Day 7 Theme: Cancer Sucks

Day 7 Distance: 38 miles

Day 7 Van: #2

Day 7 Cast of Characters (From L to R): Randy, Brian, Jen, Eric, your humble blogger and Lee. Not pictured: Sasha.

Today, I rode for the notion that cancer sucks. My thoughts today were with my friends, co-workers and people I've met who dealt with all of the issues that having cancer forced upon them. It truly SUCKS!! (#cancersucks). And then just before our ride started, one of my friends responded to my post on Facebook that cancer sucks and asked if I could ride for the child of a friend of hers who lost his battle with cancer earlier this week. So I did. Another name added to my roster. CANCER SUCKS!!!

As for the ride itself, it was 38 miles as we traveled to Key Largo. A nice and easy ride with the fine crew pictured above. 

Tomorrow, the journey ends in Key West. I will talk to you from there! :)

Gary

(G-Love)

 

Day 6 Theme: An Easy Day

Day 6 Distance: 35 miles

Day 6 Van: #2

Day 6 Cast of Characters (from L to R): Jen, your humble blogger, Theresa, Jim and Julie. Not pictured, Meg & Dan.

Today was a an easy day. A day to spin easily down the Florida A1A highway. A day to converse easily with my teammates. A day to laugh easily during lunch at a ocenfront cafe.  It was a nice way to recover from yesterday's 100 mile ride.  The only adventure we had was another flat tire from Jim. But he quickly took care of that and we were on our way again.

Today I rode for two young men who lost their lives to cancer way too soon:

This young man is Henry Burneson. He was diagnosed with leukemia in January 2015. We had the pleasure of meeting him and his parents for breakfast this past April. Unfortunately, Henry lost his battle in October 2015. To honor Henry's memory, his father Eric is a member of this year's Key-To-Keys team. In fact, I have had the pleasure of riding with Eric several times including the 100 mile day. We credited Henry with providing a tailwind to boost us along the last 30 miles of the century ride. May God bless and cradle Henry in his loving arms.

This young man is Will Kelley with his mother, Joan. Will was diagnosed with leukemia in June of 2009. Though he fought hard for almost a year, he lost his battle on May 21, 2010. God bless you Will and your family.

People ask me all they time, Why? Why do you do this? I do this in the hopes that one day, parents won't have to experience what Henry's parents and Will parents went through. No parent should EVER have to bury a child. If me riding my bike or running a pool to raise money will help find a cure for cancer so this scene will never take place in another household, then I'm ALL IN!

Tomorrow finds us riding to Key Largo. We can see the finish line!

Gary

(G-Love)

Day 5 Theme: Dig Deep

Day 5 Distance: 100 miles

Day 5 Van: #3

Day 5 Cast of Characters (from L to R): Jim, Theresa, Eric and your humble blogger. Not pictured: Olivia & Sasha

Today was the day to (as Brian Satola said) dig deep. It's exactly 100 miles form Jacksoville to Daytona. Nobody was forced to ride all 100 if they didn't want to. But we were challenged dig deep and try to discern why we are on this trip. Tuesday night at dinner, Jim, Theresa and Eric had already decided they were going to ride together and they were looking for a fourth person to complete the team. They turned to me and asked if I would ride with them. I told them honestly, I'm not as fast as the three of you. They responded we'll work as a team and we'll complete the 100 together. After some quick reflection, I agreed. So we were the third team to leave about starting point. We quickly found our groove and were flying down the road. In fact, we worked so well together that our ride time was 5:38 and total time was 6:03, which are personal bests for me! To Theresa, Jim and Eric: thank you for a fantastic day and a great ride. Cheers! :)

Today, I dedicated my ride to this woman:

This is JulieAnn Villa. She is a running coach and a former cycle coach of mine. How cool of a coach cycle coach was she? In Lake Tahoe for America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride, I was going up a difficult hill with JulieAnn behind me. To take my mind off the task at hand and she being a brainiac, she calculated the square root of my bib number which made me laugh and got me through the climb of that hill. She is the nicest and kindest person you'd want to meet.

In 2010, she was diagnosed with colon cancer. A couple of years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer in her jaw. The most recent scan of her colon showed no traces of the cancer and since she has seupassed the 5 year mark with clear scans ,her colon is considered cancer free. As she recently posted on Facebook, 

"One set of body parts down, one set to go". She has handled all off the procedures, surgeries, and chemotherapy with an amazing grace and dignity.  Keep on keepin' on JulieAnn! You are kicking cancer in its arse! :)

Tomorrow we head to West Palm Beach. I will talk to you then.

Gary

(G-Love)

Day 4 Theme: The Mission

Day 4 Dstance: 28 miles

Day 4 Van: #4

Day 4 Cast of Characters: (from L to R) Maeve, Julian, Patti A, Jennifer T, your humble blogger and Dan.

Today was a relatively short riding day as we arrived in Jacksonville, FL. It was our first warm weather ride of the trip and my first warm weather ride of the year. The temperature was in the mid to upper 70's. And it was AWESOME! We also performed our good deed of the day. While riding, we came in contact with this little guy:

He was trying to cross the road but had only made it to the shoulder. After this picture was taken, Patti carried him across the the road to the other side where he safely continued his journey.

The reason our ride day was so short is because in the morning, we visited the Nancy N and J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion in Savannah, GA. We delivered chemo care bags to patients receiving treatment. One of those patients was a woman name Maureen whom I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with. She was one year out from having breast cancer surgery and was at the center to have her scheduled scan. She told me all of her scans since the surgery have come back fine and she is really upbeat about what the future holds. I told her I was dedicating my ride today to her and she was overjoyed at hearing this. All of the patients we visited with expressed their appreciation of the bags they received and that we took the time to talk to them. It was a really uplifting day!

