THIS IS IT!!

Make a donation and win a 1 Yr Goodlife Fitness Plus Gym Pass value at $1000.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

134 days ago, I decided to undertake the biggest fundraiser of my life, then follow it up with the longest bike ride of my life.  All in an effort to raise funds and awareness for Cancer research.

In the meantime, I made a true friend, her name is Judy, you may have read some of her posts on here as she battles on to win her fight against cancer.

Today I ask for your help.  I am $1300 shy the goal I set for myself to raise $10,000.  It is incredibly important for me to get there and I cannot do it alone.  I need your help.

If you know someone, or even you have been touched by cancer, please find it in you to open here and make a donation. You will be helping me as I get ready to cycle to texas, but most importantly you will be helping the Judy’s of the world.  Because we all know one, and we all love one dearly.

Please give, any amount helps: http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR/Thirdpartyevent/IFE_NS_General_?px=3599084&pg=personal&fr_id=8110

My deadline for donations is Oct 1st, I’ve done all I can, now all I can do is hope you can help carry me to the start line of my 4000km + bike ride.

PS… everyone who makes a 25$ donation or more will be entered to win a one year fitness plus membership with Goodlife Fitness value of $1000.00

Thx

A few cool things that are going on!

I’m less than 20 days away from cycling across to AUSTIN TX!

I am so Incredibly close to my fundraising goal with about $1500 to go between now and October 1st. If you have it in you to give a little something please do… I’ve been working so hard that despite meeting the minimum goal of $5000 it is beyond important to me to meet my personal goal of $10,000 please visit http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/spoonsie. Make a difference in someone’s life.

Where to start, I can’t believe that the ride is almost here, May 18th when I decided to take this one seems like a million years away, even though it was less then 135 days away. I am exhausted but happy and so looking forward to the next month of crazyness.

The first thing that comes to mind is my fabulous friend Judy, really at the centre of this whole story. It hasn’t been easy for her as she is fighting her cancer “making it her b!tch and making it tap out” as my partner Geoff would say. Nonetheless she is a fighter and the manner in which she carries herself simply blows my mind day after day. I aspire to be as strong and courageous as she is. I can say that the best thing about this whole bike ride, fundraising etc is that I made a true friend for life that I otherwise wouldn’t have gotten to know. We would have continued to be to colleagues working for the man.

Here is a picture of the two of us taken at my surprise “send-off” last week.

Speaking of this little send off, I really need to thank two of my girls Rose and Johanne for organizing such a wonderful evening. I really had no clue and was caught off guard, so much to the point I showed up unshowered after 4 hours of spin classes thinking I was dropping our dog off to be babysat! I probably smelled like a goat, but they were all nice and didn’t tell me.

Something else cool that happened also as a result of this. I met with a wonderful girl named Kym who is doing a pretty cool project called 100 Strangers. http://lemien.ca/?p=409 We had fun doing a colourful photoshoot for the bike, see it here on her blog which is about to be published in the citizen! Woot! Go Kym!

Lastly what about me now? I am starting a long overdue holiday, seems like it’s been since Summer 2008 since I had more than a few days off. Part 1 of the trip I have the honour of travelling to Oxford UK with Geoff who will be graduating from Oxford University! Such a privilege to attend! I’m off to the land of fish and chips, I’ll be back soon for a final update before hitting the road.

Another Day – Another Diagnosis

I just finished spending some time writing the inside of this card and I really wish I didn’t have too.

Seems like I have bought too many of these recently.  A reminder of why I am fundraising for cancer and cycling from Canada to Austin.

A card wishing someone strength and courage after being diagnosed with cancer and about to enter treatment.

This one is for a beautiful woman I know.  She is strong, assertive, full or life and now stricken with Cancer for the second time.  She’s the second one that I find out in a week that’s been touched by cancer.

What to do with what seems to be a recurring theme, 3 people all within a 1 degree of separation since I decided to join this effort on May 18?

Honour them

I have decided to dedicate my bike ride to all people whom I come across during my fundraising and training that are diagnosed with Cancer.

I am still awaiting permission on a few names but the first one at the top of my list is Pegi Linnabary, another avid cyclist who has been diagnosed with lung and breast cancer.  She is currently ongoing treatment and I wish her the very best, strength and courage in her recovery.

Once I start receiving permissions, please stay tune for the survivor/hero page where I will be happy to honour who I am riding for.

If you are reading this, and you know someone that has been diagnosed with Cancer since May 18th 2010, it would be a privilege for me to ride these 4265km’s in their honour.  Please contact me with their information.

And it begins…

May 18 2010…

It was during a taper week where I was pretty much bouncing off the walls…

I had slightly too much time on my hand and when left unsupervised, I tend to get myself in trouble.  Sometime good trouble… well most of the time.

This would be an instance where I found some good trouble.  I have heard for the past year or two about a group of cyclists that treked from Canada to Austin TX to take part in the LiveStrong foundation Austin Challenge with Lance Armstrong.  Sitting around that morning, surfing the web not being able to train, I red a posting on a local triathlon website www.trirudy.com looking to recruit riders.

Within 2hrs I had booked my holidays and committed to doing the ride…  This also meant that I had just agreed to:

• Ride nearly 5000kms to raise awareness for Cancer.
• Raise a goal of $10,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society
• Embark on a journey I would never forget.

All things considering, I’m pretty happy with my decision and soooo looking forward to it.  That being said, it also reminded me of this article a friend @endorphinbuzz on twitter linked me to.

Interesting ~ & FUNNY article about Taper!

Care and feeding of your runner during taper