Photos from the LIVESTRONG Challenge
Sorry for the belated update on last weekend’s big bike ride!
First, thanks so much for all your donations. We raised $3,390, all of which is going to programmatic activities. This far surpassing my initial goal of $1,000. I can’t wait to see how we do next year! And of course, it’s not too late to donate :).
Now, how did the actual bike ride go? The forecast called for 60′ and a 20% chance of rain and at 7 am as we waited to start things were looking okay. Here’s my buddy Ming at the start line. As you can see we had a great starting position:
In fact Rob was determined to coast behind the police escort and we tried our hardest to chase it down. After failing to catch it and about five miles in, just after we rolled across I-90, (on the expressway which they shut down for us) onto Mercer Island it started to rain. Then it really started to rain as we headed out to Tiger Mountain. Then it started to pour. Not counting on much rain all I was wearing was shorts, a jersey and arm warmers, no rain jacket! Boy did I wish I had brought a rain jacket (actually I need to buy a new one…).
Needless to say it was a cold and wet day. We blow past the first three rest stops afraid we wouldn’t find another fast group of people to ride with. At mile 50 we did pull over for a break but after a few minutes started shivering so we got back on the bikes and kept going almost straight through to Seattle Center.
After 100 miles (95 in the rain), Rob (on the left) and I (on the right sporting my LIVESTRONG jersey) rolled back into Seattle Center around 1:30 (last year we rolled in at 4 so we made much better time!):
Thankfully when we got there Chelsea and Amanda were waiting with a bag full of warm clothes. Real life savers :).
Thanks again for all the support, I’m looking forward to next year!