Once upon a time, there was a cyclist named Julie who was raising funds for the Leukemia Lymphoma Society through Team in Training. She was training for a Century Ride called the Sawtooth Cycle Challenge, happening in mid-September and had nearly reached her goal ($590 away from it) when...
I received news on Monday, August 16th, that officially, the Sawtooth Cycle Challenge has been cancelled due to lack of interest. As of this day (one month before the event), there were 12 people signed up to participate). The small amount of interest has caused the coordinators of the event to re-consider having it and cancelled.
Team In Training (TNT) has given us three options. Considering what we’ve been training for, one option (Peach of a Century-in Salem, held in September) sounds like it will be too easy of an option-nice rolling hills and flat areas. The second option (Moab Century Tour) sounded too tough-first 35 miles of the ride are climbing miles. Within the first 20 miles is a section called “The Big Nasty” (a climb of 3,000 feet in 7 miles, some of the grade being 14-19%). This ride is considered a 9/10 for difficulty. (In addition, I’m not sure I want to face another “Big Nasty” this year. One was enough.) The third option sounds just right. (Does this sound like “The Three Little Bears”? Too Hot, too cold, just right. Too hard, too soft, just right…) This ride is called “Americas Most Beautiful Bike Ride” (AMBBR) and takes place in Tahoe. The bummer is that this event is 10 months out, taking place the first weekend of June. This year, in 2010, there were 1,500 TNT participants and a total of 3,000 cyclists riding (compare that to a total of 12 at the event…).
What does this mean regarding my fundraising goal? Yes, AMBBR is a more expensive ride and typically TNT has a higher fundraising goal for participants for this event. Due to the circumstances, TNT is going to honor the Sawtooth Cycle Challenge (SCC) fundraising goal for the TNT participants who were signed up for the SCC. However, being that the event is still 10 months out, I’d love to be able to raise more than my minimum goal. Currently, as mentioned above, I am $590 away from meeting the minimum. I would love to have this goal met before the end of the year so that when training for this event in January, any monies raised is just icing on the cake. If you have already donated, thank you so much! Your donations will be transferred-with me-to this new event.
With all of this in mind-we are continuing to train. I asked Coach Brad if he would put together a 100-mile ride in the valley for us. He agreed and so the weekend of September 11th (I don’t know if it will be Saturday or Sunday yet), we will be riding 100 miles, partially because we have trained and will be ready for it by then, but mostly because we think it is important to not lose momentum in training that we have built up so far. The plan is to continue training and doing group rides through the rest of this year. Then, come January, training for AMBBR will begin. When it gets too cold to ride outside, we’ll take spin classes in the gym and possibly partake in some skiing.
I will continue to update my blog (http://pedalchik.blogspot.com) and my plan is to send out an update once a month. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to let me know. And again, I ask you to consider donating to the cause. You can donate safely and securely by going to the following website:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/Sawtooth10/jkdowner
Or you can send your donations directly to me (please make checks payable to LLS) and I will make sure they get to LLS. My address is 11330 W. Tempe Lane, Star, ID 83669. All donations are tax deductible.
Thank you so much!
Julie
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