Events #37 and #38, Sally's Y 5k and Sally's Y 50K Sunday April 25

Two for one special today...just like last year, I was able to do the 5K prior to the cycle event (thank you Melissa Lasarsky and race directors) and got to ride and hang out with a lot of good friends.

Mike Ferretti, Jim Russell, Cat Reid, Cheryl Ryan, Greg Counts (all did the 100K) Kevin Collins, Justin and Tricia McCord - we did the 50K. Thanks everyone for coming out and making the trek up north to do the ride. Awesome seeing you all!

Beautiful day for the events - albeit a bit windy. Extremely well run and seamless. Well supported - challenging course with some great hills to test out the legs. Loads of fun.

For those who don't know, the Y in Denver, soon to be Sally's Y is being built in memory of Sally Clark, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 2004. Her passion for life and spirit will be commemorated in the future home of Sally's Y - being built through the collaboration of her parents, David and Jo, to give back to the community - just as they know Sally would.

Due to the recent rains, the run was on the road, versus a trail run - a double loop - easy enough to navigate and fun to run - even if it was by myself.

Finished the run and changed up for the bike - different shorts (changed in the car) a lot of sunscreen and inflated the tires....shortly after I finished the run, we were off.

I can't say that I was really hammering on the bike. It's been awhile since I was on the road for an extended ride, so it was one mile at a time. Justin and I kept changing position up front - well - mostly Justin up front really....I kinda lagged behind.

We all had an awesome ride and a lot of fun. Nice to be out with good friends on a challenging course on a beautiful April afternoon.

Dedications for these events are forthcoming.

5K approx 23 minutes
50K 1:50:22

Go TEAM!!!

Event #14 - Y2Y Metric Century Saturday August 8

What a great ride! Got to ride with the fantastic four +1, Sheila, Mike Feretti (TnT Coach), Cat Reid and Cheryl Ryan PLUS Jim Russell a neighbor here in the 'hood. Not having ridden much over 40 in the past month+, I was a bit nervous about my ability to cover the 62 without much cursing...but it was awesome.

I met a woman who was out on her first organized ride, after buying a bike two weeks ago. She bought a bike to ride with her husband (awwww) and did awesome.

We started out riding together and around mile 24, at the second rest stop...

Side note - organized rides like this are great. Every 10 - 15 miles they have rest stops with food (cookies, oranges, bananas, water, Gatorade, etc) and porta potties... I make sure I partake of everything at these stops - foodwise. And its a great opportunity to talk to other riders.

So - after the second rest stop - I got a little spunky and started to pick up the pace - a mini breakaway. I wanted to see if I could pretty much sprint the 15 miles to the next stop. So I picked it up and was having fun...a little music in one ear (only one, so I could hear traffic and other riders) kept me moving along. The lovely smell of poultry farms helped me pick up the pace even more - pee-yew ...those birds are smelly...

Jim Russell caught me about 10 miles into my little sprint...he's an amazingly strong rider - he put me to shame - but we rode together for the rest of the 30 miles to the end.

As I was riding, I was thinking about who I could dedicate this event to. I haven't done much of that for the first 13 - but with all the honor patients and honor heroes with TnT - there are so many to honor with these events. At the end of the day - raising awareness for these folks, their families and the challenges they face - and the money for the LLS and their mission is what this is all about. It's not about me. So - going forward I will be dedicating each event to an honor patient or hero.

Today's ride was in honor of Cat Reid's sister, Page Stanton. Cat had a great ride today, battling a nagging tweak (won't call it an injury) in her leg but she's a trooper and powered through. Cat is an amazing person who raised nearly $12,000 while training for Tahoe with us. So - to Cat and her amazing work, and in memory of Page, whom I never met, but knowing Cat - was no doubt an equally amazing and wonderful person - today was for you.

So at the end of the day - or the ride - about 3:45 and change - we packed up and headed out. Great ride, great friends.

Next week - a duathlon of some sort - either a swim and run - or a bike and run...it all depends.

Thank you all. Go TEAM!