Welcome to my training blog! I’m training to complete America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride—a 100 mile cycling event in Lake Tahoe on June 6, 2010. The main reason I’m doing this is in memory of my dad, who lost his fight with cancer on January 19, 2006. For that reason, I’m training with Team in Training and raising money ($4,600—holy crap.) which will go towards cancer research. My goal with this blog is to share my experiences and thoughts during training with the people who are supporting me. So far my thoughts (other than “Aren’t I hip for having a blog??”) are that I’m a little bit nervous. Things seemed great when I signed up for this, when the coaches were talking about the majesty of Lake Tahoe and the team camaraderie…but training doesn’t officially start until the end of January and the coaches are nowhere in sight. And who am I kidding? The last bike I owned was a purple Huffy. I’m pretty sure it also had sparkles. While it may have been the envy of the neighborhood, it certainly did not prepare me for 100 miles. Did I mention that’s 100 miles in a row?
Anxiety aside, I’m reminding myself that fear of the unknown and the challenge of an endurance event is nothing compared to the daily effort of those battling cancer. I ran the Disney marathon in 2008 with TNT, and there were many (many, MANY) moments in training when that thought was the only motivating one. If my dad could face pain and chemo on a daily basis, I could finish one more mile, one more minute, one more lap. I am lucky to be healthy enough to run a marathon or to bike 100 miles, and for that reason it’s hard to complain about the opportunity to do this…although those that know me know I sure as heck will try. So although training and fundraising may be difficult between now and June 6--and this blog may occasionally be a forum for complaint—my most important goal is to support TNT and to honor my dad throughout the process. Sparkles on my bike wouldn’t be bad, either.
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