56 Miles and a little Broken Glass

Today marked 40 days before our ride in Sonoma on June 27th! We are finalizing our travel plans and getting psyched up for what we hope to be a great weekend with 150 of our closest friends as we all Ride to Cure Diabetes. The ride program is not just one day of riding but rather is a full weekend of events, culminating in the ride itself on Saturday morning at 7am.

We left Knoxville just before 11am this morning en route to Townsend, TN for a 56 mile route up the foothills parkway and Chilhowee Mountain. The mountain consists of a 3,000 ft. climb over 10 miles on one side and then a nice coast down to hwy. 129 in Maryville on the back side. Today, due to frigid May conditions and a sudden downpour, we were forced to turn around at the top of mountain and head back towards the car. Going down was much easier than going up!

As we rode back to the car in rainy and cool conditions, we were almost a mile from the parking lot when a blue truck stopped us to ask if we were driving a silver Honda. Indeed we were and come to find out the car had been broken into while we were riding! It was quite the day as we were only able to ride 30 of the 56 miles we intended to ride and then we get back to the car to find out that the passenger window is broken but the only thing stolen is our trusty GPS...I hope the thief enjoys Jane (our British voice who gives directions).

Although we did have some setbacks today, I couldn't help but think about the troubles as they relate to diabetes....a constant struggle. There will be good days and there will be bad days. In the words of Steve Jobs "there will times when you want to turn around, pack it up, and call in quits, these are the times that you know that you are pushing yourself..."

We will have our next ride on Tuesday, hopefully the weather and Knoxville area crime will both be a little more favorable!

The Show Must Go On

Three hours west of Knoxville, in Nashville, there is a local breakfast nook called The Pancake Pantry. At the Pancake Pantry, their slogan is "rain, snow or shine, there's always a line." The same goes for our training; rain, snow, cold, hot....the show must go on and we must still ride! Training is going well and we are preparing both mentally and physically for our 50 mile ride this Sunday, our longest to date.

Hopefully if we can do 50 miles on Sunday with a relatively uneventful conclusion than we will be on a good track for 105 in Sonoma next month. Our longest training ride that we will complete before the actual ride is 70 miles, per our training plan. I mention that we hope this Sunday will be "uneventful" because last Sunday was not. The meteorologists were wrong once again when they predicted a break from 10a-2p in the week long monsoon that has hit Knoxville. We started off in a light mist that soon turned into a downpour. Ten miles into this ride, I hit an uneven part of pavement and me and the Trek both went skidding across the pavement at 15mph. I think we came to a complete stop around 10 feet from where the fall began and I immediately rose to my feet relatively uninjured. My bruises and sore right shoulder are all healing well and that makes the "fall count" for Jessica and I 1-1.

Notes of Interest

• Although not yet noted on our website, we have hit $7500 in fundraising, well over our goal. My personal goal has been $10,000 for ten years of diabetes but that is likely unrealistic, however, we will keep plugging away.
• Additional pictures have been loaded onto the album in the column to the right of this entry.

Great Show @ Happy Hour 4 a Cure

Thanks to everyone who made it out to The Square Room last Thursday evening for the Happy Hour 4 a Cure! Taylor Corum played a great show while folks filed in and out for drinks and dinner prior to Sundown in the City. After Corum played his peace, he and his band cleared the stage for main event, the Dirty Guv'nahs!

The Guv'nahs played two fantastic sets in addition to two encores featuring some of their latest hits off their newest self titled album (available on iTunes!). James, Mitch, Justin, and all of the Guv's are owed many kudos for their awesome show that drew quite the crowd. Well over 200 folks packed the Square Room and danced long into the night after Sundown.

We were also able to net a great pile of cash that will go directly into our fundraising efforts for the Ride to Cure Diabetes. We are proud to announced that with this addition, we are now well over $7,000 in capital funds raised for this event to help us word towards achieving our goal, a cure to diabetes!

Once again, 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 this event possible.

Now we turn our focus back to training. Time to get some miles burned this week, if it will stop raining...