People who love sports...

Remembering a friend, mentor and coach - Doug Stern

I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Doug Stern earlier this week. My deepest condolences to his wife Lynn and his family.

Doug lived in NYC. He was an amazing husband, father, friend and swim coach. I had the fortune of getting to know Doug and his family through his various swim programs and annual pilgrimage to Curacao for swimmers and triathletes.

For those of you don't know Doug, he was in many ways larger than life. He had such passion for swimming/triathlons, but more importantly he loved life. Although he touched the lives of all those around him and contributed to our sporting community as a whole, he especially loved working with beginner athletes to help them achieve their goals.

I have several fond memories that I would like to share.

1. Birthday Lap - Each year on Doug's birthday he would swim, and require each of his students to swim, one lap for each year of his life, and with each passing year he seemed more vibrant and full of life than the year before. He was and will remain a true inspiration, and he has instilled in me a tradition that I will certainly continue.

2. Sternisms - Doug had many sayings that captured the essence of who he was as a person. I particularly loved "Stern time, not your time" (but I was always punctual).

3. Doug's Smile - Doug loved when his students achieved their goals, both large and small. His pride was evident from the glow on his face when a student dropped his or her lap time, even if it was only by a few seconds. In 2005 I worked hard to improve my swim time, and through Doug's guidance and encouragement, I reached my goal. Doug was very proud (like my father, who passed away shortly before, would have been) and he made me feel very special.






Although there are many more memories, I'd just like to say to Doug, who I know will continue to watch over us and guide us in all of our endeavors, thank you for your support, coaching and friendship. You had an impact on my life. You will be missed.

You can find details for Doug's memorial on Slowtwitch.com.

Being a fan

This weekend I got to be a fan, the Yankees (old home town) and Giants (new home town) played a three game set. The atmosphere was playoff like. All the games were great. Giants won 2 of 3. I hope this vaults them onto something good. Barry played all three and even got to face the Rocket. Not sure we'll ever see that again. Pretty cool.



Rocket vs Bonds (he walked him.)



Second part of my weekend was cheering (remotely via www.ironman.com) for my friend Chris Lyman (of the famed Lyman PR firm) who competed in Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Congratulations on your great time. You crushed it.

http://ironman.com//events/ironman/coeurdalene?show=tracker&y=2007&race=/events/ironman/coeurdalene&bib=984

More Validation!

More and more people are starting to see how valueable audience is. Check out Jermey Liew from Lightspeed Venture Partners with their post about the value of synthetic channels. They sight some great examples.


http://lsvp.wordpress.com/2007/06/11/ad-networks-synthetic-channels/

Also check us out on TechCrunch. Very Cool.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/10/active-athlete-media-advertising-for-sport-related-sites/#comments

Marc Andresen Blogging

I recently stumbled upon Marc Andreessen's Blog - http://blog.pmarca.com/. He's got some great stuff on there from how to hire, cool mac apps, and how to be more productive are some of my top choices. Check it out, i found it very insightful. Not sure about the no set meetings. I'm too anal.

To find stuff like Marc's Blog is pretty cool. Think about our access to information and more importantly access to other people. I see advertisers getting wrapped up by the unpredictability of User Generated Content but think why I am conversing. The upside of connecting with people passions and being apart of their conversions is the difference maker. Yes, I understand the risks but today publishers have ways to help mitigate these. We must be apart of the conversion or they will happen without us. Find people's passions and you'll find loyal customers.