Bill and Myself
Yesterday I rode in the American Cancer Society – Bicycles Battling Cancer ride from worcester to Boston. It was a one day ride that was a 75 miler. So certainly not the Tour de France by any means but just as important. Interesting to note on the same day Lance and team Radioshack RadioShack donned all-black jerseys Sunday inscribed with the number 28 — to represent the 28 million people living with cancer worldwide. They were forced to remove the jerseys during the race but wore them on the podium for winning this years team classification. I guess I rode my own ride in support of the cancer cause on the same day. Both rides are equally important. Some just have slightly more visibility than the other and I am certainly not doing the same pace as the tour riders.
The ACS ride helped to raise visibility in our surrounding communities about cancer and the lasting effect it has on all of us. This was the first ride of many that I am going to do this year with family and friends to support me. This ride I did with my neighbor(on left in the picture above) and it is truly amazing to see how many people care so deeply about this cause. It starts off as a physical challenge but very quickly becomes much more than that. The ride started in Worcester and moved towards Boston and as we rode towards the city more and more riders on the same roads as us were asking what the ride was for. My response was it is for “Life”. A life free of cancer.
All of us want to live a long life and see our families grow and prosper, but cancer has a way of sometimes taking it away. It doesn’t have to be that way Things can change in a matter of minutes. Once diagnosed your life can change forever. That is how this whole cycling thing got started for me. I had rode bikes as a kid but not that much as an adult. I was diagnosed with GIST(Gastro Intestinal Stromal Tumor) in September of 2006 and shortly after that started cycling as a way to ease back into an excercise program in an attempt to get back to a healthy state and that is where the obsession began.
The ACS ride and other charity events are ways for me to ride but to also give back to the people,doctors, friends,neighbors and family who have helped me survive. I couldn’t do it without them. The Bicycles Battling Cancer ride has grown and this year raised $127,565.00 which I think is fantastic. My family has been impacted immensely by this disease and I determined to do what I can to make sure my children will not be impacted by this disease. The fight starts with you. Maybe you can join this fight too.
If you are interested in riding next year here is a link to the event.
http://community.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=26173&pg=entry
My next ride is the Pan Mass Challenge on August 7th and 8th. I will hopefully post again before then. This cancer and cycling obsession started with my family so in the next post I will talk about my family connection to this cause and the impact cancer has had on it.
