Sam Holmes is the overall winner of the 2011 Metro Brokers Triathlon which was held at the Cherry Creek State Park. Sam declares this is a great event, held in a beautiful location and plans to attend next year as well.

Interviewer:    Welcome to the 3rd Annual Metro Brokers Triathlon.  I am here today with Sam Holmes.  Sam Holmes is the winner of this year's event and congratulations Sam.

Sam Holmes:  Thank you very much.

Interviewer:    So I heard you were a little late registering today, what kind of held you up?

Sam Holmes:  You know I kind of procrastinated about leaving town.  I live up in Laramie, Wyoming and got stuck in rush hour traffic coming down and barely made it.  So I got in here at about 5:30.

Interviewer:    Yeah, well it looks like you set a new record for us then?

Sam Holmes:  I don't know, I am actually not sure about that.

Interviewer:    Yeah, I believe you came in like 1:01 and some change

Sam Holmes:  Something like that I think.

Interviewer:    Yeah very good, very good venue?

Sam Holmes:  Yeah, yeah, yeah great venue.

Interviewer:    So do you know Tim Hola, the person you competed with last year?

Sam Holmes:  Ah, I have met him a couple of times at a few races, never officially you know talked to him much, but yeah, I know who he is, I'll say that.

Interviewer:    Do you participate in other triathlons then?

Sam Holmes:  Yep yeah, I do a lot of them all throughout the summer so...

Interviewer:    Oh really.

Sam Holmes:  Yeah.

Interviewer:    And what do you think of this event that Metro Brokers puts on then?

Sam Holmes:  I love it, it's a great event.  The food is great.  It's a great venue, it's a beautiful, beautiful state park, water is calm, roads are totally clear, it's a great event, great venue.

Interviewer:    Right.  Well, we appreciate you participating and supporting our people here and being a part of Metro Brokers Triathlon.  Thank you.

Sam Holmes:  Thank you all very much.  I will be back next year.

Interviewer:    For more videos about Metro Brokers make sure to check us out at metrobrokerstv.com.

Posted in Industry Leadership, Giving Back

Paul Martin, winner of the physically challenged division of the 3^rd Annual Metro Brokers Triathlon, enjoyed the varied course at Cherry Creek State Park. The event benefitted Adaptive Adventures, an organization that provides outdoor sports opportunities to physically challenged children, adults, veterans and their families.

Interviewer:    And welcome to Metro Brokers 3^rd Annual Triathlon.  We are here at Cherry Creek Reservoir, and I am here with Paul Martin.  Paul welcome.

Paul Martin:  Thank you very much Mark.  Thank you.

Interviewer:    How did you do today at Triathlon?

Paul Martin:  Actually, I kind of thought I wouldn't be able to do it. I haven't been doing that high-end training anymore, so the sprint stuff is fast, you know, all the way and other than the swim, the bike and the run went pretty well, I was able to turn it on, so it was good.

Interviewer:    What are your thoughts on this mini venue that we run here at the park?

Paul Martin:  Oh, it's great.  I hadn't been here before and the swim water was cold, but once you go in, it just felt great.  The bike was nice, there was just enough varying terrain to make it interesting, and nothing too static so that was nice.  The run was nice and tricky.  The terrain was kind of bumpy and wavy and bouncy and made for a fun run. We were very much cheered when you come to the finish line and you had another whatever, about a quarter mile to go around the park a little bit.

Interviewer:    So you have participated in other triathlons and running venues like that?

Paul Martin:  Yeah, this is probably somewhere around 90 triathlons in the last 15 years.

Interviewer:    Oh wow, quite a few.  And this would seem like a good venue to be in?

Paul Martin:  Oh yeah specifically because we benefited Adaptive Adventures and Joe and Matt invited me to come down to be a part of this, the last couple of years I haven't been able to make it, so this time I was able to, you know, give back to those who help people like me, so it was nice.

Interviewer:    Yeah, well we really appreciate you participating and being a part of Metro Brokers here.

Posted in Giving Back

An interview with Mark Harrison, organizer of the 2011 Metro Brokers TriathlON Friday events.  This year, the event drew over 200 participants

Interviewer:    Welcome to the Third Annual Metro Brokers Triathlon.  I am here today with Mark Harrison and Mark great show today.

Mark Harrison:  You know, I think this was a great event.  It's our third year and it's bigger and better than ever, so we are excited.

Interviewer:    So you were involved this year more in the planning versus being in the event? 

Mark Harrison:  You know, I think my official title was Sponsorship Coordinator, you know, I have participated in the event for the last two years and helped on the front end side but really kind of felt like I have done the triathlon and I am going to continue doing it but for now I just wanted to make sure we put on a good event.

Interviewer:    Right.  It looks like we got a lot of sponsors here too.

Mark Harrison:  Great, great list of sponsors.  Once again Lodo's is back on providing the food after the event, there are a lot of real estate related sponsors and then also not real estate related sponsors.  So it's kind of a nice mix and I think everybody is having a good time.

Interviewer:    You bet.  Once again we appreciate all that you do for Metro Brokers, Mark, and this is a great event.

Mark Harrison:  Well, you know, I just want to have the members come out next year hopefully and then certainly the public, you know, hopefully we'll go on and do a fourth year and get bigger and better as well.

Interviewer:    I'm sure we will.  Thanks for pointing it out again.

Mark Harrison:  Thank you and thanks for being here guys.

Interviewer:    For more video about MetroBrokers, make sure you check out metrobrokerstv.com.

Posted in Industry Leadership, Giving Back

An interview with Kathleen Allen, women's division winner of the 2011 Metro Brokers Triathlon.  Kathleen loves the Friday night race format, so the whole family can come and participate!

