Team Ride Details for Sunday, August 5

Start Location: Long Lake Park on Krauskopf Drive - map here: http://goo.gl/maps/2xQ8a

2 loops, 2 start times, plus more if ya want it:

Loop 1, 30 or so miles, rolling out at 11 am
Loop 2, 40 or so miles, rolling out at 2:15 pm

Early morning "gotta getta century" Loop Zero: 8am rollout time for 30ish miles.

Post ride snacks and hangin' out time, naturally! And there's a nice lake to jump in, so bring your suit (or swim in your kit, or whatever - there are bathrooms there you can change clothes in).

See ya Sunday!

A note about what we do

A few years ago I was at dinner before one of the JDRF rides. We had made our way from Michigan out to Death Valley. The 100 mile ride through the desert would start early the next morning. A variety of people spoke that evening. They talked about how much money we had collectively raised. They told us to be safe out on the road. And they gave awards to the top fundraisers and recruiters. One speaker, unfortunately I don't remember who it was, said something that has stayed with me ever since. He said "What you're doing here is important. You never know whose life you are going to impact." That lesson was made very clear this week.

Every year, as part of our fundraising, we send out a donation request letter to our friends and family. One year we also put a notice in our church bulletin. That year we received a donation from a woman from church. We knew who she was, but she was barely an acquaintance. She was one of those people you say hello to every week, but it doesn't really go any farther than that. In subsequent years we would send her a letter and she was always one of the first to send a donation. And every year the amount of the donation grew. We were perplexed. Why was this woman being so generous to the cause? Yesterday we found out. Included with her check was a note card that said this: "Best of luck with this year's ride. Appreciate your commitment to JDRF. It was 25 years this summer that I lost a sister to J.D. She died at the age of 34. God bless. Mary Ellen" You never know whose life you are going to impact.

Team Ride This Sunday!

HOT ENOUGH FOR YA?

Har. If you’d like to smack me for saying that, might I suggest you come to our next TEAM RIDE?

This SUNDAY, April JULY 22, we’ll roll out at 10am from Grand River Riverfront Park near Lowell – map is here: http://goo.gl/maps/VSPg. We pass this park all the time when we ride from Ada Park, so it’s nice and easy to get to. We’ll ride about 56 miles with some shortcuts available, and then Lori Huver has offered up her house for some of the usual post-ride hangin’ out and eatin’! Her place is just down the road from the park; we’ll have directions to her house at the park for those who show up to ride, or if you can only make it to the post-ride festivities get in touch with me and we’ll get you there.

So, deets:

• ·         Sunday,  April JULY 22, 10am rollout time (be there early, please!)
• ·         Rolling from Grand River Riverfront Park, here: http://goo.gl/maps/VSPg
• ·         Up to 56 miles, some hills (but we’re not going up Snow, so don't freak out!)
• ·         Post-ride eats! Bring a dish to pass and something to sit on
• ·         PLEASE RSVP by Friday, July 20!

Hope to see you this Sunday –

Y’all rock!

Tour de Taco - in the bag!

Ahoyhoy, rockerinos!

Interestingly, the "rockerino" is a force-carrying particle predicted by the Standard Model of physics, like that Higgs boson everyone's all twitterpated about. The rockerino, however, is responsible for awesomeness.

Clearly our rockerino field is unusually strong.

OK, nerding out aside, we had a fantastic ride this past Sunday - many thanks to Coach Mike and Linda for opening up their house and yard, and to John Jasker for providing us with the flat tire demo that we neglected to do before rolling out.

In attendance:
Vern VH

Lori H

Tom & Donna

Heather & Brian

Pea

UberStoker Kaat

Michelle

Heather A.

(Hmm. Both of our Heathers are "Heather A's". Interesting.)

Tessa

MC & Lin

did & K

Jasker

Nicole & Cliff

Paul B

Perpetual New Guy Rob A.

Chris & Becky

JD & Maggie

And we were joined by Tom & Mary and Diana S after the ride to help us with the chicken taco preparation and consumption, while House Canines Max and Jasmine provided numerous sweaty leg licks and longing stares at overflowing plates of food. Much hangin' out goodness was had, much love was felt!

