Okay, so I know that I’ve been trying to keep on top of the blog this year and I said I would try to post every Sunday. Well, its not every Sunday but at least its only been a few weeks since my last posting. I am getting better. I actually wrote about this to a friend of mine recently, the fact that since middle school I’ve tried at various moments (mostly for my acting classes) to keep a journal of some sort and I’ve usually failed pretty dismally. I would keep it going for about six months or so and then other things in my life would take over and I wouldn’t make time for the writing that needed to be done.
So, the last few weeks have been interesting to say the least. Just last week I reached 2,000 miles commuting again this year. That doesn’t count the extra miles I logged either commuting to my summer job (about 600), the Gold Coast century (which I actually finished this year, read my previous post), or the club rides (however infrequent they’ve been this year – sorry guys), the most recent of which was a bit unsettling.
For the last three years I've started doing this 50 mile ride the day after Thanksgiving with some guys from the bike club. Its the "AA" ride which means its the more experienced guys in the club and we normally average about 18-20 miles an hour. The guys who ride in this group and on this ride have all been riding for years and I'm probably one of the younger and newer guys who does it. This year there were only four us who were able to make it and as we were riding out of Cold Spring Harbor on 25A heading towards Syosset one of the riders (actually the ride leader) had a crash. We were doing about 22 miles an hour (I was pulling in the front along with another rider) and Mel hit something. I heard a "crunch" and then turned my head to see him flipping end over end in the road. Scott, who was following behind Mel, hit him and then landed hard on his elbow. When we got to him I had to disentangle Mel from his bike because he was all tangled up in what was left of his bike and he was moaning softly as he was lying on his side. Fortunately, there was a volunteer fireman just two cars behind us and we were only ¼ mile from the Cold Spring Harbor fire station so the EMTs were there in a manner of minutes and they rushed him to the hospital. The three of us headed back to the start and once I got changed I headed over to the hospital to see Mel. He ended up with only a fractured collar bone but that image of him going end over end is still in my head. I got back on the bike two days later just to “get back on the horse” so to speak but I still find myself getting a bit more nervous than before about riding these days. I stopped by my LBS a few days later and found that Mel had dropped his wheel off. Apparently, he found out that Mel thinks he may have clipped a piece of the brunch I had pointed out and it flipped up into his wheel which would explain why six of the spokes were broken, his steering tube snapped, and why he flipped over. Like the time I got hit by the van, it just makes me more conscious of being aware of everything around me on the road.
Okay, I've given you enough to read for one session. However, one of my biggest "gratefuls" this year (its a tradition that we do every night but really big on T-day when the whole family is together) is for my family – that after the few years we’ve had of healthy scares, they are all healthy and happy. My other gratefuls were for my job, good friends and the Dallas Cowboys winning a football game - hey you can take the boy out of Texas..... Of course, they didn’t do so well last week, but there is always next week – with the Giants!
Stay well and I'll see you on the road!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Back on the Road Again
For those of you who have been reading these blogs you’ll notice that I’ve been far too long silent. In my own defense, all I can say is that I have at various times in my life tried to keep a journal or a diary and I have always failed dismally. The actual process of sitting down and regularly jotting down my thoughts has always eluded me. I’ve always found that there were always other things that distracted me from my goal. Last year’s blogging was for me a very difficult task trying to keep up with at least two a month. Once we reached our goal for the Connor’s Army Commute I lost the impetus to write. I felt as if no one wanted to hear about the day to day. However, the other day I actually ran into someone who asked what was going on since none of my blogs was current. That let me know that at least one person out there was periodically checking up on our website, so I decided that I needed to get back into the habit of keeping you all updated. My goal now is to try to post an update each Sunday just to let you all know what is going on with Connor’s Army, the fight against cancer, and life in general.
