Twenty four hours ago Team South Jersey crossed the finish line of America's Most Beautiful Bicycle Ride, the Lake Tahoe Century we had trained so hard for. Sixteen weeks of pushing and challenging ourselves had paid off. Each of us rode proudly through the incredible finish gauntlet where we were greeted by hundreds of cheering supporters and participants.
To say this day is one of the most exciting days of my life could well be an understatement. It was a day when each curve in the road brought a new vista more breathtaking than the last. When each hill climbed led to another more challenging and where the camaraderie of eleven very special people was never more evident. It was a day we will all long remember and share with people who I am certain will be lifelong friends.
Lake Tahoe is quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth. Soaring mountains capped in snow surround an incredibly blue body of water. From hundreds of feet above one can look down from the cliffs and count the rocks on the lake bottom. Towering pines stand guard over sheer cliffs. Waterfalls carry the melting snow down from snow capped peaks.
Team South Jersey came prepared for the ride. Despite the thin air more than a mile above our usual habitat, we conquered our misgivings, expanded once again our physical abilities and met our challenge. This was the most difficult ride any of us had ever undertaken.
We rolled out of the start and cruised through the streets of South Lake Tahoe and turned our bicycles northward. Ahead lay our first ascent, the switchbacks leading to Emerald Bay. Through the pines we caught glimpses of the lake to our right as the road began to rise. The first stage of the climb was a long curve that left us wondering where the oxygen was. Passing the less prepared riders we entered the switchbacks, three hairpin turns connected by steeply pitched roadways. To one side a rock slide scarred cliff rose and on the other a sheer drop down to the road we had just covered. The turn arrows were "U" shaped with 5 mph speed warnings. We weren't going much faster! We reached the first summit, 850 feet higher than our start and were rewarded with the view of Emerald Bay glistening in the morning light. A fast descent and then another steep pitch and we were at 6950 elevation. Following a very fast descent we leveled out around 6200 feet. It did not seem like very long when we reached the Truckee River. We paralleled the river for nearly 14 miles, being once again treated to magnificent sights. After a stop for some snacks and then a photo op at the 1960 Winter Olympic site in Squaw Valley we headed back to the lake and several more 'easy' 200-300 foot hills. Time flew as the miles rolled away under our skinny tires. After a great lunch along the north shoreline we headed towards our final test.
Spooner Junction is the intersection of Nevada 28 and US 50, 7100 above the eastern shore. The road leading there starts in aptly named Incline Village and rises for nearly 1100 feet over nine miles. Not steep it remains a daunting ascent for even the most prepared riders. For an hour we turned our pedals nonstop, climbing steadily. Two small flats mislead you into thinking you have reached the top. Hop scotching other riders as we made our way to the summit we were thankfully distracted by magnificent views the length and breadth of that azure pond below us. Surprisingly our training had paid off. It was not easy by any means but when we reached the top we all expressed amazement that we had maintained a better speed than for most climbs. With a dozen miles to go Team South Jersey headed for home. The five mile descent was our reward for our hard work. We rode into a stiff headwind and still our cyclometers reached into the 30mph range. We sped through the Rock Cave Tunnel and though tired rode the last few hills back to South Lake Tahoe. The signs directing us to the finish appeared and with tear moistened eyes we passed under the FINISH banner. Hugs, high-fives and a bucket of ice water over Coach Frank’s head marked the end of our journey.
Thirty two hundred cyclists completed the 2009 AMBBR including more than 2000 members of Team In Training. The purple green and white team jerseys displayed the name of every state in the union and most Canadian provinces. These dedicated athletes raised nearly 7 million dollars to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Each cyclist benefits from knowing that not only have they participated one of the most incredible experiences of a lifetime, but also by knowing that their efforts bring us one step closer to finding a cure for blood related cancers. Each and every one is a hero in the battle against these diseases.
It has been my honor to have ridden with each member of our team. It was an even greater honor to see my name on their shirts as their "Hero". I will forever treasure the honor these wonderful, incredible and dedicated people bestowed on me. They were and will remain my inspiration. Stacie, Anna, Suzanne, Chris, Justine, Jim, Dustin, Joe, Deidre and Laura. I cannot express how proud I am to call you team mates and friends. You have accomplished so much both for yourselves and for many, many people who have heard the words "You have a blood cancer". Thank you for allowing me to be part of your success.
