Our LIVESTRONG Challenge!

The LIVESTRONG Philly Challenge has now come and gone. All I can say – is WOW!!! WOW!!! and WOW!! In all the events that we have been part of, this has got to be the most motivational, inspirational and worth while cause. We loved every moment of it.

After months of fundraising, Jason and I were able to raise $3,140.00!! We are very proud of ourselves and very thankful to our friends, family, customers and business associates for supporting us and the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

Since we raised over $3,000, we were invited to the Awards dinner on Saturday night. I gotta tell you, LAF knows how to throw a party! The food was awesome and the speakers were worth every word they spoke! There were standing ovations for Team Fat Cyclist who has raised over $600,000! There were tears as the Team leader spoke of the loss of his wife 3 weeks ago. There were cheers and laughter along the way too.

Sunday morning started out early – very early!! Jason was up around 4 am and out the door at 5 to get his place in line for the ride. I got up around 5 and was out the door at 6 to find my power stop location and get the medical tent set up. Jason and I stayed in contact via text message and around 8 am they finally left the gate.

When the first riders came along to our power stop it was exciting! There were cyclists and bikes every where! We helped riders make sure they had sun screen on because God blessed us and took the rain out of the forecast and the sun came blazing out. We fix small cuts, iced some bee stings, and helped some riders who were just in distress and while having good intentions, just could not complete what they had started. We spent time listening to their stories and sharing moments of joy and pain. It was awesome.

Jason came in to the power stop and soon moved on. I received text messages when he was at other power stops. I was worried about him doing the big hills on the back side of the course. I was relieved when he wrote me – “Big hills done, I made it”. I was so proud of him.

There were many riders who had to stop and walk up those hills, I think I give them more props because I know I couldn’t walk up some of those hills!

As the day wore on, the sun grew very bright and the heat started setting in. We closed down our Power Stop around 11 and packed up everything to move to another location. My team and I showed up at Power Stop 8 and wow… was that a busy place! When our gear showed up, we grabbed our tents from the van and extra supplies from our previous stop and started making the area larger.

There were many riders that just needed a chance to sit in shade and put some cold water on their heads and necks. We started doing quite a few thigh, calf and neck rubs. My hands still smell like Bengay. Some riders really needed medical attention and we unfortunately had to pull several people from finishing the ride because they had just pushed themselves to hard.

One young guy, in his early 20’s came to us for help with his hip. He had fallen earlier in the ride, and had been stopping at every med stop to have them stretch his hip and thigh. There was such a tight knot in his thigh that our doctor told him, he was done. He told us no. I HAVE TO FINISH. I got down next to him and asked him why, what was his story. We both sat there and cried as he told me that he had signed up to do this event with his friend Bob. It was to be their first time and they were gonna do it together. He then told me Bob died 3 weeks ago. We talked for a long time and asked him if Bob were here right now, what would he tell you to do? With tears rolling down his face, he told me, “He would want me to stop and get medical attention”. He hugged me when I put him in the SAG van and sent him back to the main medical tent. I will never forget him.

Jason made it through my Power Stop looking amazingly fresh. He got a quick calf massage and I filled up his bottles, his snack pack and sent him back on his way. He sent me a message around 3 that he had completed the 100 miles and rode through the finish line to see his daughter ringing the cow bell at him. His parents, daughter, sister and her boyfriend stood at the finish line and cheered him in. I can not imagine the feeling of accomplishment to have completed that ride.

In all, Jason finished his 100 miles in just about 6 hours of ride time. He made sure he stopped at every power stop to fill his drink bottles, stretched his legs and chatted. He said he averaged 16 mph on his ride which is just a bit faster then he had hoped.

There were so many stories, so many faces! So much joy and pain at the same time. Some of these riders couldn’t even walk after being on their bikes for some long, but they were determined to finish. By the end of the day, we were stopping riders and putting them on the bus. We no longer had police out on the road protecting them and stopping traffic for them. The bus brought them to 2 miles out and allowed them to ride into the finish line on their own.

There were NO quitters here – NO ONE failed. Everyone was a winner. Everyone should be proud for what they did! It was awesome!

We are already talking about how we are going to be involved with next year. O.k. maybe I am already talking, I think Jason is still trying to get the kinks out of his back from being hunched on the bike for so long. What we both know is that this was probably the most inspirational and worth while cause that we have ever been involved with.

Thank you to the Lance Armstrong Foundation for coming to our area! Thank you for doing what you do! Thank you for helping so many people. You can be sure we will be back next year for more fun and fundraising!

LIVESTRONG!!!