This coming weekend, bend your thoughts eastward to Burlington, Vermont as Ride to Cure Season kicks off! I believe I saw that the Vermont ride was sitting well north of $800,000 raised - how kickass is that? It's worth noting that, while the BikeFace is certainly strong with us, ultimately it's about that number with the dollar sign in front of it. That's the number that lets JDRF fund research, and that research has made remarkable strides even in the last few years - improved insulin pumps, continuous glucose meters, and greater understanding of what causes this disease are making lives better, and bringing a cure into sight.

And that's what we're here for.

Next team ride will be July 22, most likely in the Grand Rapids area - watch this space for details. Thanks, y'all!

The XS is here! The XS is here!

A pallet of XS Energy Drink overtakes Team Scheidel's garage.

Yes, the XS Energy is here. Please help get it out of my garage. As many of you know XS Energy Drink has been a sponsor of the West Michigan Ride Team since our first year in 2005. They donate a pallet of energy drinks (222 cases) that team members can sell. All proceeds from the sales go to the ride account of the person who sells it. An easy and tasty way to make money toward your goal.

XS is not like most energy drinks that rely on sugar and lots of caffeine for their boost. XS has no sugar and is loaded with B vitamins.  Click here for more detailed info. We have several flavors to choose from. They all come in 12 can cases. Some flavors are in 8 ounce cans and some are in 12 ounce cans. The 8 oz. cases sell for $20, the 12 oz. cases sell for $25. Remember 100% of what you sell them for goes to your ride account.

Flavors:
Cranberry-Grape - 8 oz.
Citrus - 8 oz.
Tropical - 8 oz.
Wild Berry - 8 oz.
Cherry - 8 oz.
Electric Lemon - 8 oz.
Black Cherry Cola - 8 oz.
Root Beer - 8 oz.
Cola - 8 oz.
Naranja (Orange) - 12 oz.
Summit Blast - 12 oz.
Classic Blast - 12 oz.
Variety Pack - 8 oz.

If you want to help me clean out my garage and make some money toward your ride goal, give me a call or send an email and we'll arrange getting you as many cases as you want.

Thank you once again to XS Energy Drinks for your continuing support.

Fractional Team Rides

No, not fractious team team rides! These are drop-ins in the schedule to give you more chances to see the rest of the cool kids.

First off, this Sunday, July 1, we'll ride from Townsend Park in Cannonsburg, 11am rollout time. Figure on a 45-50 mile distance, hopefully with a shortcut. MC's outta town (I think the guy should get a timeshare in Utah, as often as he's there), so you'll have to make due with one coach.

Second, on July 4, if you're not busy celebrating our nation's birth by blowing stuff up, we're tacking together an opportunity to do up to a century. If you want to get in a full 100 miles, we'll have a 7am rollout time from Velo-City Cycles; you'll ride up to Grand Haven and back, with a quick stop at the coffee shop in GH for a cinnamon roll or something. We'll roll back to the shop, so if you want to join up and do 50, be there and ready to roll by 11 am. Post-ride, MC's offered to fire up the grill at his house!

See y'all soon, I hope...

did

Hope Rides (& kicks some butt!) on 2 Wheels

So- as unlikely as it sounds.....I'm sitting in a bagel shop and screwin' around w/ my iPad dealie & trying to decompress from a pretty intense weekend.

Wanna hear about it?..........jump in the van w/ me...........

Background- the Hope on 2 Wheels Ride is the brainchild of Scott Kasper of Mt. Laurel NJ. I met him last year @ the Tahoe Ride, which was his 1st Ride to Cure. His mom and 2 of his 3 sons have T1D so he was pretty primed for a great big dose of the kool-aid and...well...he got it! Enough so that within 3 weeks of returning home from Tahoe he had become the Coach of the South Jersey Chapter and had cooked up this other crazy idea. Namely that 24 riders and a support caravan really needed to ride from NYC to Washington DC (252 miles) non-stop to try and raise awareness of both JDRF's mission and the need for more research in search of a cure in general. The plan was to ride "relay style", employing the same basic technique used by Team Type 1 while winning the Race Across America- separate teams leap-frogging each other to keep the pace up & the effort manageable. Needless to say when he invited me I was ALL about it! And that brings us back to the past 5 days.......