Click to Visit My TNT Fundraising Page
Monday, June 8, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Details
The one detail that was missing throughout our four months of training was a sense of urgency. Yes, we knew what we were up againt, where we were heading, but that was way off in the future. The only urgency most of those days was getting warm. Yes our fundraising demands added tension to the equation, but with our challenge well off in the future we didnt worry too much about logistics.
This morning all that has changed. In just 4 days we will once again rouse ourselves at some predawn hour. We are used to that now. but on that morning we won't be heading to some frost rimed park for training. In 4 days we will be meeting at the airport to begin the final leg of our journey. We are HEADING TO TAHOE!!!!
The preparations are behind us. The fund raising worries are passed. It is time for Team South Jersey to join the 100's of other people who committed to complete one difficult task so that thay might participate in another. We have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and in return we are rewarded with a chance to challenge ourselves in the mountains of California and Nevada.
This morning the details of our journey have a sense of urgency. Bags need to be packed. Weather forecasts need to be checked. All the incidentals of both a long journey and a long difficult bicycle ride need to be checked and double checked. The time has come and we are ready.
With this entry my training blog is complete. Team South Jersey is ready. Next week the epilogue will be a celebration of our accomplishments, the final detail!
This morning all that has changed. In just 4 days we will once again rouse ourselves at some predawn hour. We are used to that now. but on that morning we won't be heading to some frost rimed park for training. In 4 days we will be meeting at the airport to begin the final leg of our journey. We are HEADING TO TAHOE!!!!
The preparations are behind us. The fund raising worries are passed. It is time for Team South Jersey to join the 100's of other people who committed to complete one difficult task so that thay might participate in another. We have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and in return we are rewarded with a chance to challenge ourselves in the mountains of California and Nevada.
This morning the details of our journey have a sense of urgency. Bags need to be packed. Weather forecasts need to be checked. All the incidentals of both a long journey and a long difficult bicycle ride need to be checked and double checked. The time has come and we are ready.
With this entry my training blog is complete. Team South Jersey is ready. Next week the epilogue will be a celebration of our accomplishments, the final detail!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Heroes
Just two weeks from today Team South Jersey will head to our final test. For four months we have worked with unstinting dedication to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. The greatest physical challenge most of us have ever faced.
Two years ago I faced another physical challenge. It didn’t involve a long winding course or towering mountains. My challenge was against a microscopic foe. Sometime ago my bone marrow mutated. The cells which produce lymphocytes, white blood cells, broke down. After a four year wait my oncologist chose to challenge these cells with five months of chemotherapy. We won, for now. Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is incurable.
There have been times during my training when the sheer enjoyment of riding my bicycle made me forgetful. I forgot the real reason my teammates and I undertook this challenge. I forgot that this trip, and the training we received to prepare us for it, were our reward for a far more important challenge we faced. The challenge to help the Leukemia Lymphoma Society with their never ending fight against Blood Cancer. We are helping to provide the funds that support the LLS and thier efforts to ease the suffering of the the nearly 900,000 Americans living with these diseases, and the scientific efforts to help cure them. I won't forget again!
When I head out on the course two weeks from Sunday I will have three small photos clipped to my bicycle. One will be a photo of my kids. These three awesome young people will serve to remind me of endurance, for they have endured with me for the last 6 years, supporting me while quietly worrying about my leukemia. They have been my strength so many times and I will call on them once more to support me. One will be a photo of my friend Geddy’s sister, Patti. Patti is in the middle of a difficult battle with breast cancer. When those climbs loom ahead I will think of the hills she faces, with a smile and unwavering determination to beat her cancer. The last one will be the photo of a stunning 5 year old girl who I have never met. Nor will I ever have a chance. News came through an online community of which I am a member, that sadly, her battle with blood cancer had ended. Despite the tremendous gains made in the past 50 years not all of those afflicted win their battles.
Yes we are about to embark on the ride of a lifetime. For the many thousands with blood cancer, their ride is one For Life and the battle to keep that life for one more day!
Two years ago I faced another physical challenge. It didn’t involve a long winding course or towering mountains. My challenge was against a microscopic foe. Sometime ago my bone marrow mutated. The cells which produce lymphocytes, white blood cells, broke down. After a four year wait my oncologist chose to challenge these cells with five months of chemotherapy. We won, for now. Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia is incurable.
There have been times during my training when the sheer enjoyment of riding my bicycle made me forgetful. I forgot the real reason my teammates and I undertook this challenge. I forgot that this trip, and the training we received to prepare us for it, were our reward for a far more important challenge we faced. The challenge to help the Leukemia Lymphoma Society with their never ending fight against Blood Cancer. We are helping to provide the funds that support the LLS and thier efforts to ease the suffering of the the nearly 900,000 Americans living with these diseases, and the scientific efforts to help cure them. I won't forget again!
