This past year...... has been well, very interesting.

Oh where do I begin? Well how about Jan 31st. That night I went for date night with my wife and we had ordered dinner and I ordered a pitcher of beer with our appetizers. The pitcher was gone before the appetizers got to the table. When dinner was brought out I was on pitcher number 2, and 3 was gone with supper. We went to the movies after, and honestly I can't even remember what movie it was.

Jump ahead to the next morning and I'm laying in bed feeling like shit. I started thinking about how 12 years before I was waking up like this in a drug house, or the many many times I woke up under bridges or in parks in Winnipeg, Vancouver or even Ottawa.

I'm not going to say it's been easy, or that I did it alone because I didn't. I had a huge support system behind me and in front of me too. I never saw it until recently. I've always been hard on myself and in the past year I've come to realize that the asshole I was to those around me was hard on not only them but me also.

I almost relapsed, I tried to kill myself and I've just shit down because I let depression, anger and self hate win. It wasn't until I went to my first AA meeting that I realized what was going on with me. I'm not too to sit here and knock the system but AA wasn't for me. I'm not religious by any means and the meeting I went to was overwhelming with religion.

I walked out that meeting with my head spinning and that's what I did. I went to the gym jumped on the spin bike and I spun out for 90 minutes. One minute for everyday sober. That's when it hit me, like a Mack truck. I need to find something else and this is it. I looked at my fitness as a way to stay sober. When I was having a bad day, I'd throw on the shoes and run, hit the pool and beat the shit out of that water or I'd get on my bike and if ride hard and fast. 

I looked at my race schedule and realized that I needed to train for my half marathon and I set a goal and I started training with Louise from the YMCA. We were running big. I started off half way through the program as she ran a couch to 10 km program and I missed that. So here we were running every weekend and before I knew it I was coming up to race day.

I set a goal to run the race in under 2:30 and I was on track to smash that goal by 15 mins. The first & km's were great and than I hit rain and it slowed me down. I dug deep and finished the race in 2:29.38. While I was running it donned on me that I want to do in my life and it was something I never thought I would do.

So I at 9 months sober walked into the local college and found out what I need to do to become an Addiction Counselor and have since worked towards making this dream become a reality. Honestly I was never sure if I would ever make it this far, but with the help from total strangers who'd become friends and friends who've become strangers I've been able to pursue my dreams.

In the last year I've accomplished allot, I PR'd Races, ran more, rode even more, raised allot of money for others and I've made friends from around the world who have helped me in so many ways and I'll forever be grateful for the opportunities and gifts that I've been granted (help getting into college, my biggest race so far the Canadian 113, and soon to be IRONMAN 2016) from people like Pete, Jayson, Mardy, Brandon, Troy and many more. Now I can only do the one thing I do best, Pay it forward. In 2015 I plan to do a trip from Ottawa to (possibly) Montreal to spread the word of homelessness and mental health. But that's getting off topic.

I want to say thank you to my friends who stuck with me, my family whom have supported me, my sponsors for still being here and most importantly my wife who has been my peanut butter to my jam in this sandwich we call life. I can't wait to say 2 years,5 or even 25 years one day. I love you Amanda.