First of all THERE WILL BE A SECOND ANNUAL VICTORY RIDE! We are planning to do the same basic route (with a few “safer” modifications) and add a 15-mile loop through Syosset to make the distance a little more challenging for the truly intrepid among us. The Farmer’s Almanac (remember how well it served us last year?) is forecasting “fair and cold” weather for that week – whatever that means. I’m hoping to find sponsors who will once again donate (or sell at a discount) refreshments and supplies for the ride. Once again we’ll ride from St. Phillip’s to Syosset High School where hot drinks and food will be waiting. For those doing the original 25 mile course they will turn around and head on back. For the rest of us, we’ll loop around back to Syosset High School, refuel and then head back to Northport where more hot beverages and food will be waiting for us. We won’t be throwing the same big party that we did last year, we’ll just have some fun music playing and people will come in at their own pace. We may ask people just to check in so we know everyone made it back safely. Our original goal last year was for a hundred riders. Now that we know the realities, we’re hoping just to double our number of riders from last year – so if we can get 20 riders to actually start and finish we’re ahead of the game. Whatever the turnout, this is a ride we’re hoping will grow and continue year after year to be a way we “normal” riders can help put back the money for cancer research that the government is slowly taking away.
On the personal front, my family is doing well, both immediate and extended. My mom has recovered well from the melanoma and she’s showing no signs of it coming back. Tamara is pregnant with her second baby and Angela just celebrated two years of being cancer free. Sarah is thriving in fourth grade and had a great fall as the only girl out of twenty 3rd to 5th graders who attended a baseball skills clinic. It was really cool to see her out there mixing it up with her pink bat, pink batting helmet (with the pony tail cutout) and pink glove – girls rule! The dynamic duo of William and James are in kindergarten (eeks) and they are having a blast – although we do occasionally deal with the “I don’t want to go to school” – just wait until they’re teenagers!
Amy has continued to be involved in local theater productions, becoming a fairly regular swing at the John Engeman Theater at Northport. She is currently starring as Adelaide in Plaza Theatricals production of Guys and Dolls and I will just have to say here she is the best thing in the show (what else would you expect?)! I actually had a turn on stage this summer playing a character named “Teech” in an original play entitled Theatre Games playing – are you ready for this – a high school theater teacher. It was a real stretch I tell you. It was good to get back on stage and “practice what I preach”. It reminded me that I am teaching usable skills to all my young, budding thespians. Of course, one of my most nerve wracking performances was the one when I had twelve of my students in the audience – my only hope was that I wouldn’t black out onstage. It was a lot of work and very stress inducing for my first foray back but I really had a great time when it was all said and done.
On another personal note, I completed my first century! This summer I rode the Huntington Bicycle Club’s Gold Coast Century and I made it all the way through in five hours and forty-five minutes! I tried to hook up with various people but it didn’t work out this year so I just decided to go solo and left out of the parking lot at 7:00 in the morning. I ended hooking up with a triathelete who was a bit older than me but we rode together. We had a few people join us and drop off periodically but it was basically the two of us all the way through. I had actually left my inhaler (for my asthma) at home and at the big rest stop in Roslyn park I was told to wait because someone was bringing it to me. I didn’t realize it had dropped out of my pocket at home, I thought I dropped at the start and someone recognized my name on it and was bringing it from the start. It turned out that it was Amy who was trying to get it to me and she had been “shadowing” me the entire route trying to catch up with me. I actually saw her on the road and the irony is, I didn’t need it the entire ride! I didn’t latch onto the Kreb’s Cycling peloton but I did finish and I averaged 17+ mph! I was a happy man.
On a more somber note, my beloved Cowboys faltered after going 13-3 and I had to live through the ignominy of seeing the Giants win the Super Bowl! And this season looks dire as well. Ah well, there’s always next year.
Stay well and I'll see you on the road!
First of all THERE WILL BE A SECOND ANNUAL VICTORY RIDE! We are planning to do the same basic route (with a few “safer” modifications) and add a 15-mile loop through Syosset to make the distance a little more challenging for the truly intrepid among us. The Farmer’s Almanac (remember how well it served us last year?) is forecasting “fair and cold” weather for that week – whatever that means. I’m hoping to find sponsors who will once again donate (or sell at a discount) refreshments and supplies for the ride. Once again we’ll ride from St. Phillip’s to Syosset High School where hot drinks and food will be waiting. For those doing the original 25 mile course they will turn around and head on back. For the rest of us, we’ll loop around back to Syosset High School, refuel and then head back to Northport where more hot beverages and food will be waiting for us. We won’t be throwing the same big party that we did last year, we’ll just have some fun music playing and people will come in at their own pace. We may ask people just to check in so we know everyone made it back safely. Our original goal last year was for a hundred riders. Now that we know the realities, we’re hoping just to double our number of riders from last year – so if we can get 20 riders to actually start and finish we’re ahead of the game. Whatever the turnout, this is a ride we’re hoping will grow and continue year after year to be a way we “normal” riders can help put back the money for cancer research that the government is slowly taking away.