When I head out on the course two weeks from Sunday I will have three small photos clipped to my bicycle. One will be a photo of my kids. These three awesome young people will serve to remind me of endurance, for they have endured with me for the last 6 years, supporting me while quietly worrying about my leukemia. They have been my strength so many times and I will call on them once more to support me. One will be a photo of my friend Geddy’s sister, Patti. Patti is in the middle of a difficult battle with breast cancer. When those climbs loom ahead I will think of the hills she faces, with a smile and unwavering determination to beat her cancer. The last one will be the photo of a stunning 5 year old girl who I have never met. Nor will I ever have a chance. News came through an online community of which I am a member, that sadly, her battle with blood cancer had ended. Despite the tremendous gains made in the past 50 years not all of those afflicted win their battles.
Yes we are about to embark on the ride of a lifetime. For the many thousands with blood cancer, their ride is one For Life and the battle to keep that life for one more day!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Training Complete
As we have for nearly four months Team South Jersey once again strapped our bikes into carriers and headed to training. Today was different. Today we were heading to our last serious ride. Only one more ride remains after this before we send our bikes out to await us in Lake Tahoe where we will join thousands of others for America’s Most Beautiful Bike Ride. Today we were joining our colleagues from Team North Jersey for our final training ride.
The course was laid out with four major ascents of varying grades and elevations and countless smaller ones over 85 miles through some of New Jersey’s picturesque areas. Trout streams, canopied byways, hilltop mansions and long vistas greeted us as we rode up and over nearly 4600 feet of total elevation. Rest stops were at quaint country stores in small quiet villages. It was hard to believe we were only 45 miles from Times Square!
It was a long day, for most of the team the longest ever in both miles and time in the saddle. We faced steep inclines, long ascents and sharp technical descents all of which combined to test out ability and conditioning and, although lacking the altitude of the Sierras, provided a good model against which to measure our preparedness. Even our hosts, who train in and around these hills regularly, noted that this was a tough course. It was a test and we passed! We passed with flying colors! We all rode the course, we never flagged or dismounted. We proved to ourselves and our hosts that Team South Jersey is ready!
Nineteen days remain. Nineteen days of recovery, maintenance and packing. Tune ups for our bikes and bodies. We will ride together next weekend but our training is complete. From here on out Team South Jersey is simply keeping in tune.
Tahoe, Here We Come!
The course was laid out with four major ascents of varying grades and elevations and countless smaller ones over 85 miles through some of New Jersey’s picturesque areas. Trout streams, canopied byways, hilltop mansions and long vistas greeted us as we rode up and over nearly 4600 feet of total elevation. Rest stops were at quaint country stores in small quiet villages. It was hard to believe we were only 45 miles from Times Square!
It was a long day, for most of the team the longest ever in both miles and time in the saddle. We faced steep inclines, long ascents and sharp technical descents all of which combined to test out ability and conditioning and, although lacking the altitude of the Sierras, provided a good model against which to measure our preparedness. Even our hosts, who train in and around these hills regularly, noted that this was a tough course. It was a test and we passed! We passed with flying colors! We all rode the course, we never flagged or dismounted. We proved to ourselves and our hosts that Team South Jersey is ready!
Nineteen days remain. Nineteen days of recovery, maintenance and packing. Tune ups for our bikes and bodies. We will ride together next weekend but our training is complete. From here on out Team South Jersey is simply keeping in tune.
Tahoe, Here We Come!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Only A Few Weeks
It seems like only a few weeks ago that I wrote my first Team In Training blog. It really is hard to imagine that nearly 4 months and countless pedal cranks have passed since that first meeting in January. My cyclometer says I have ridden more than 1300 miles in preparation for the challenge that lies just 25 days ahead. By the end of next week our bikes will be readied for shipment to Nevada. By the end of next week we will be able to look up the long range forecast for Lake Tahoe on ride day. It’s almost here!
More amazing, but somehow not surprising is the preparation level of my teammates. This past Saturday many of Team South Jersey set new personal distance bests. A gorgeous day tarnished only by a steady wind we rode more than seventy miles. We rode in tight crisp pacelines with confidence and cooperation. Every single member of our team has improved to remarkable levels.
This weekend we will ride with Team North Jersey. This weekend we will be able to compare fitness, ability and technique. This will be our first test, a chance to see how we stack up with another group. While this is not a competition it’s hard not to want to compare. I have no doubt that each member of our team is equal to the task we face and will ride proudly this weekend.