Interviewer:    Welcome to Metro Brokers TV and we are here again at the Metro Brokers Triathlon at Cherry Creek Reservoir.  And I am here with Kathleen Allen, and Kathleen is our winner for the women, for the second year, congratulations.

Kathleen Allen:  Thank you so much.

Interviewer:    How did you feel this year?

Kathleen Allen:  It was hard, but it's always hard, its fun.  It's fun to push yourself.

Interviewer:    So are you involved in a lot of triathlons then?

Kathleen Allen:  I do, I've done many triathlons.

Interviewer:    And how do you like the Metro Brokers venue here at Cherry Creek Reservoir?

Kathleen Allen:  Cherry Creek Reservoir is great, and this is one of my favorite races because my kids can come.

Interviewer:    Oh, that is great.

Kathleen Allen:  Yeah, they don't like to wake up early and so it's kind of nice to have an evening race so they don't have to wake up, so the whole family can come.

Interviewer:    Super.  Well we appreciate you participating and contributing to our causes and being part of Metro Brokers Triathlon.  Thank you very much Kathy.

Kathleen Allen:  Thank you.

Interviewer:    And congratulations again.

Kathleen Allen:  Thank you.

Interviewer:    For more information about Metro Brokers, turn your dial to metrobrokerstv.com.

Posted in Industry Leadership, Giving Back

Veteran and Metro Broker, Brian Wess, invites you to join him at the 4^th Annual Defenders of Freedom Veterans Recognition Ride on Sunday May 22^nd to benefit the Wounded Warriors Project.

Interviewer:  Hi, I am Kathy Soltero with metrobrokerstv.com, and today we have in our studio Brian Wess with Infinite Horizons Realty in Colorado Springs.  And Brian instead of talking about real estate today you have a very important event that's coming up that you want to talk to us about?

Brian Wess:  Yes I do, the 4th Annual Defenders of Freedom Veterans Recognition Ride to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

Interviewer:  And you have been doing this how long?

Brian Wess:  Since 2008, started organizing the event.

Interviewer:  How did it get started?

Brian Wess:   I'm a veteran myself and I wanted to do something for our disabled veterans coming back from the global war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.  One night I just happened to be watching Bill O'Reilly and he and Tony Snow mentioned the Wounded Warrior Project, so I did a little bit of research on it, found out it was a great organization, that almost all of the funds that are donated go directly to helping the wounded warriors, so their administrative costs are very thin.

Interviewer:  Well tell me about it, I mean what's a day like for this event?

Brian Wess:  Well it starts off in the morning, one of our sponsors Lockheed Martin, a great, great group of people there, they jumped in right away the first year to help us and, and lent us their parking lot to stage for the event.  So we start by getting people signed up and, and they pay their registration donation and we give them a pin for having ridden in the event, and then we line the bikes up and about 10:30, we have a ceremony where we have a presentation of colors by one of the local military installations, at 11 o'clock we ride out behind police escort, it's a 40 mile ride...

Interviewer:  Wow!

Brian Wess: ...yeah, the longest one in Colorado.

Interviewer:  Oh that's awesome, how many people would you say have participated in it?

Brian Wess:  Well over the years, our first year we had about 215, second year we were up over 400, last year we were up over 500.

Interviewer:  Oh that's fabulous, so what do you expect this year?

Brian Wess:  I'm expecting again between 500 and 600 riders; one of the things that I'm most proud of is, in the three years that we've had it so far, we've collected just under $14,000...

Interviewer:  Oh that's fabulous.

Brian Wess...and all that, every dollar goes directly to the Wounded Warrior Project, thanks to our sponsors.

Interviewer:  Is that money that stays locally or does it go nationally or is it...

Brian Wess:  It actually...

Interviewer:  ...goes into a big national pool?

Brian Wess:  Yeah it goes, it goes to the National Wounded Warrior Project and they handle it but because Colorado Springs has five military bases and we actually have at Fort Carson: a Wounded Warrior Recovery Center, a lot of that money does end up coming back to the folks in Colorado Springs.

Interviewer:  Well give us the particulars, the when, where, how you can get involved in it?

Brian Wess:  Well this year it's going to be armed forces weekend again like we do it every year, Sunday May 22^nd.  We start registrations about 9:00 a.m. in the morning out at Lockheed Martin there on Highway 83 and you know right off of Northgate in that area, and I have a website, I'm also on Facebook this year too, it was kind of something kind of new we started, but on my website on brianwess.com we have a "Veterans Ride" page where they can go right to it and that gives them the details about not only who our sponsors are, but details about the ride, where the route is and all that good stuff.  You come the day of, we only register on site, we sign you up, you pay your $15.00 if you are a single rider, $20.00 if you are a couple on the same bike and we give you your pin, you get lined up, there is some music usually you know sometimes there are some refreshments that are donated and things like that.

Interviewer:  Wonderful and then at the end of the ride what happens, people just...?

Brian Wess:  There is an after party.

Interviewer:  Okay, okay well we had to let everybody know there is something to go along with it.

Brian Wess:  Absolutely we, we actually end up out at Frankie's Too! and Poblano's in Falcon and you know, we stop and there is food and drinks specials and we hang out and socialize and you know it's just been, it's been a great day.

Interviewer:  Well Brian thank you very much for telling us all about that.  I think hopefully this year it will be as great a success as always.

Brian Wess:  I hope so too, thank you.

Interviewer:  You bet. And for more real estate related videos tune into metrobrokerstv.com.

Posted in Movers and Shakers, Giving Back, Headlines