On the personal front, my family is doing well, both immediate and extended. My mom has recovered well from the melanoma and she’s showing no signs of it coming back. Tamara is pregnant with her second baby and Angela just celebrated two years of being cancer free. Sarah is thriving in fourth grade and had a great fall as the only girl out of twenty 3rd to 5th graders who attended a baseball skills clinic. It was really cool to see her out there mixing it up with her pink bat, pink batting helmet (with the pony tail cutout) and pink glove – girls rule! The dynamic duo of William and James are in kindergarten (eeks) and they are having a blast – although we do occasionally deal with the “I don’t want to go to school” – just wait until they’re teenagers!
Amy has continued to be involved in local theater productions, becoming a fairly regular swing at the John Engeman Theater at Northport. She is currently starring as Adelaide in Plaza Theatricals production of Guys and Dolls and I will just have to say here she is the best thing in the show (what else would you expect?)! I actually had a turn on stage this summer playing a character named “Teech” in an original play entitled Theatre Games playing – are you ready for this – a high school theater teacher. It was a real stretch I tell you. It was good to get back on stage and “practice what I preach”. It reminded me that I am teaching usable skills to all my young, budding thespians. Of course, one of my most nerve wracking performances was the one when I had twelve of my students in the audience – my only hope was that I wouldn’t black out onstage. It was a lot of work and very stress inducing for my first foray back but I really had a great time when it was all said and done.
On another personal note, I completed my first century! This summer I rode the Huntington Bicycle Club’s Gold Coast Century and I made it all the way through in five hours and forty-five minutes! I tried to hook up with various people but it didn’t work out this year so I just decided to go solo and left out of the parking lot at 7:00 in the morning. I ended hooking up with a triathelete who was a bit older than me but we rode together. We had a few people join us and drop off periodically but it was basically the two of us all the way through. I had actually left my inhaler (for my asthma) at home and at the big rest stop in Roslyn park I was told to wait because someone was bringing it to me. I didn’t realize it had dropped out of my pocket at home, I thought I dropped at the start and someone recognized my name on it and was bringing it from the start. It turned out that it was Amy who was trying to get it to me and she had been “shadowing” me the entire route trying to catch up with me. I actually saw her on the road and the irony is, I didn’t need it the entire ride! I didn’t latch onto the Kreb’s Cycling peloton but I did finish and I averaged 17+ mph! I was a happy man.
On a more somber note, my beloved Cowboys faltered after going 13-3 and I had to live through the ignominy of seeing the Giants win the Super Bowl! And this season looks dire as well. Ah well, there’s always next year.
Stay well and I'll see you on the road!
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
The Speech
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So yesterday I wrote about the ride we had and about the gathering. The more I thought about it, the more I thought I should share with you, my cyber-friends what I actually said because even though most of you weren't there with me on the ride, your support has meant so much and I'm hoping that we'll be able to continue the war against cancer on our bikes. Here is what I said to everyone gathered;
"A little more than a year ago when we first started talking about the idea of Connor’s Army I was pretty certain I could do the mileage but I wasn’t certain if we could reach our goal of raising $10,000. Along the way people have asked me why I started this project and the answer has always been simple – I’ve seen my family hit by various forms of cancer four times in a two years period and I needed to do something to fight back. Because of the efforts of organizations like the American Cancer Society and numerous health care professionals all over the country, all of my family members are healthy and I’m so blessed to have two of them here with us today. I wish I personally had the money to give to show my gratitude for all those who’ve helped my family but I don’t. However, I knew I had to do something – I could do this and thanks to a lot of people, Connor’s Army was able to reach both of our main goals. This party is about celebrating reaching those goals and to honor some people who made it possible.
First of all, there are the people who donated to Connor’s Army. From the very beginning people like you gave to our cause and some who gave are people I will never ever meet but who themselves were touched by the hand of cancer and wished to give something to help in the fight. Relatives hosted Silpada parties and other fundraisers through their businesses, friends hosted Pampered Chef parties and generously donated their commissions to our cause – from so many different places, the money came in and it has all added up to the total we’ll be giving today to the American Cancer Society. To all of you I thank you so much for believing I could do this and for helping us fight the good fight.
