UNBROKEN (installment 05.16)
April 15, 2016
Market: New York
Athlete: Dominick Cice (Capital Dynamics)
2016 marks my 6th consecutive Decathlon and each year I am blown away by what the event has turned into. Multiple cities, over $6 million raised for a great cause, insane individual and team performances, professional athlete cameos - you can’t get any better than that.
I first heard of The Decathlon in late 2010 in a Bloomberg recap article describing the event. I thought to myself, “I’m in pretty decent shape, right? I can do this.” My only hesitation was the fundraising minimum. The most I had ever raised before The Decathlon was a few hundred dollars thanks to some tough sales calls to my parents and close family. $3,000 was a lofty target and I didn’t want to be that guy that had to plead to the organizers to make an exception since I knew one did not exist. There was no way I could turn this down, so I signed up and would figure it out one way or another. A quote from a scene of the great movie, Jurassic Park, came to my mind: “Hold on to ya butts.” That couldn’t have been more true, but not for what I originally thought.
Fundraising mode kicked into gear 2 months before gameday. To my surprise, I obtained a lot of traction. It doesn’t hurt that Memorial Sloan Kettering and POETIC are premier names and causes. Donations rolled in and before I knew it, I was getting close to my goal. After a few last-minute pitches to extended family and work colleagues, I was in! A very small piece of the $6 million raised to date, but it was more than I had ever raised and I was proud of it. I’ll enter the celebrated 10K Club one day. I guarantee it.
Event day finally arrived. I suited up and headed to the stadium. I was a little nervous about what to expect, but I put in some tough training days and was as ready as I could be. “These Wall Street guys looks much bigger than I thought they would” ran across my mind as I was waiting in line to check in. “Hold on to ya butts” could not have been more true. I was blown away by the results for each event. “How did he do that?” and “Is that even possible?” were common phrases that came out of my mouth as the day went on. It’s not every day that you see someone throw a football 70+ yards, have a 40 inch vertical and then bang out over 40 reps of the 175 lbs. bench press. I held my own, but ended the day right smack in the meaty part of the bell curve, completely exhausted, and euphoric.
It was a humbling experience, but didn’t matter. I was coming back next year and aiming a higher than before. And then the next year, and the next and the next.
Even though we are all competing against each other, at the end of the day, it’s all about one ultimate goal – raise as much as we can for such a great cause and surpass last year’s fundraising total. This year’s Decathlon is set to be the biggest yet and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it.
Bring it,
-Dom