Day of the Tour de Cure

The day finally came. We had some trouble meeting up, people running late, but we all started around 9:30 am. Ana did the 7 mile paved, while the rest of us (Matt, Nicki and I) did the 8 mile off-road trail. Turns out they made us do the yellow trail which is just over 6 miles, but the ride from the registration booth to the trail head is about 2 miles, hence 8 miles.

Nicki and I did much, much better than the first time we tried the yellow trail. Matt, on the other hand, did very well. He led our group, stopping occasionally to let us catch up. I didn't crash at all this time. My new bike is phenomenal. The breaks allowed me to stop or to slowdown, giving me precious extra seconds to make decisions, which in turn kept me on the trail. I did have one mechanical failure. My handle bars, much like Nicki's, got loose from the impact and spun around. I was able to keep going, and when we met up with Matt, I was able to use the multi-tool to tighten them back up.

I'm not sure how long it took us to finish the trail, but we all finished. It was a great ride, even though some of the pro riders passed us up. One of these days we'll be like them and we'll be to ones passing the newbies sooner or later ;) When we finished the race we had a chance to take a team photo. I gave the guy my email address, but he still hasn't emailed me as to where I can get my hands on the photo. We also had some free lunch, which was deliscious. The Tour de Cure folks were also giving away free massages, which were only 8 minutes long, but felt great after the ride.

The financial situation worked out beyond my wildest dreams. All of this time I was worried that I'd end up owing a lot of cash, but everyone on my team was able to meet the $125 minimum, and our total team goal of $500 was exceeded by $15. This is only through the web donations. I'm not sure when they'll have the results from cash and check donations, but as soon as they make those available I will edit this post.

Will we do this again? At first I didn't think I was going to. I didn't feel to happy about those $125 minimums, but it did work out in the end. Also, now that I know what to expect, I can tell my team this upfront. Then they can decide if they want to join. I will defiantly do the event, and I will be the captain again. Hopefully I can raise more cash next time around, knowing what to expect and also knowing how to approach my company about this sort of thing. It all came down to timing. We didn't have much time to get everything prepared as should be. Next time around I think it'll be a much better experience, not that this wasn't, but it felt very chaotic. Links and pics to come as soon as I get them.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

Days away...

Ok so here I am blogging at 11:46 pm in the middle of a work week. The event is this Sunday and I think I'm ready. I've been biking the 4 mile brentwood loop for a while now and tonight I clocked my absolute best time ever. 19:27:40. I know that to some of the pros out there this is something to laugh at, but trust me, for a big guy like me it takes a lot to get a bike moving fast.

This whole past week has been a combination of everything except training. I did the 4 mile loop but there was no official or unofficial meeting of the BBC at any trails system over the past weekend. I thought that I could fit it in, but there was no way that was going to happen. I went to bed Friday night only to wake up with a cold and sore throat Saturday morning at 4 am. This sort of set the tone of the weekend. Saturday clan [DTCT] was supposed to go to a lan party hosted by clan [CARE]. Well, I went sick, and I did ok, but for the most part it wasn't the same. All of the matches that mattered (the ones for money) I ended up getting my ass kicked and my team kept loosing. We managed to win one match, but was only +1 dollar.

The original plan was that I would leave the lan party earlier than normal, get some much needed Zzzzs and go to Brighton to trail. Wrong! LOL. Didn't even happen, not by a long shot. I ended up forgetting that it was my mom's birthday, not to mention that I woke up late. So, I had to scramble to get a gift for her and then make it over to my old house for an early dinner and cake. So, the weekend was absolutely counter productive, but it was a much deserved reset from biking, even though it sucked.

In other news. BBC is officially out of the hole. All of the people on my team, including late started, Matt Shelton, have met the $125 minimum and will be representing at Island Lakes Recreation this weekend. I gotta say that even though I though I was going to be in the hole because of all of the drama, things ended on a positive note. Ana has been collecting money all of this time while I was sweating bullets about approaching her about the money. Instead, if you recall, I was going to secretly earn and collect money so that I could pay her way in, since I gave her my word that all it would only be $20. Anyways, she came up with $125 on her own, so the $100 I made on the wrist bands was no longer needed as leverage towards anyone coming up short. I ended up depositing $80 of it towards my donations, which put me at just over the $200 dollar mark. The reason why I only put in $80 of the $100 is because it cost me $20 to buy the damned things from the ADA.

I was also able to pre-register by meeting up with Meagan Lewis, the coordinator of this event (at keast for the division I'm in, if not all of MI). I was able to submit my money and get my number. I will be sporting the # 31 on the day of.

I was hoping to tie a camcorders to the handlebars of my bike, but I ended up selling my old camcorder a long time ago and I couldn't find anyone willing to let me use theirs, probably because there is a good chance that it'll come back damaged. I've been telling everyone about the amount of times I've been crashing.

