Riding for Research, Cycling for Cancer Care

I have decided to participate as a rider in the Ride to Conquer Cancer this year. I have a variety of reasons for doing this: the cause is worthy, I’m out of shape, I miss riding my bike, etc. In choosing to do this ride I have committed to two important goals:

First, I will finish this ride and make it from Vancouver to Seattle in two days. I have not been on my bike in about a year and am totally out of shape. Furthermore, my bike is also in a state of disrepair. This is starting to sound like a reality TV script already. I have until mid-June to prepare for the ride and I will be blogging updates along the way. This charity event provides online support for the participants by setting up Rider Profile pages, and even incorporating personal blogs there. While some of my posts will appear here as well, I will try to figure out that system to keep most of the cycling activity on that site. Depending on how robust it is, I may have to cross post here just to put up the interesting photos.

Second, I have set a goal of raising $3,200 for cancer research. The proceeds will go to providing care and research funds right here in BC - you can see a more detailed breakdown here. For those of you outside of the province, understand that the money raised here also contributes to the body of research on cancer, which can benefit all of us worldwide. Each of you can help with personal donations, which can be done on my rider profile page, found online here, or a donation form can be printed out and mailed in if that is easier. The deadline for me to meet my fund raising goal of $3,200 is on May 21, 2009. I haven’t done fund raising before so if any of you have tips or advice, I’m interested to hear more.

Thanks in advance for your support.