Secondly, there are those people who provided sponsorship to us. From the very beginning Laura Berman Fortgang (my sister-in-law by the way and someone who has given to us in so many ways) from Now What and Allan Rosenberg from Coinland (the father of one of my students and a cancer survivor himself) provided us with the funds to get our organization started. From the very beginning, they believed in what we were trying to do and their sponsorship allowed us to get started and to get the word out. Their contributions paid for the jerseys that I wore all year, for flyers and brochures to spread the word, and to keeping my bicycle running throughout the year. Without their faith in us, we wouldn’t have been able to get the wheels rolling.
Along with Laura and Allan, we were supported by other sponsors who really made this first victory in the war possible – Rich Margolis and Jeremy Meller of RJM Computer Services who provided us with web space and maintenance to our Connor’s Army website. Gregory Burke at Solid Printwear got us started with printing up the first yellow jerseys for the project. When the weather turned warmer Nelso Quimby at Elso Graphics became the next artisan to provide us with cycling jerseys. He now plans to offer cycling jerseys to other cyclists as a special order service. Dave Louden at Louden’s Minuteman Press has been incredibly helpful in printing up all our flyers and brochures to help get the word out to the public. Howard Feinstein through his Dunkin’ Donuts provided us with refreshments at our turn around point and we thank you for making sure we stayed warm today. But one of our biggest supporters and sponsors have been Chuck and Denise Adams and Darren Muccio at Adams Cycles. They literally kept me rolling all year long and helped in so more ways than I can count – without them there would be many times during the year that I would have just been stranded and not able to put in the mileage I needed to complete this journey.
I thank all of you so very much – you’ve been incredibly supportive and there is no way Connor’s Army could have succeeded without you. I am a large part of who I am today thanks to each of the people I’ve already thanked who helped me every mile of this journey. Those of you who have donated your money and in some cases your time to Connor’s Army.
But I would be completely remiss if I didn’t thank one last group of people without whom this never would have happened and that is my family. My family has been through so much this year – putting up with my obsession, my moods, my bicycle addiction and my manic fear of “we’re never going to reach our goal”. Not only have they been so supportive, Sarah decided she wanted to do something of her own and she started Connor’s Army Junior, raising $1,000 for cancer research on her own.
But the person who this party should really be celebrating is my wife Amy. Without her I never ever would be able to do this and none of us would be celebrating this small success. It was Amy who has always figured out the logistics for making this work and keeping it all together so that all I had to do was drag myself out of bed and get on the bike. It was Amy who worried every day until I called her from school as to whether or not I was hit by a car again,(like what happened two years ago). It was Amy who sent out the press releases , updated the website, kept the contact with ACS, solicited vendors and sponsors, set up the party and so many, many other details over the last year. I can never thank her enough or love her enough for all that she has done – this day really belongs to her.
Thank you for supporting us, listening to me for a bit too long, and now please join me in thanking every single person who made this day possible. Amy and I have already spoken about the need to keep Connor’s Army continuing and we’re hoping that the Victory Ride will become a yearly event with different mileages to raise even more money for cancer research and to provide cyclists with a way of their own to combat cancer using their passion for cycling as the tool. Also, we have planned for Connor’s Army to go on tour in the summer of 2011 as the whole Connor Clan heads out to California and we (that is Sarah and I, with the rest of the family following in a support vehicle) cycle back to Long Island in an attempt to raise an additional $50,000 for cancer research.
And now, if my wife Amy, Sarah and my sisters Winnie and TaMara could join us onstage we'd all like to thank you for giving us such support."
"A little more than a year ago when we first started talking about the idea of Connor’s Army I was pretty certain I could do the mileage but I wasn’t certain if we could reach our goal of raising $10,000. Along the way people have asked me why I started this project and the answer has always been simple – I’ve seen my family hit by various forms of cancer four times in a two years period and I needed to do something to fight back. Because of the efforts of organizations like the American Cancer Society and numerous health care professionals all over the country, all of my family members are healthy and I’m so blessed to have two of them here with us today. I wish I personally had the money to give to show my gratitude for all those who’ve helped my family but I don’t. However, I knew I had to do something – I could do this and thanks to a lot of people, Connor’s Army was able to reach both of our main goals. This party is about celebrating reaching those goals and to honor some people who made it possible.
