Tonight's Happy Hour 4 a Cure

The Happy Hour 4 a Cure is finally here! Tonight, starting at 5:30pm at the Square Room downtown, some of Knoxville's best music will be performed before and after Sundown in the City. Of particular note, the Dirty Guv'nahs, our main event for tonight, will take the stage at 9:30pm, immediately following Sundown. Once again, $10 gets you a wristband, allowing access in and out of the Square Room all night long and all proceeds benefit our ride team and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

5:30-7:00pm Taylor Corum and Happy Hour
7:00-9:00pm Sundown in the City with Big Head Todd & The Monsters
9:30pm The Dirty Guv'nahs

A special note of congratulations to the Guv'nahs for being voted #1 band in Knoxville in today's Metro Pulse. Their show at the Square Room tonight will be their first time at the venue, voted as runner-up in the Metro Pulse as the best Concert Venue in town. However, the restaurant at the Square Room, Cafe 4, was voted Best New Restaurant in Knoxville!

Thanks to the Square Room, the Dirty Guv'nahs, Taylor Corum, WBIR - Channel 10, the Knoxville News Sentinel, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell and Berkowitz, PC, Sigma Nu, and Shafer & Huguley Marketing Communications. All of these organizations have played an integral part in making today's event possible.

Happy Hour 4 a Cure - This Week - Thursday

It is here! This Thursday is the event that we have been talking about for several weeks now, the Happy Hour 4 a Cure. The event, scheduled for The Square Room in the Market Square area of Downtown Knoxville, will feature several local musical artists in conjunction with Knoxville's Sundown in the City.

The schedule for the evening is below and $10 will buy you a wristband for admission in and out the Square Room, to and from Sundown, all night long! Enjoy Taylor Corum and our Happy Hour prior to Sundown, head out to the square for Big Head Todd, and then come back in to see Knoxville's #1 local band, The Dirty Guv'nahs!

5:30-7:00pm Taylor Corum (acoustic) and Happy Hour
7:00-9:30pm Sundown in the City with Big Head Todd
9:30pm The Main Event - The Dirty Guv'nahs

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS. Tickets will also be available at the door and all proceeds will benefit our ride team and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation!

Training Progresses - Big Night in One Week

On Tuesday afternoon, we had a great weekday ride up and down Knoxville's Greenway through Bearden, Tyson Park, the UT Ag. Campus, and then continued all the way to the South Knoxville bridge. The weather was beautiful, the bikes were fast, but the greatest thing of all was the fact that my blood sugar stayed between 95-112 during the entire ride.

Typically, it is common practice to have a hard time keeping blood sugars in that range during high intensity exercise, however, with the help of my "Diabetes Coach," Bob Hanisch, we have finally found a formula that seems to be working. Cutting back on the amount of insulin that I take for about an hour before the ride, eating at least 50 grams of carbs during the ride every 15-25 minutes, and testing often...hopefully this formula will help keep my blood sugar in normal range for many rides to come. I can say one thing, normal blood sugar during rides sure does make the ride easier!

The picture above is of our headliner (the Dirty Guv'nahs) for next week's Happy Hour 4 a Cure! Tickets are still available online for $10 and will also be $10 at the door that night. Please, join us! Tell your friends and lets pack the house at The Square Room next Thursday night.

We Made It!

Seventy days from today, Jessica and I will be riding 105 miles in Sonoma, CA. Sonoma is a great place but we may be cursing their hills on that day, June 27th. On that day, however, it will be beautiful because we will be riding for a cure. We will be riding to raise funds for research to help us find a cure for diabetes and its complications.

The only way that this event is possible is through the generous support of our friends and family. Today, 70 days prior to our ride, we are proud to announce that we have met our goal of $6,000! In fact, we have surpassed that goal and we will continue the fundraising all the way through our ride in June. Join us on April 30th for the Happy Hour 4 a Cure as we raise additional funds to help find a cure and celebrate this great achievement! In the 63 days since we first registered for this ride we have learned about the kind hearts and generosity of every person, every business, and every organization involved in this grand journey. We will find a cure and it is in large part due to your generosity...thank you!

Best of the Best

Now that Jessica and I have been training for this bike ride for over two months, we are to the point where we are doing long rides that are high risk and high reward. Finishing our 32 mile ride this past Sunday (Easter) felt great but was certainly met with our fair share of interesting occurrences.

