From on My Back to on My Bike

I bet some of you were wondering whatever happened to those nice updates we used to get from that bike riding guy. Others of you are probably saying, "I'm glad I don't get those updates anymore." And others are wondering, "How did he get my email address?"

Once again I'm going to be filling your inbox with inane blather about how I'm doing on my latest challenge. As some of you will recall, last year I took on the ill conceived challenge of rding my bicycle 129 miles over 5 mountain passes. I did this as part of a challenge to raise funds to fight Leukemia and Lymphoma. Well thanks to many of you, I collected over $7,500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of my late mother-in-law, Margie Griffin and my friend Stacy Bowman, who is a leukemia survivor.

So what am I up to you say? Well shortly after I completed the Death Ride last year I was contacted by my coaches from Team in Training and asked if I wanted to be a mentor for this years Death Ride team. Coincidentally, I was recovering from surgery to repair a ruptured disk in my lower back. So while wondering whether I was going to walk upright, let alone ride a bike, I did the only reasonable thing...I said "Yes". That's right, a gimpy overweight guy, i.e. me, is going to do the Death Ride again. It sounds ludicrous and don't tell my surgeon, but I'm determined to give complete this very difficult ride.

Here's the deal - after all that effort to raise money to support cancer research and patient services, they still haven't found a cure. I know, I'm as shocked as you are. Since over 76% of the funds raised by the Leukemia and Lymphoma go to fund important research and care, I felt what better way to invest my time.

So if you think that helping to find a cure for Leukemia and Lymphoma is a pretty good idea, and if you want to support my goal of raising $5,000 to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, then check out my fundraising site at http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/steveasche To make things more interesting, I'm committing to ride 100 miles this year for each $100 dollars raised. I figure that if people want to spite me, they'll donate more.

I'll keep you updated on my progress along with various experiences along the way. If you do not want to receive updates, drop me a line and let me know.

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