First of all, there are the people who donated to Connor’s Army. From the very beginning people like you gave to our cause and some who gave are people I will never ever meet but who themselves were touched by the hand of cancer and wished to give something to help in the fight. Relatives hosted Silpada parties and other fundraisers through their businesses, friends hosted Pampered Chef parties and generously donated their commissions to our cause – from so many different places, the money came in and it has all added up to the total we’ll be giving today to the American Cancer Society. To all of you I thank you so much for believing I could do this and for helping us fight the good fight.
Secondly, there are those people who provided sponsorship to us. From the very beginning Laura Berman Fortgang (my sister-in-law by the way and someone who has given to us in so many ways) from Now What and Allan Rosenberg from Coinland (the father of one of my students and a cancer survivor himself) provided us with the funds to get our organization started. From the very beginning, they believed in what we were trying to do and their sponsorship allowed us to get started and to get the word out. Their contributions paid for the jerseys that I wore all year, for flyers and brochures to spread the word, and to keeping my bicycle running throughout the year. Without their faith in us, we wouldn’t have been able to get the wheels rolling.
Along with Laura and Allan, we were supported by other sponsors who really made this first victory in the war possible – Rich Margolis and Jeremy Meller of RJM Computer Services who provided us with web space and maintenance to our Connor’s Army website. Gregory Burke at Solid Printwear got us started with printing up the first yellow jerseys for the project. When the weather turned warmer Nelso Quimby at Elso Graphics became the next artisan to provide us with cycling jerseys. He now plans to offer cycling jerseys to other cyclists as a special order service. Dave Louden at Louden’s Minuteman Press has been incredibly helpful in printing up all our flyers and brochures to help get the word out to the public. Howard Feinstein through his Dunkin’ Donuts provided us with refreshments at our turn around point and we thank you for making sure we stayed warm today. But one of our biggest supporters and sponsors have been Chuck and Denise Adams and Darren Muccio at Adams Cycles. They literally kept me rolling all year long and helped in so more ways than I can count – without them there would be many times during the year that I would have just been stranded and not able to put in the mileage I needed to complete this journey.
I thank all of you so very much – you’ve been incredibly supportive and there is no way Connor’s Army could have succeeded without you. I am a large part of who I am today thanks to each of the people I’ve already thanked who helped me every mile of this journey. Those of you who have donated your money and in some cases your time to Connor’s Army.
But I would be completely remiss if I didn’t thank one last group of people without whom this never would have happened and that is my family. My family has been through so much this year – putting up with my obsession, my moods, my bicycle addiction and my manic fear of “we’re never going to reach our goal”. Not only have they been so supportive, Sarah decided she wanted to do something of her own and she started Connor’s Army Junior, raising $1,000 for cancer research on her own.
But the person who this party should really be celebrating is my wife Amy. Without her I never ever would be able to do this and none of us would be celebrating this small success. It was Amy who has always figured out the logistics for making this work and keeping it all together so that all I had to do was drag myself out of bed and get on the bike. It was Amy who worried every day until I called her from school as to whether or not I was hit by a car again,(like what happened two years ago). It was Amy who sent out the press releases , updated the website, kept the contact with ACS, solicited vendors and sponsors, set up the party and so many, many other details over the last year. I can never thank her enough or love her enough for all that she has done – this day really belongs to her.
Thank you for supporting us, listening to me for a bit too long, and now please join me in thanking every single person who made this day possible. Amy and I have already spoken about the need to keep Connor’s Army continuing and we’re hoping that the Victory Ride will become a yearly event with different mileages to raise even more money for cancer research and to provide cyclists with a way of their own to combat cancer using their passion for cycling as the tool. Also, we have planned for Connor’s Army to go on tour in the summer of 2011 as the whole Connor Clan heads out to California and we (that is Sarah and I, with the rest of the family following in a support vehicle) cycle back to Long Island in an attempt to raise an additional $50,000 for cancer research.
And now, if my wife Amy, Sarah and my sisters Winnie and TaMara could join us onstage we'd all like to thank you for giving us such support."
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
We Are the Champions, My Friends!
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So we should have had some music by Queen playing when we got back from the ride today but in all the other preparations for today’s Victory Ride, the boom box was the last thing we were thinking about.
