were over. I was devastated, all my training and planning for not. 

After returning home and explaining my race plans to my physician he came up with a plan to allow me to continue training for my Ironman 70.3. A glimmer of hope knowing there was still a chance to complete my goal! With the amazing support of my running group, the Magic Milers I was able to continue training and complete my first every Half Ironman! 

I had bowel resection surgery in July just two weeks after my Half Ironman and at that point was again told that I wouldn't be able to complete the Chicago Marathon. I had already recovered from being told once, but this second time seemed more real. However, after my required time off I began slowly training again. It wasn't until the week before the Chicago Marathon that I had finally decided I would participate. A crazy idea probably, but I was determined to hit my goals! I finished in 05:01:01, not my best time but a time I was proud of. With the help of my physician, my family and my Milers I had concurred my disease and achieved my goals! 

This year, I've been presented with an amazing opportunity to join Team Challenge and help others with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). My goal is to raise over $1500 while training for and completing the Chicago Marathon! I want to help find ways to cure and treat IBD so that those impacted can receive improved treatments and reduce the daily impact to their lives. 

You can help by donating, it's simple and anything you can offer is appreciated! I'll be posting training updates and events on my blog at http://meash20.blogspot.com. I'm super excited for the journey to follow and I hope you'll be a part of it!

2013 A Year in Review

As I reflect on this year I have so much to be thankful of. This year has been trying both mentally and physically. I had set some pretty lofty goals this year, and I'm proud to say that even when I was told I couldn't I did.  It really is amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it.

Here's a look at my year in review. I've added some notes in between the events.


- Jan 2nd, 2013 Registered for Ironman Muncie 70.3

- Feb 18th, 2013: Diagnosed with Diverticulitis (Emergency Room Visit)

- May 4th, 2013: Indianapolis Mini Marathon (Run 13.1 Miles - 2:16:49)

- May 13th, 2013: Admitted to Hospital in California

*I spent 4 days in the hospital; it was here where I was told that my Ironman goal was over. I was devastated. I actually believed it too. I mean I had a tiny hole in my colon...

- May 16th, 2013: Discharged from El Camino

* I got home and started working out again; I was determined that if I worked I could do it!

- June 8th, 2013 Muncie Sprint Triathlon (400yard swim / 20.6k bike / 5k run - 1:24:22)

* testing myself I completed a sprint triathlon, and I felt really good!

- July 13th, 2013: Ironman Muncie 70.3 Finisher (1.2 Mile Swim / 56 Mile Bike / 13.1 Mile Run: - 6:25:37)

* I did it! With the support of my family, my Dr. and many others I completed my half Ironman!

- July 16th, 2013: Pound the Pavement (5k Run - 27:57)

- July 27th, 2013: Summit Lake Sprint Triathlon (400yard swim / 13.5 mile bike / 5k run - 1:24:20)

* This tri was my first the year before, my goal was to beat the time from one year prior. I did!

- ** July 29th, 2013: Surgical Bowel Resection

* Again, told I would be done for the season. I mean another 4 days in the hospital, 7 inches of my colon removed and at least 4 weeks no running (right)... I may have cheated a little but I was back at it as soon as possible.

- Oct. 13th, 2013: Chicago Marathon (26.2 Mile Run - 5:01:01)

* Another huge Milestone for me this year! I was able to come back from surgery and being down to complete my second ever Full marathon!

- Nov. 17th, 2013: Big Sur half marathon (2:10:29)

- Dec. 3rd 2013: Got the All Clear from my Dr. !!!!!

Future: January 2014
Jan. 9th, 2014: RunDisney Family Fun Run (5k Run)
Jan. 10th, 2014: RunDisney Minnie's 10k (10k Run)
Jan. 11th, 2014: RunDisney Donald's Half Marathon (13.1 Mile Run)
Jan. 12th, 2014: RunDisney Mickey's Marathon (26.2 Mile Run)

Long time coming

Clearly I suck at blogging every day... so much time has passed since my last post so I'll try to update you from the start.

Jan. 2nd 2013:
I signed up for Ironman Muncie 70.3. I was already training well and progressing pretty good.

I also set a goal to run a 13.1 distance every month this year! Pretty ambitious but attainable.

February 18th:
I was diagnosed with Diverticulitis and had a visit to the Emergency room where I was directed to a colon dr. He placed me on meds and scheduled me for a colonoscopy to check out the situation. I was off from working out a few days and this ultimately didn't impact my training too much.

I spent the month of Feb and March traveling for work. I was managing to get my 13.1 runs in even when traveling. One of them I actually ran in Helsinki Finland, that was pretty cool!

May was filled with some more travel of which one trip was to California to my HP office headquarters. When I arrived on Sunday May 12 I wasn't feeling very good and I figured my diverticulitis was acting up again...

Sadly I was right, Monday I trudged through work at the office doing my best to manage the pain, I'd called my family doctor to get some antibiotics ... But by that afternoon I was in serious pain. My colleague was kind enough to drive me to the ER where they did a CT scan that showed indeed I had another outbreak... Only problem was that this time was a lot worse and included a small hole in my intestine. I wasn't prepared for their next update which was that I was going to have to have emergency surgery to resolve the problem.

The doctors where really cautious and I got admitted to the PCU (Progressive Care Unit, one less than ICU). After a while they decided that they were going to treat me through the night and see how I was in the AM. I was taking antibiotics via IV, and morphine for pain. The next day my wife had flown out to be with me. It was so nice to have someone I loved finally by my side. Every time a dr. would visit we'd ask about surgery and they became less and less focused on that.

Now, flashing back to the point where they said surgery, I was crushed... my goals of completing my first Half Ironman gone... All the training and commitment I'd put into the race wasted... And now even now after the idea of surgery passed many were saying I'd never be able to do it..

My Wed it was clear that I wasn't going to have surgery and that now they just wanted to watch me and make sure I was getting better and no fever. Thursday afternoon I was finally able to leave the hospital.


The following Monday I saw my colon Dr. and he gave me 3 options. 1) do nothing, hope it doesn't happen again soon. This was unlikely considering I'd had two issues within 2 months, and the second episode was a lot worse than the first. ... 2) Meds for a long time to see if that helped avoid future problems. Trouble was that the meds had a low success rate and weren't tested on people in my age group... 3) Surgery to remove the bad section of colon. The good news here was that research shows that less than 3% of the time are there any issues after this type of fix.

Of course I asked the Dr. the important question about my race and training. To my delight the Dr. agreed that training and racing had little impact on this and that we'd schedule the surgery for after the race.

I was back to training after having missed about 2 weeks of it. I was running out of time and becoming more nervous about the upcoming race every day... Was I ready?

Fast forward ...

July 13th Arrives ... It's go time! Race Day! The day I'd been training for!

Swim 1.2 Miles: 43:19
T1: 4:29
Bike 56 Miles: 2:55:45
T2: 4:40
Run 13.1 Miles: 2:37:24
Total: 6:25:37 

I killed my goal time of <7:00:00 ...="" 6:30:00="" a="" and="" blast="" br="" even="" goal="" had="" i="" my="" nbsp="" of="" stretch="" too.="" wow="">

Now, it time to prep for the surgery. ... and now you're caught up. I'm going to try to post more frequently maybe it will help me be less grumpy about the surgery and recover (no workout) time... 


-me-