JOHN O’BRIEN has been UNCOMMON his whole life.

He’s been on the LU roster since its launch in 2011 and has served the Movement as LU Race Team Captain and LU Race Team Hero – personally responsible for raising over $1,000 for local charities.  He’s a standout on and off the race course.  He’s a champion in all aspects of his life, and everyday personifies the LU vaLUes – commitment to Family, Work Ethic, Fitness & Health, Giving Back, Balance, and Excellence.  Today we celebrate his many achievements thus far, and now jump in to support him every step of his way in current pursuit – to conquer the Leadville 100.
 
LIVE UNCOMMON Contributing Student Reporter Rachel McCracken caught up with JOB to reintroduce YOU to the man in this first installment of an 8-part series LUpdate on JOB. 
 
The LIVE UNCOMMON Writers Block is a 2016 LU News Series bringing YOU the latest on your fellow LU teammates.

JOHN O'BRIEN - RT115

Inspiring individuals to reach higher, dream bigger, and change the world. That's the Live Uncommon mission. With his past achievements and all of his training for the upcoming Leadville 100 this year, John O'Brien is doing all of that and more.
 
 
On June 21, 2011, the Live Uncommon Movement was born and just three months later O'Brien, or JOB as he is affectionately known by fellow LUs, joined the roster. The LU RevoLUtion Race Team was launched in the spring of 2012 and O'Brien stepped forward to sign on as the RT Captain, with the goal of making a difference in the lives of LU runners everywhere.
 
 
This Boston native came to the Quad Cities in hopes of finding a local chapter of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society race team which he raced for while in Boston.  As fate would have it, he stumbled upon Live Uncommon. The rest was history.
 
 
As a lifelong athlete and also having experience in training runners for their first marathons, O'Brien was torn when asked if he prefers coaching or being coached. "Both," he says. "I like being able to help people, but it's also about gaining as much knowledge as I can and absorbing all of their experience."
 
 
Like many of his fellow LUs, JOB is always seeking out a new challenge, setting a new goal.  After training for and completing 3 triathlons in 2015, JOB's active lifestyle came to a halt for 6 months when he began noticing pain in his lower left back. X-rays revealed Scoliosis.  Disappointed and frustrated by the setback, O'Brien went to LU's Team Doctors to “get his heal on”.  OS Orthopedic Specialist, Dr. Michael Dolphin, got him on his road to recovery.  We will bring your more about John's experience at the hands of his and your LU Team Doc in a followup installment of this series.
 
 
Although he is not completely healed, O'Brien is certainly back on track, less than one year later. Currently running up to 20 miles in one day – yes, 20 MILES IN ONE DAY - and training for the unbelievably challenging Leadville 100 – yes, that’s a 100 MILE RACE ACROSS THE ROCKIES - in Colorado later this year.
 
 
The legendary "Race Across The Sky" is a 100-mile run through the extreme terrain of the Colorado Rockies.  Elevations range from 9,200-12,600 feet, creating more than a bit of a challenge for all runners, but especially for those training in the flatter Midwest. Some have goals to complete the run in 24 hours, whereas just finishing will be enough for O'Brien.
 
 
John is not going at it alone. O'Brien, along with five other friends, has created a mini-team of their own to help motivate, support, and push one another in their training for this race. The “QC6”, as they call themselves, is composed of O'Brien, John Byrne, Rick Fountain, Curt Johnson, Pat Militech and John DeDoncker.  Fountain, Byrne, and DeDoncker are veterans of the Leadville 100, going back for the second, third, and fourth times respectively.  These three lend the vaLUe of their experience to Leadville first-timers O'Brien, Johnson, and Miletich. We'll get you more in the know on each of the QC6 in later followup installments of the JOB series.
 
 
O'Brien says, "No great accomplishment ever happens alone or is done alone...there is always a team of supporters behind that person pushing them and helping them along the way."
 
 
The QC6 offers this support for one another, but, additionally, their amazing team of crew supporters - the LT100 CREW - is responsible for this. O'Brien
gives special thanks to Emily Bucy, Troy and Billy Holmberg, Jeremy Borden, Mike Foster, John Lawler, Jay Gates, and Kyle Dietz for their tireless support, some have even gone the lengths of joining in on their 15+ mile runs.
 
 
Throughout his involvement in Live Uncommon over the last 4 years, O'Brien has proven to be the personification of the Live Uncommon's core vaLUes, especially Giving Back. "My goal is to raise as much money as possible to help cure ALS [Lou Gehrig's disease].”
 
 
The inspiration he had in starting this fundraiser was sparked after he discovered his good friend and college football teammate, Kevin Gosnell, was diagnosed with the disease last year. "I never forgot about how great of a person he was on and off of the field. He carried a level of confidence with him, people listened to him; I wanted to take after him."

YOU can help John help those with ALS - in other words, YOU can help John change the world - by donating to his fundraising effort here.  Donations of $50 will get you a comfy LU LT100 Training Support Crew cotton tee.
 
 
Besides O'Brien's commitment to his fitness and health, he also juggles the other core vaLUes of Live Uncommon in his work ethic at John Deere, and by
spending time with what he sees as his biggest achievement in life so
far - his Family.  The O'Brien women - gorgeous wife Pierrette and beautiful daughters Erin and Trinity - are also true bLUe LU changers-of-the-world and avid ahtletes.  Future installments in this series will shine the LU spotlight on these chicas, so stay tUNed!
 
 
About the QC6 and the effort required to take on the Leadville 100 pursuit, John says, "We're not all professional runners. We have jobs, families. We get up at 3  a.m. to run on Saturday mornings because the kids have things going on that we don't want to interfere with. Balance is a huge challenge."  However, with dedication, commitment, and excellent time management, JOB gets it done.
 
 
JOB emphasizes that the QC6 is anything but an exclusive group, so anyone who’s interested and willing to run with them is completely welcome. Every morning it's a different group, so check out their Facebook LT100 training page for more info on workouts and to get in the LU LT100 CREW loop. “Just run with us. You can’t not feel the energy of this group, and before you know it, you’ll be running 20 miles with the rest of us.”
 
 
John O’Brien possesses all of the Live Uncommon vaLUes, and then some. In 2016, he and countless others will be challenging themselves in ways they never could have imagined.
 
What's on YOUR 2016 horizon?

Live Uncommon, the possibilities are limitless.