Today was the day for the First Annual Connor’s Army Victory Ride! After a year of planning, commuting, logging miles and generally driving my poor wife crazy, it came down to today finally being the culmination of all of our hard work. But what is it that Robert Burns said, “the best laid plans of mice and men oft gang agley?” Well, we’ve been watching the weather for about two months (courtesy of Farmer’s Almanac first, then National Weather Service) and up until about two days ago the weather forecast was that yesterday it would be rainy but today would be clear. Well, the weather itself apparently didn’t read the reports because today the dawn came up overcast and the report was for light rain beginning about 10:00 (the start time for our ride) and ending about 1:00 (a little after our estimated end time) with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees.
Due in part I think to the weather forecast and the distance we ended up with 22 people registered for the ride out of the 100 we had originally hoped to attract. We even had two people show up and register on the spot but I think they elected to wait later in the day and do their own 25 mile circuit. Anyway, we still had eight intrepid souls willing to brave the elements – myself, Chuck Gleason, Steve Jimenez, Charles Elioseff, Paul Orzel, Michael Roux, Robert Litzke, and Efrim Sherman. All in all, a stout showing considering it was drizzling as we started out. We were a mixed batch of riders ranging from an A+ rider down to a C+ rider. We just basically stayed together and had a great time riding in the rain. As we started out the temperature wasn’t too bad and I found myself laughing a lot just from the sheer joy of riding and the reason we were doing this.
As we got to Stillwell to start the last two miles to the turnaround point we were deluged by a monsoon rain that caused visibility to go down to about 20 feet – it was rough. And of course, to my own chagrin, it was about 60 seconds after I had just said that it looked like it wasn’t going to rain too badly today. So, between the rain and the fact that the pace had been relatively slow, Chuck and I mashed the gears going up Stillwell. I looked down at one point and saw that I was going 17mph up my daily nemesis! Amazing what a little (okay a lot) cold rain will do for your motivation.
At Syosset High School we had coffee, hot chocolate and donuts courtesy of Howard Feinstein (the parent of one of my students and the owner of a few Dunkin’ Donuts franchises) which was welcome considering the wet deluge we had just endured. We couldn’t stay long, however so we fueled up and headed back – just in time for it to start sleeting! At that point I was warned not to say another word about weather!.jpg)
The ride back was a little higher paced as we all wanted nothing more than to get back and get warm. I myself lost all feeling in my hands about four miles out from the finish and spent the first hour after we stopped shivering no matter how much hot coffee I drank. But I think I found myself being warmed up by two more important things; the fact that we had just raised over $13,000 for Cancer Research, and that two of my sisters and numerous friends who were all cancer survivors were there to welcome us back. These were some of the same faces that had been motivating me to ride for over a year and as all of our friends and family welcomed us back the feeling that we did something that mattered washed over us.
Today was the day for the First Annual Connor’s Army Victory Ride! After a year of planning, commuting, logging miles and generally driving my poor wife crazy, it came down to today finally being the culmination of all of our hard work. But what is it that Robert Burns said, “the best laid plans of mice and men oft gang agley?” Well, we’ve been watching the weather for about two months (courtesy of Farmer’s Almanac first, then National Weather Service) and up until about two days ago the weather forecast was that yesterday it would be rainy but today would be clear. Well, the weather itself apparently didn’t read the reports because today the dawn came up overcast and the report was for light rain beginning about 10:00 (the start time for our ride) and ending about 1:00 (a little after our estimated end time) with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees.
Due in part I think to the weather forecast and the distance we ended up with 22 people registered for the ride out of the 100 we had originally hoped to attract. We even had two people show up and register on the spot but I think they elected to wait later in the day and do their own 25 mile circuit. Anyway, we still had eight intrepid souls willing to brave the elements – myself, Chuck Gleason, Steve Jimenez, Charles Elioseff, Paul Orzel, Michael Roux, Robert Litzke, and Efrim Sherman. All in all, a stout showing considering it was drizzling as we started out. We were a mixed batch of riders ranging from an A+ rider down to a C+ rider. We just basically stayed together and had a great time riding in the rain. As we started out the temperature wasn’t too bad and I found myself laughing a lot just from the sheer joy of riding and the reason we were doing this.
