Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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Catalyst, a private equity firm in Cam- bridge, Mass., so logistics keep him from being involved with any St. Baldrick's group efforts at Notre Dame. But that wasn't going to stop him from staying in- volved. "I figured if I could find a way to raise a Anello works as an associate for General couple of thousand dollars, that would be a couple of thousand dollars more than they had before," Anello explained. So off to San Francisco he went to join 2,200 others in a frigid 1.5-mile swim from Alcatraz Island to shore, an 18-mile bike ride through the winding and steep hills of San Francisco, and an 8-mile run through the rugged trails of the Golden Gate Rec- reation Area. the moment where Anello became his best. Relying on strong will and some divine inspiration, Anello looked to a former col- lege buddy to get him through those last five painful miles. During his fifth year at Notre Dame in 2009, Anello became friends with a football manager named Xavier Murphy. About two years later, and only one month after a leukemia diagnosis, Murphy was gone at the age of 22. Cancer had won another battle. "When my legs wanted to cramp up and All in a day's work for Anello. Work and time constraints kept him from training properly, but he still managed to finish the race in two hours and 58 minutes — two minutes ahead of his three-hour target time. For background, the race starts with the 2,200 participants jumping from a ferry into the 55-degree waters near Alcatraz Island for a swim to shore. "You jump in the water and it's time more than $14,000 for the St. Baldrick's Foundation — which was about $11,000 more than his goal. Additional donations can be made anytime at http://www.stbal- dricks.org/participants/anello. "It was fun, but it was a challenge to fin- to go," Anello said. "There's no turning back." Once across the San Francisco Bay, ish that race," Anello said. "I got a lot more out of it than I could have ever expected." Not exactly breaking news there. Be it in there's a half-mile run to the bicycle area, then an 18-mile ride that Anello swears went completely uphill, followed by an eight-mile run through sand and forest to finish up. Anello held his own during the swim and was solid on the bike. But about three miles into the run, his legs were about to cramp up. And to nobody's surprise, this is AUGUST 2012 6 sports, business or chasing a cause in the shadows of the Golden Gate, squeezing the most out of life is the only way Anello knows. ✦ Todd D. Burlage has been a writer for Blue & Gold Illustrated since July 2005. He can be reached at tburlage@blueandgold.com I was trying to finish the race, I just kept saying, 'Come on Xavier, help me out here,' " said Anello, still obviously moved by the experience. "Every time my legs started to really hurt and felt like they were going to cramp, I said some prayers and asked Xavier to help me get through this, and I never cramped. He carried me." Anello's Alcatraz experience helped raise