Ride Ataxia Events: International Ataxia Awareness Day

Today was International Ataxia Awareness Day. We had two fundraising events, at two different places. One event was held at Round Table Pizza in Grass Valley (Lake of the Pines), and one in Martinez. My cousin, Angela organized the event in Martinez.

We had a great turnout at both locations, raising about $1,500 at each location. The line for ordering Pizza was out the door for about an hour. I will total up all the donations up to this point to see where we are at, I think we should be close to half way to $30,000.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support the cause, it was a good night.

In the spirit of International Ataxia Awareness Day, check out this article on the promising new Friedreich's Ataxia Research:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-08/sri-srt082106.php

Lots Going On....

It has been a while...Since the last post we have had a few meetings, A poker tournament, a trip to Alaska, a couple weddings, lots of work...and not much riding. But things are changing. I rode to work three times last week for a total of about 65 miles during the week. However I was very sluggish because I had not been on the trike for about 4 weeks. This week I am finding all sorts of excuses not to ride but hopefully I will make it at least 2 days.

A few weeks ago, my friend Lindsey came over to help us get organized. Lindsey is in grad school in rganizational Studies so she helped us get all our ideas out and on paper, then we assigned specific tasks. It was great to get all the stuff out of our heads where everybody on our team (Me, Mom and Dad) could see. By the end of the night we had covered the entire dining room in butcher paper.


The Ride Ataxia Poker tournament at Brown and Caldwell, Sacramento was a blast. We had about 20 participants and raised over $600. It was more successful than anticipated. Look at those intense Poker faces:


The day after the poker tournament, My Dad, My Brother and I left for Alaska for a week of fishing. It was a killer trip to the middle of nowhere. We did not catch as many fish as we thought we would, but we caught the biggest fish I had ever seen in person, I layed down next to it for some perspective:


International Ataxia awareness Day is coming up. We are having pizza night in two locations that night(September 25). Obviously I cannot be in both places, so yesterday I filmed a video to send to Martinez so they can pretend I am really there. Hopefully the video will turn out good, I am sure it will because we have the best in the business (Matt Pegler of Brown and Caldwell) doing the editing.

Thats all for now, I would like to update more often and I will have some details about the actual ride soon. Don't forget International Ataxia Awareness Day September 25!

Trek to Work

I rode to work the other day. It has cooled down a lot around here, I actually had to wear long sleves in the morning.

I got up at 6 and met my good friend and co-worker, Tess, at her house. We rode through town and on to the American River parkway. It is about 15 miles one way to my office aned most of it is on the trail so we don't have to deal with traffic. It takes a little over an hour but it is a great way to wake up in the morning and a nice way to work off steam at the end of a long day.

I try to ride to work once a week but I need to increase the frequency so I can get experience with back to back days.

Saturday Ride

I went on a ride yesterday from my apartment in downtown Sacramento to Nimbus Dam in Folsom (45+ miles round trip). The most current heat wave has passed and temperatures are in double digits again so it is safe to train in the afternoons.

This ride took me a little longer than it should have because I havent been training very heavily in the past couple of weeks. It has been too hot to go outside. However the heat wave is over for now and I am going to try to train hard until the next wave...

Me, halfway through my ride with Nimbus Dam and the American river in the background:

Some of the Many Reasons

From the time we were convinced that something was wrong, it took us (my family and I) over a year to find the answers we were looking for. My Dad noticed that my skills were deteriorating in sports, specifically baseball. So he convinced my Mom and I that something was truely wrong. We went to a neurologist once a week for a while so he could run all kinds of tests, he had no idea what was going on. Many doctors, many wrong diagnoses and many months later, we found a doctor who took one look and knew right away that I have Friedreich's Ataxia...

Nobody knows about Ataxia (even doctors as I found out), that is why I am riding across the country, this disease needs some attention. It is estimated that one in every 50,000 Americans has Friedreich's Ataxia, yet nobody even knows about it.

I am also doing this beause I am one of the lucky few Ataxians who can still get around without the use of a wheelchair. The ability that I have will be gone at some point, I feel an obligation to do as much as I can while I still can.

Ride Ataxia Events: Golf Tournament

Fundraiser outcome...Overwhelming
For those of you who participated in the golf tournament, thannk you. It was a huge success, raising $9,800. This money will fund my ride and then some. I will donate the "and then some" to FARA.

For those who did not attend here is a brief rundown: 24 teams of four, 28 hole sponsors, and 150 people at dinner that night. I think everyone I know was at dinner that night. Everybody stuck it out through tripple digit herat and had a great time.

Thank you to all the great people at Lake of the Pines and the surrounding community, you have built something great, keep it up!

First post...

My fundraiser is coming together. I have been thinking about ths thing for about 9 months now. I have to wait another 6 until I leave and then another 2 until I reach Memphis. I am pretty stoked, I want to leave tomorrow.

I have been training quite a bit lately, trying to ride during the week and riding 60+ miles on the weekends. I rode my first century ride on May 7 in a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association. It took me about 9 hours due to a flat tire and a wrong turn. I was the last one on the course, but I finished.

I am planning on averaging 60 miles a day for almost 2 months. Its going to be very challenging but its gonna be a blast...more details later.