WEDNESDAY- I hit the road for NJ early. My 1st job is to get to Scott's place in Mt Laurel & assemble any bikes that team members shipped. I loaded Lin's car w/ bikes and tools and drove the 760 miles to Scott's, arriving in time to catch up and crash.

THURSDAY- As it turned out there were only 5 bikes that needed to be assembled so I talked Scott into a ride "before it got too hot." ( we rolled about 9:30- it was only 95 when we finished 20 miles later!) By the way- that part of NJ is why the license plates all say "The Garden State", it's bee-YOO-ti-ful! Quiet country roads, dead flat (hear that Cindy!?!), bunch a cool lil' towns, fields of everything from soybeans to blueberries to bamboo! Yup- bamboo! I know- weird, right? Anyway, after the ride we met Scott's co-coach Mike and Mike's little brother for lunch and after that I cranked bikes together while they ran errands.

FRIDAY- Scott and I got the last things on the list crossed off (find moving blankets, buy bananas & bagels for Sat AM, etc) then we met the ever-growing team of riders and crew and loaded up the vans for the drive down to NYC. (here's the thing- I SAY "down" but I basically had ZERO idea where I was the whole time I was there. for all I know we drove "down", "over" or all of the above!) Regardless- a couple of hours later & Mrs Clark's Favorite Son had his first bite of the Big Apple!

  ( Irony Alert- Those words were typed while I sit IN a Big Apple Bagel!!!)

Team HQ was a hotel right next to the site of the still-in-progress World Trade Center Memorial- the same swank joint that JDRF uses for visiting BigWigs & Other Important Types- so that was kinda cool in an intense sort of way. As we unloaded the vans who do ya think might've come sauntering up the sidewalk? None other than West Michigan's own Queen of BikeFace Patti Bills! Now- I knew she was there for her studies, this was a planned encounter but still.....kinda cool, huh?

Pea and I ditched the squad for a whirlwind 4 hour tour o' the city.....some pizza, a surly cabbie, Times Square, Central Park, Broadway, some KILLER gelato and a subway ride back to the hotel.

 (I figure I pretty much know everything the is to know about NYC now, thanks Pea!)

Dinner that night was in the restaurant on the 20th floor of our hotel....yep, the one w/ the huge deck overlooking the city and the WTC site. It was sponsored by Sanofi- who has a way cool new iPhone blood sugar app dealie they're pretty excited about. During dinner Patti got word that her flight was cancelled so on the spot she decided to hang out, crew for the ride and drive back w/ me. After introductions, a few well-chosen words from Scott & Mike it was time to try and get some sleep.....our 5:00 am roll out time was gonna come early!

Yup, sure did!

I was up @ 4:00, fed and kitted up by 4:30 and on my bike by 4:45. All 24 of us rode through the empty streets of Manhattan over to JDRF's Headquaters. We were met there by a young man that goes by the name of "The Diabetes Dude". His entire family had driven down from Boston to see us off & wish us well. From there's we rode to the Staten Island Ferry dock and after a 25 minute wait ( and a through inspection from one of New York's finest K9 security officers we rolled onto the ferry. It blasted off, took us right past that famous statue of the chick w/ the robe and huge cigarette lighter and then.....Staten Island! Okay! Let's rock and roll! We have 248 miles to go!

Yeah.....about that.....Staten Island is home to 1.5 million displace Italians and by all appearances they have a traffic problem. The solution they've gone w/is to put a traffic light on EVERY freaking corner and make sure that they're utterly out of sync.

We
Hit
Every
Red
Light
For
Miles.

As it turned out...the time we lost on that first leg across Staten Island would have significant consequences 18 hours and 200+ miles later..... After a further 35 minute delay waiting for our escort vehicles from the Port Authority to escort us across the bridge and into NJ (TOTALLY worth the wait in awesome though!) we got to the first stop. The plan here was to divide into 3 teams, cleverly labeled "A", "B", and....you guessed it...."C". This was also 23 miles into the ride and most of you know the significance of that # within the JDRF Ride community. Jesse's mom Michelle was on our team so we spent a few minutes there remembering him as well as everyone else that we've lost.....while a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace". (dammit- it's too cold in here for goosebumps!!!)