Our team picture challenge for today was to take a picture that embodies the mission and/or values of the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults (UCF). We decided on this picture:

The words written on our hands espouse the four values of UCF: Be Human, Be Better, Be Courageous and Be Committed. Needless to say, we won today's picture challenge! WOOHOO!

Halfway through our journey, we ride to Daytona Beach tomorrow. 

Talk to you soon!

Gary (G-Love) :)

Day 3 Theme: Fire Detour

Day 3 Distance: 74 miles

Day 3 Van: #5

Day 3 Cast of Characters: (from L to R) Theresa, Bob, your humble blogger (Salt), Dan, Nicole, Eric and Teresa (Peppa).

Day three found us riding in Francis Marion National Forest.  As we were riding through the trees and nature, we came upon a road block. The forest ranger said we could go no further because they were doing a controlled burn. So we had to turn around and go back the way we came. We found a detour and were riding once again when we came upon another controlled burn that was not road blocked. We saw the flames and rode through dense smoke as we passed. Never had done anything like that before! Because of this, our mileage jumped from a planned 50 to 74 actually traveled. Warm southern weather helped us power through our ride. Great day everyone!

Today I dedicated my ride to this man:

This is Steve Bindi. He was one of my cycling coaches with Team In Training. He was a nice man and generous to a fault. When we would go to the Apple Cider Century in Michigan, Steve would often give up his ride to provide SAG support to us riders. He'd park at a designated spot on the course and have water, snacks and provide basic mechanical service if necessary.

Two years ago, Steve was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He endured what seemed like an endless regimen of chemo treatment after chemo treatment. Steve handled it with a grace and dignity which was amazing. I sat with him on a few of the chemo sessions and I was inspired by his upbeat attitude and confidence he was going to beat this. Unfortunately, Steve lost his battle to cancer a couple of weeks ago. At today's dedication circle, I told everyone about Steve and the way he handled his diagnosis reminded me of Stuart Scott, the late ESPN anchor. While he was going through his battle, he made a speech at that year's ESPY award ceremony in which he said the following:

“You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live.”

By that token, Steve beat the crap out of cancer! Rest in peace my friend.

Tomorrow, we travel to Jacksonville, FL. We'll also visit a couple of cancer care centers to deliver chemo care bags to the patients there. 

Talk to you tomorrow!

Gary (G-Love)

Day 2 Theme: Stuff happens!

Day 2 Distance: 35 miles

Day 2 Van: #4

Day 2 Cast of Characters: (from L to R) Sasha, Patti A., Yvonne, Jim, Kimberly, your humble blogger (Salt) and Theresa (Peppa, out of the frame on the right).

Yes stuff happened today. Both Jim (on the way out) and Yvonne (on the way back) got attacked by the same dog. One of the hazards of riding rural country roads in North Carolina! Otherwise, it was a good riding day. We actually sat in on a Baptist church service in the hopes of getting a picture with the pastor and congregation as part of the community service challenge given to us this morning. But we didn't want to interrupt the service. So we listened for a few moments, received the word of God and then rolled on. We then found a group of model dirt car racers at their track who agreed to take a picture with us. Here it is:

They were very nice and friendly to us. And we won today's challenge. WOOHOO!

I dedicated today's ride to my neighbor and (most importantly) friend Joan Steiner. This is her picture:

This photo says it all. Last May, Joan underwent surgery to remove a tumor from her throat. She then endured 35 radiation treatments to eradicate the rest of the tumor. It was pure hell for her. But through it all, she still got up every morning and walked with me either around the Lake Arlington path where we live or walked on the treadmill next to me while I ran. She is currently in remission and is doing great. I consider her a hero. Congratulations my friend! Cheers to you! :)

Tomorrow, it's day 3 of the 2016 Key To Keys adventure which will take us to Charleston, SC. Getting closer to Key West!

Take care,

Gary (G-Love) :)

Day 1 Theme: Earth, Wind & Fire...And Snow...And Hail...And Rain...And Sun!

Day 1 Distance: 52 miles

Day 1 Van: #4

Day 1 Cast of Characters: Theresa, Jen, Eric, Nicole, Dawn and your humble blogger.

Yup! The title says it all. We had cold. The high temperature for today was forecast at 42 degrees. The weather forecasters were spot on with that one! We had wind. 50 MPH crosswind gusts. It almost blew us off our bikes several times. At one point, it seemed we were riding sideways because it was blowing so hard. We had rain. Sometimes mild, sometimes hard. Always wet! :) We had hail. I hate it precipation hurts when it hits your skin. We had sun. It was off and on for most of the day. Towards the end of the ride, it stayed out consistently. And we had fire! Theresa spotted it off in the distance. Some local was burning tires. Of course me being the focused cyclist I am, when Theresa pointed it out, I missed it. Oh well. The story of my life! :)

And yet despite all of that, we still finished strong. There were a few times when I considered flagging down the support van and calling it a day early. Hands numb from the cold, legs cramping up and getting very tired. But then I thought about people I know and who my friends know who are going through greuling chemo treatments fighting cancer. And that made my decision very easy: KEEP PEDELING! And I did and it feels AWESOME!! We had a great team today! Thanks for the support! :)

Tomorrow, it's off to Wilmington, NC, also known as the town where Michael Jordan grew up. 

See Ya!

G-Love