Sadly no sponsors came through for us this year, except for all of the generous people I've been mentioning in my blog. I've contacted my own company about being represented by BBC at the event, but I got the run around and when I finally emailed the decision man, he ended up ignoring my email. I'm not one to push this sort of this, but I figured he'd be up for giving us some free Minacs shirts which we would have ironed on some numbers and our names onto. I also tried to contact two sports drink companies. One of them has a specific section on their website which in very kinds words tells you to go away and don't bother emailing them. I won't say which company, but their name begins with the letter "G". I also contacted the other sports drink company, from whom I actually received an email back. I was told to call my local drink bottler, and they gave me the #. I left a VM for whoever scans those messages, no call back. It didn't go beyond that. I guess I could have done more, but this is BBC's first year. I've learned a lot and I know what to expect for next year. I may not captain the team next year, but I told my late comer Matt that if he decided to captain next year I would return the favor and join his team.

I'll probably blog some after the day of the event, and if I'm lucky I'll have some pictures to share as well. I have to try to get a hold of a digi-camera. Shouldn't be too difficult, I suppose I could always buy one :P

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." -Aristotle

Time Running out...

This week the BBC used the Brighton trail system to train. Instead of dealing with Island Lake Recreation Area we decided to hit the free trails. I think the name of the trail is Huron Valley Trail. Anyways, we did a good job and did six miles on it. We would have been able to do more, but we got around to doing this at Noon, on what I would have to call the hottest day of the spring so far. The sun gave us such a beating that when we quit we were pretty much dead for a couple of hours. I look like a lobster now, red sun burn all over.

I've had great luck with donations this week. I'd like to thank Josue Villegas, Maricela Hernandez, Patti Farero, Rodrick Leon, Bob Sochacki, Greg Doreza, Patti MacDonald and Wanda Appleman for their generous contributions towards the ADA. Also a special thanks to my brother Hubert aka [DTCT]Phatslugga who handled approx. $50 dollars in distributing of promotional wrist bands that feature the ADA logo and slogan. Although things appear good on the surface, I'm still in the hole a little bit money wise. Although this is all going towards a good cause their methods are a little questionable. I feel like I owe an explanation... Here goes.

When I signed up for this event I registered via the web page and everything was going dandy. I saw that there was a minimum that we set for our personal goals and at the time I didn't think much of it. I assumed that if you don't reach it, you don't reach it and no biggie. So, with this in mind I go to recruit some teammates. I was able to recruit my good friend Overwatch from Memepunks.com, Ana Rodrigez, a friend from work (Minacs) and Nicole Petrillo, a good friend of mine. I told all of these people that it would be a great way to set a goal and get on the bike so we could ride and enjoy the outside. I told them that its no biggie, the only associated cost was the $20 dollar registration fee, which I thought was a fair charge for processing of all the info and handling the event.

A few weeks go by and I get my packet for the Tour de Cure. I start reading through my cyclist guide 2006 and there is this one section that claims that we are responsible for the minimum if we don't or can't raise it. So, first thing I do is bust out an email to Megan Lewis, who is the Associate Manager. She confirms it, and I'm in shock. At first I thought I just overlooked something due to the excitement and my inexperience in this sort of thing. Well, first person I talk to is Overwatch, who goes line by line and double checks the website - sure enough, nowhere do they say that we would be responsible for the difference. In fact, the verbiage almost suggests that the only thing you would be missing out on is the "free" t-shit. So now I have a problem. I promised all of these folks that its only $20 and we're all gonna have fun. So, since I gave my word, I'm guessing that I'm going to owe like $500 for this whole thing... but Nicki basically kicked all of our asses and I think she achieved her $125 goal withing the first week. Chris decided that he would drop out, eventhough I said I would cover him. He said that he doesn't want to be associated with an organization which has questionable practices. Normaly I would agree with him, but in this case although they're going about this the wrong way, its still going to the needy in the end, so I tried to convince Chris to stay, but I couldn't. Nicki had nothing to worry about, and Ana doesn't even know yet. At this point I'm raising money to cover Ana, and whatever I can't raise I will donate out of pocket. My goal has also been reached. I was able to raise approx. $140. So I am in the clear now too :)

Ok, last week's drama has been solved by more drama. My old bike, the Schwin knock off, Micargi Super M90... as seen here:

Is no longer working. The rear wheel wobbles and the gear cassette is spinning in both directions at will. I think one of the middle gears is bent as well. I've had this bike for two years and it cost me $90 on ebay. Over the two years I've replaced the crank arms in the front two times at $25 per time. Other minor things like flat time and a gel seat probably cost me another $20. All in all, this bike was good, but since its a cheap Chinese knock off it couldn't handle the offraod trails. I am officially demoting this bike to parts or a possible fixer-upper if I happen to find new parts.

The new bike made by Giant, model Warp. Can be seen here:

This bike cost me more than my house payment, but so far it feels great. One of the best things about this bike is that it features front and rear hydraulic disc breaks. I can stop whenever I want. Unlike the Super M90, which had clamp style break, this thing will keep me from crashing all the time. Anyways, thats the plan. I've been accused of "one-upping", and maybe to a certain degree its true, but I need a good bike now that I'm taking this stuff seriously.

This week and weekend we have to push hard one last time and get ready for the event. There is a possibility that we're going to get a 4th rider. Once that happens I'll have an updated roster of the BBC. Good times and happy trails to yall.

"Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a few more upon it." - Albert Schweitzer