And with that the A Team took our 1st shift. Our 8 riders included Tim & Erin from Team Type 1, your reporter, 2 other Mikes (one an MC!) 2 Matts & big Josh from MN. 20ish miles later we pulled into the stop and the B team took over. Josh and Erin decided the B group was more to their liking so we pressed on w/ 6 of us for the next 2 shifts, then we were 5 for the rest of the ride.

Our "assignment" was to hammer in a effort to keep the timetable (which was tight to begin with) from getting too screwed up. At one point we took a double pull 'cuz the next team was stuck in construction traffic.

And so passed the day....and the miles. In a blur of chamois cream, re-filling bottles, energy bars, sweaty helmets and brief frenzied " which way do we turn?!?!?!?!" sessions.

Mid-Jersey is as industrial as South Jersey is bucolic, Delaware is barely there (still flat though!) and Maryland is lovely.....if awfully roll-y for the last state on a four state ride!

Despite everyone's efforts sundown found us still a good 60+ miles from the finish line, a couple hours behind schedule. My group was prepping for our last blast.....18 hilly, winding miles to the last stop, from which the plan was to get all 24 riders back on 2 wheels for the last 20 miles. Alas- word came from a support vehicle that the C Team was stalled...the road was pitch black, the traffic heavy (lots of deer too) & their lights either dead or inadequate. The call was made for safety's sake to go pick them up and sag them ahead to the final stop.

In the meantime my 4 compadres and I clipped in and fired up the lights. With a van on our tail for safely we blasted over that last 18 miles at what felt to my weary legs to be full-on race pace.

 (Despite being a member of the 2008 TT1 RAAM team, Tim had made no secret of the fact that he'd had quite enough chamois time for the day thank you and sure seemed to be in a rush to get this last leg over with!

In other words I clung to his wheel like a desperate slobbering fool with my eyes crossed and my tongue in my front wheel. I will say that we DID get there in a hurry though!

Once we got the entire team in one place for the first time since Mile 23 over 15 hours ago it was pow wow time. 20 more hilly miles w/ minimal street lights. Half the team w/ no working lights. 10:30pm at that point. Scott and Mike made the right call in the time-honored JDRF "Safe, Sound & Smiling" tradition.....we piled into the vans, drove into Bethesda and unloaded about 2 miles from the finish.

We rode in en masse.....24 strong behind a phalanx of Harleys & followed by all 6 support vehicles. Waiting at the finish line- despite the late hour- was a bevy of family and well-wishers.

'Twas quite a scene to be sure! We rolled in @ 11:59 by the way.....a long day! An hour later we were still feasting on BBQ, pizza, beer and ice cream. It was a lot like being back in high school!

SUNDAY- The team scattered to the 4 winds.....back to MN, Atlanta, New England, wherever. After breakfast a few of us loaded up the van and headed back to NJ. There Patti and I re-packed the bikes, grabbed some lunch, said our good byes and hit the road. By 7:00 this morning we were back in the 616......like the whole thing was just a massive dream!

FINAL RANDOM THOUGHTS:

I didn't actually count or inquire, but my impression is at at least 50% of the riders were Type 1.

The support crew was awesome- all 8 (9? 10?) of 'em. There were 3 flats, 2 minor crashes and one IV administered for cramps. (he rode the rest of the way w/ the needle still in his arm....said it was " gonna come in handy @ the bar".)

Did I mention that Maryland is hilly?

Tony Luke (of Philly Cheesesteak fame)is a jerk. He promised sandwiches and other lunch stuff, stiffed us and wouldn't answer the phone all day. I'm not gonna wear my tee shirt 'till I draw a big red circle w/ a slash through their logo!

This was a huge project - it's consumed Scott's life for the last 9 months. It was an even bigger success. We made some noise, brought some new folks into the JDRF community and......well.......brought some awareness and hope!

It was one of the Top Five Days on a Bike for me easily! Maybe Top Three. (m-a-y-b-e, just maybe.....Best Day Ever. Except you guys weren't there)