Pelotonia

"Pelotonia is a grass roots bike tour with one goal: to end cancer. Pelotonia raises money for innovative and life saving cancer research at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center- James Cancer Hospital and Solve Research Institute. Driven by the passion of its cyclists and volunteers, and their family and friends, Pelotonia's annual cycling experience will be a place of hope, energy and determination. Leveraging Netjets' transformational gift, Pelotonia directs 100% of every dollar raised to research. It is a community of people coming together to chase down cancer and defeat it." - Annonymous

This phrase about sums up the experience.  I started the weekend (Friday night) by attending the Opening Ceremony and Registration for this event.  This included registration for the bike ride, dropping off my bike, cancer expo, food/beverage, live entertainment, and a kick-off "speech." Included in this speech were words of encouragement given by Mayor Coleman, Governor Strickland, Gordon Gee, and Lance Armstrong.  Also included was a very moving video including cancer survivors and family of those claimed by cancer, as to why this ride was so important.  My good friend and cancer survivor, Eileen Murphy, attended this event with me.  It was especially moving because she just recently had her first clear scan after fighting Lymphoma since October.  I am honored that she came with me and having her there made this ride so much more personal for me.  She has had such a great attitude and put up such an amazing fight against this cancer thing, that I felt humbled to be part of an event that celebrated the survivors, remember those that had passed away, and will continue to help those that fight cancer in the present and future.  Many thanks to Eileen for helping to inspire me to do this ride and to all of those that helped to support and make it possible!  Thanks to everyone that contributed, I was able to raise over $1,700 towards this cause!

Eileen and I at the expo.

Christopher Conn, my swim instructor.  Gearing up for his 180 mile ride!

Pre-speech entertainment, Matt Nathanson

Governor Strickland

Gordon Gee, giving his David Letterman "Top Ten" Cycling Questions List

Lance Armstrong, I will include a video of his speech at the end of this blog!

Michelle Branch, unfortunately her performance got cut short by the very wicked storm that came through shortly after she started playing! 

From the car, trying to leave the parking lot, as the storm rolled in . . .

Saturday started out bright and early.  The ride was scheduled to leave at 7:15am but got pushed back due to "mechanical problems."  I was supposed to meet my friend Christopher, but was unable to find him in the crowd of 2,000+ riders.  The bike corral was so crowded that I was unable to get in it once I found my bike, but luckily I found a gate that fed into the starting line.  As a result, I was able to meld in with the starting 50 riders!  Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the corral and never did actually see Lance start the race, and due to his excellent riding abilities, I never caught him on the ride! 

The "starting line" for Pelotonia 2009.  I am actually outside of the corral at this point!

The route and elevation chart.  The highest elevation grade per the map said "4%"  I have to argue that it felt  more like 14%!! 

First rest stop around 25 miles.

Water stop at ClearCreek Park, this was about 1/2 way into the ride.  I felt pretty good at this time, as we had mostly rolling hills up to this point.  Very shortly after this stop the steepest hills started.  They were challenging for me, but I was able to tough it out and bike up all of the hills that were on the course.  Many people were walking, but I talked myself into keeping up my very slow pace (I recall seeing 5 mph at one point) and finish the hills!  It was tough physically and mentally, but I can't imagine it is anything like the battle that cancer patients are fighting everyday.  This is alot of what kept me going through the ride and why I decided to do it.  So many people that I know have been affected by cancer in some way.  This ride and fund raiser was the least I could do to show my support, love, and caring in this ongoing fight. 

Made it to the finish line in Athens!

102+ miles - I forgot to start my clock right away, so I think it was actually closer to 104!

Eileen was there at the finish!  I was so glad to see her!

My support crew;  my mom, Aunt Debbie, and Uncle David! 

I have to say that this was an amazing event.  It was awesome and humbling at the same time, to be part of this experience to help raise money and support cancer research.  As I said before, the ride was challanging, but I am sure it is nothing compared to what cancer victims and their loved ones face on an ongoing basis.  The organization of this bike tour  was unbelievable, the riders and spectators were fantastic, and the event was inspiring.  I would definately do this again in the coming years and challenge more people to do it in the future.  I also have to say I was in awe of all the riders that participated in this that had SURVIVOR written on the back of their bike jerseys.  Everytime I saw that on the ride, I gave an invisible fist pump into the air and I knew that I was participating in a great cause! 

The following is a video of Lance Armstrong's Speech, this isn't the exact video that I recorded - I was closer - unforunately I was unable to figure out how to load the video I took onto this blog!  LOL!  However, as I only recorded half of the speech, this is probably better anyway!