As we got to Stillwell to start the last two miles to the turnaround point we were deluged by a monsoon rain that caused visibility to go down to about 20 feet – it was rough. And of course, to my own chagrin, it was about 60 seconds after I had just said that it looked like it wasn’t going to rain too badly today. So, between the rain and the fact that the pace had been relatively slow, Chuck and I mashed the gears going up Stillwell. I looked down at one point and saw that I was going 17mph up my daily nemesis! Amazing what a little (okay a lot) cold rain will do for your motivation.
At Syosset High School we had coffee, hot chocolate and donuts courtesy of Howard Feinstein (the parent of one of my students and the owner of a few Dunkin’ Donuts franchises) which was welcome considering the wet deluge we had just endured. We couldn’t stay long, however so we fueled up and headed back – just in time for it to start sleeting! At that point I was warned not to say another word about weather!
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The ride back was a little higher paced as we all wanted nothing more than to get back and get warm. I myself lost all feeling in my hands about four miles out from the finish and spent the first hour after we stopped shivering no matter how much hot coffee I drank. But I think I found myself being warmed up by two more important things; the fact that we had just raised over $13,000 for Cancer Research, and that two of my sisters and numerous friends who were all cancer survivors were there to welcome us back. These were some of the same faces that had been motivating me to ride for over a year and as all of our friends and family welcomed us back the feeling that we did something that mattered washed over us.
After my teeth stopped chattering so much, I tried to give a speech to thank everyone for coming, for supporting Connor’s Army over the last year and most importantly to thank my wife .jpg)
for without her this ride would never have happened. However, my thoughts got all jumbled and I had to fight back the tears a number of times because despite having logged over 2200 miles, I felt as if I had done nothing compared to these women and men who had fought and won their battles against this damn disease! I truly feel humble when I compare myself to them – all I had to do was get on my bike, point it in the right direction and keep pedaling. What they have overcome is truly heroic.
It’s for this reason that Connor’s Army will not stop until the war on Cancer is truly won. I won’t be doing the year-long commute/logging of miles (although I’ll still keep riding my bike as much as I can because it’s now who I am), but we are going to continue the “Victory Ride” going each year, adding a longer distance next year and perhaps a kids’ event in the future (maybe in the spring) to the schedule as a way to allow local cyclists a chance to use their passion for cycling to help wage war against this awful killer. Connor’s Army Junior will continue as Sarah has decided to continue her fight and use her bicycle to raise money for various causes. And, perhaps the most important, we are going to spend the next two years gearing up for what we’re calling Connor’s Army XC – our plan to take the whole family on the road in the summer of 2010 as I cycle from San Diego, CA back to Northport, NY. We’ll need sponsors, donations and lots of logistical support but our goal is for me (and Sarah at times) to ride all the way back and raise at least $50,000 for cancer research. So if any of you out there know anyone who might be interested in helping out, tell them to log onto www.Connorsarmy.org and see how they can help with next year’s Victory Ride or with Connor’s Army XC.
Stay well and I'll (still) see you on the road!
.jpg)
for without her this ride would never have happened. However, my thoughts got all jumbled and I had to fight back the tears a number of times because despite having logged over 2200 miles, I felt as if I had done nothing compared to these women and men who had fought and won their battles against this damn disease! I truly feel humble when I compare myself to them – all I had to do was get on my bike, point it in the right direction and keep pedaling. What they have overcome is truly heroic.It’s for this reason that Connor’s Army will not stop until the war on Cancer is truly won. I won’t be doing the year-long commute/logging of miles (although I’ll still keep riding my bike as much as I can because it’s now who I am), but we are going to continue the “Victory Ride” going each year, adding a longer distance next year and perhaps a kids’ event in the future (maybe in the spring) to the schedule as a way to allow local cyclists a chance to use their passion for cycling to help wage war against this awful killer. Connor’s Army Junior will continue as Sarah has decided to continue her fight and use her bicycle to raise money for various causes. And, perhaps the most important, we are going to spend the next two years gearing up for what we’re calling Connor’s Army XC – our plan to take the whole family on the road in the summer of 2010 as I cycle from San Diego, CA back to Northport, NY. We’ll need sponsors, donations and lots of logistical support but our goal is for me (and Sarah at times) to ride all the way back and raise at least $50,000 for cancer research. So if any of you out there know anyone who might be interested in helping out, tell them to log onto www.Connorsarmy.org and see how they can help with next year’s Victory Ride or with Connor’s Army XC.
Stay well and I'll (still) see you on the road!
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