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Our Ride for Charity Update

Yesterday, Sarel, Dave and I participated in the Tampa Bay Ride Without Limits for United Cerebral Palsy. The Ride Without Limits - Tampa Bay is a one-day, multiple distance cycling event that helps raise much needed funds and awareness for UCP/Achieve Tampa Bay, to provide equal opportunities and access for children and adults with disabilities. Cyclists had the option of riding 35, 65 or up to 112 miles during this amazing ride.

Many of our supporters requested a detailed posting of our adventure for their generous donations so I will attempt a brief overview in order to update everyone at once.

Saturday began extremely early. Dave chose to ride the 112 mile course and their start time was 7:30 a.m., which meant we had to arrive at a location almost an hour away by 6:30 am. Sarel had a bit more of a drive. 

Sarel and I signed up for the 35 mile course. If there had been a lower mileage course I am sure we would have done that instead. In case you don't know, Sarel and I are recreational riders while Dave is the opposite and participates in triathlons.

Dave was in the first group of riders to go out since they would be riding the longest. The next group, riding the 64 mile course went out and then they unleashed our group!

Well, as I predicted, with Sarel riding a mountain bike and me on my granny-style hybrid we were quickly bringing up the rear. I have no idea where the rest of the 35 milers went but they left us in the dust. But the weather was perfect and Sarel and I covered every topic imaginable on our 4.5 hour tour.

We potentially could have solved all governmental and education challenges, as well as the role parenting plays in these areas if we had a bit more time.

Our ride was very peaceful except for the pile of sand on a curve that I didn't see. The bike was not happy with that encounter and proceeded to throw me onto the pavement. After assessing that there were no broken bones; Sarel was able to practice his upcoming Daddy-to-be skills and cleaned me up a bit, helped me back on the bike and off we went toward the finish.

At about noon we received an update from Dave, he was at the half way point (65 miles) riding the steep hills near Brooksville, Florida on his one-speed bike. Poor guy was getting a workout. But so were we and everything was letting us know by that time.

Thankfully we were coming to the end of our work out and were looking forward to the flat benches awaiting us and the lunch that would be served.

Received updates from Dave at 90 and 100 miles. I could tell he was getting excited to be nearing the finish. He rolled in close to 4 p.m, almost 8.5 hours of riding. 112 miles! What an accomplishment, especially with the hills!

Sarel and I actually exceeded our 35 miles due to our missed turn so we can now say we did almost 40 miles. What an accomplishment for us! We are all very proud of ourselves!

So, how did we do on our donations? Thanks to our friends, customers, families and colleagues. We exceeded our team donation goal of $2000!

A grateful thank you to everyone for the support and for supporting United Cerebral Palsy!

To see the pictures please visit

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162776&id=128165887192&l=bccf6f6625

 


Topics: Nonprofits/NGOs, News