It seems like only a few weeks, but in just a few more we will be heading off for the ride of a lifetime!
This weekend we will ride with Team North Jersey. This weekend we will be able to compare fitness, ability and technique. This will be our first test, a chance to see how we stack up with another group. While this is not a competition it’s hard not to want to compare. I have no doubt that each member of our team is equal to the task we face and will ride proudly this weekend.
It seems like only a few weeks, but in just a few more we will be heading off for the ride of a lifetime!
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Climbing Walls
The wet weather had everyone in the east trapped this past weekend. Housebound kids whose little league games were rained out drove parents who had looked forward to the weekend “up a wall”. Even the hardy members of Team South Jersey climbed the wall. No we didn’t miss our training. Our intrepid band not only ventured forth despite the drear, but crossed into nearby Philadelphia and pedaled toward the fabled Manayunk Wall.
Manayunk is a small neighborhood on the shore of the Schuylkill River. Nestled on the side of a cliff its narrow streets climb the wall with double digit grades. For the last twenty-five years it has been the scene of the Philadelphia International and we were riding in the tracks of some of the greatest names of the sport. Eric Heiden, George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong are just a few of those who have ground, grunted and spun up these streets and gone on to win their race.
We had already ridden nearly 20 miles. We had traversed the blight of Camden, and with the strains of “Rocky” in our heads passed the famous steps of the Art Museum and the boathouses along Kelly Drive. We had done a few repeats on Lemon Hill and were ready for the most difficult kilometer yet. We rode along Main Street and avoiding the traffic on Levering & Lyceum we turned up Green Lane. This was indeed the most difficult climb we have faced as a team. I will admit thinking about breaking it off. Instead I gritted my teeth and just ground out the last 100 yards or so. Frank waited at the top and encouraged each of us as we crested that last block. Turning around we coasted down, cheering on teammates still grinding up the 17% slope. We did it! We had climbed the Manayunk Wall!
On Sunday the weather was even worse. The weather man promised a dry morning with increasing rain in the afternoon. He lied to us and the other 30,000 people who cycled into lower Manhattan for the Five Boro Bike Tour. The tour, an annual event, was to be training for riding in crowds. Unfortunately the lack of planning by the organizers, a crowd of inexperienced riders, a rash of flat tires and a steady rain made for a less than pleasant experience. Yours truly was unable to finish. Even two years after chemo my digestive system can be delicate and easily upset. The rest of Team South Jersey can be proud, that despite terrible conditions that drove us “Up the Wall”, the Five Boro Tour is just one more item on the list of accomplishments for this dedicated group of people!
Four weeks to go! Tahoe here we come!
Manayunk is a small neighborhood on the shore of the Schuylkill River. Nestled on the side of a cliff its narrow streets climb the wall with double digit grades. For the last twenty-five years it has been the scene of the Philadelphia International and we were riding in the tracks of some of the greatest names of the sport. Eric Heiden, George Hincapie and Lance Armstrong are just a few of those who have ground, grunted and spun up these streets and gone on to win their race.
We had already ridden nearly 20 miles. We had traversed the blight of Camden, and with the strains of “Rocky” in our heads passed the famous steps of the Art Museum and the boathouses along Kelly Drive. We had done a few repeats on Lemon Hill and were ready for the most difficult kilometer yet. We rode along Main Street and avoiding the traffic on Levering & Lyceum we turned up Green Lane. This was indeed the most difficult climb we have faced as a team. I will admit thinking about breaking it off. Instead I gritted my teeth and just ground out the last 100 yards or so. Frank waited at the top and encouraged each of us as we crested that last block. Turning around we coasted down, cheering on teammates still grinding up the 17% slope. We did it! We had climbed the Manayunk Wall!
On Sunday the weather was even worse. The weather man promised a dry morning with increasing rain in the afternoon. He lied to us and the other 30,000 people who cycled into lower Manhattan for the Five Boro Bike Tour. The tour, an annual event, was to be training for riding in crowds. Unfortunately the lack of planning by the organizers, a crowd of inexperienced riders, a rash of flat tires and a steady rain made for a less than pleasant experience. Yours truly was unable to finish. Even two years after chemo my digestive system can be delicate and easily upset. The rest of Team South Jersey can be proud, that despite terrible conditions that drove us “Up the Wall”, the Five Boro Tour is just one more item on the list of accomplishments for this dedicated group of people!
Four weeks to go! Tahoe here we come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
