So here I am again back at work and once again on an airplane. Seems to be where I spend a lot of time these days. Heading to Omaha, which seems to be a place that you can’t get to from Boston directly. So it is multiple connections to get there and back. So remember how I talked about having balance between work, family, health and oh yes, cycling. Well this month I don’t think it will be possible to accomplish any of that. There just aren’t enough days in the month of August to get everything done. Most of it is my own doing so I appreciate my wife and kids for being very patient with me.
The good news is that my cycling training seems to be peaking so it is just in time for the majority of my rides. The bad news is that I am traveling during the week in airplanes so it makes it very difficult to get any miles on the bike in. Even so I am going to hit the gym at the hotel and try to get a few miles in before this weekend.
This weekend is the Livestrong Challenge in Philadelphia. This will be my first time doing this event and it is a 100 mile course with a climbing elevation of 4,337 ft. not too bad. I have been a big supporter of all the great things that the Livestrong foundation is doing. When it comes to advancing cancer research and I feel like this is another way for me to give back more.
This ride I will dedicate to my 2nd Mother, Pam, she is just recovering from urotheial carcinoma of the upper tract and had to have her kidney removed. She is strong and will recover just fine from this bump in the road. She is someone who has helped me a great deal when I was recovering from my multiple surgeries. I guess we are in the same rare club now – being cancer survivors. We both have very rare forms of cancer. It’s not a club that you really want to join, but once you are in it opens your eyes to a bigger purpose for your life. You start to see all of the people around you that are fighting just like you to beat this thing called cancer. Here is a picture from last weeks PMC ride of others who are survivors and Living Proof that we are making steps in the right direction for a cure. The group keeps getting bigger and bigger so it is proff that the research is working.
Our family has beat this thing a couple of times now and we plan on remaining cancer free. So if I can do this small piece to help move the research along then I think it is the least I can do. Next year depending on how it goes I may be asking some of you to join me on a team to complete this ride again.
If you have an interest in finding out more about the Livestrong Challenge click on the link below.
The great thing about this ride is that I get to finish the ride on Sunday and then travel back on Monday to Boston to see my friends at Dana-Farber and have my quarterly CT scans to ensure that the cancer hasn’t come back. I remain completely positive and believe that my scans will once again come back with (NED) No evidence of disease. That always brings a great deal of relief when those results come back.
All the more reason to get back on the bike and help others that may not get that fortunate news.