Until last week (Sunday, March 5th) we had not yet had any real snafus as it relates to our training. Jessica did fall in Kingston Pike, which could have been real bad, but she was a trooper and got up, dusted her shoulders off, and kept on burning up the pavement. The snafu on 4/5 came when the backpack that I was carrying for our 25 mile ride that day suddenly drenched my back. My fears were confirmed when I stopped, opened up the bag, and found two inches of Gatorade saturating a silver, perfectly functioning Blackberry. This wasn't my first encounter with moisture and cell phones but the crazy thing was that as I stuck my hand into the puddle of lemon-lime electrolytes I realized that although dead, the blackberry was seizing, or vibrating, as it may have been. I took the battery out, dumped the Gatorade out, and kept pedaling...no time to sweat the small stuff!

This Sunday, however, we encountered "Lover's Lane," the Little River Railroad Museum, and even a snake being attacked by vultures on our scenic tour of Townsend, TN. We were also able to enjoy two swinging bridges and also encountered nice tourists from south Alabama. Ahh, the great American vacationers of the Great Smokey Mountains!

Our rides are getting longer just in time for the warmer temperatures of spring in the south. However, Jessica and I both are continuing to build up our endurance, find our cadence with our bikes, and learn what it means to stay hydrated and full of plenty of carbs during each and every outing. We're learning more about the sport of cycling everyday.

One Final Note: We are proud to announce that we have already sold 57 tickets to our Happy Hour 4 a Cure event. Today we secured Taylor Corum as our acoustic performer to start the evening and the Dirty Guv'nahs are looking forward to their first show in Knoxville since their big CD release party at the Bijou downtown last week. Buy your tickets today!

Training - Riding to Cure Diabetes

Happy Hour 4 a Cure - Special Guest Announced

We are proud to announce that The Dirty Guv'nahs, fresh off their CD release show last night at the Bijou will join us on Thursday, April 30th as the headliner for our Happy Hour 4 a Cure!

The Guv'nahs were voted the #1 band in Knoxville by the Metro Pulse last year. In addition, they are preparing for one of their biggest shows ever at Bonaroo this summer. We look forward to hosting the Guv'nahs at the Square Room on April 30th and we hope to see a big turnout for a fun night, all for a great cause. Proceeds from the evening will benefit our ride team.

The evening will start at 5:30pm and go late into the night with a variety 0f musical acts in conjunction with Knoxville's Sundown in the City. Tickets are only $10 and that will buy you a wristband, allowing access in and out of the Square Room, to and from the Sundown mainstage, all night. The lineup for the whole evening is below. Buy a ticket, tell a friend, and join us on April 30th to raise money to find a cure for diabetes its complications!

• 5:30-7:00pm - Acoustic Performance by Taylor Corum and Happy Hour
• 7:00-9:30pm - Sundown in the City - Big Head Todd & The Monsters w/ Joan Jones
• 9:30pm - Until - The Dirty Guv'nahs

New Diabetes Technology

Several years ago, the first "Continuous Glucose Monitoring System" was released. This product, although not very accurate and honestly not very helpful at the time, was quite expensive and not seen as a necessary piece of treatment by insurance companies. Now, after much refining and an increase in clinical trials for the products, the CGMS is thankfully supported by most insurance companies.

Fortunately for me, our insurance company is now covering the cost of the device. This device is certainly convenient and is an improved treatment for folks like myself with type I diabetes. Basically, the device is yet another attachment to my skin that goes everywhere with me. It tests my blood sugar every 5 minutes and sends the reading to my insulin pump wirelessly. I still test my blood sugar with a finger prick 4-6 times a day to calibrate the device because the CGMS is only designed to show trends in blood sugar and not actual readings. However, the CGMS will be very helpful during our training and during the ride so that I can see these blood glucose trends in real time.

This device, although not perfect, brings us one step closer to an artificial pancreas. I want to stress one thing though, this is a treatment, not a cure. Today was one of those days when I am reminded that I am still diabetic and although these fancy devices are great and may help extend my life, they are simply advanced treatments. Today I was unexplainably, in the 300s, for much of the afternoon making the simplest of tasks quite difficult. These days need to end for me and the millions of other diabetes worldwide.

Please continue to help us find this cure by supporting our team and joining us on April 30th at the Square Room.