Tour de Cure, 65 mile bike ride for charity.

On May 19th I'm going to participate in a bike marathon to raise money for diabetes prevention, treatment, and research. I will need to raise at minimum $150 to be in the event, but I'd like to exceed that by as much as possible. I've personally seen what diabetes can do, and I'd like to do what I can to help. So I'll be challenging my self to the 65 mile course, which will be the longest single ride I've done. I'm also trying to organize some fellow people at work to join in. If we can get enough people we can form a team for the event.

Wish me luck, and if you'd like to give support, the link below goes to my donation page. The links at the top of it can provide more information about the organization and the event. If you'd like to show support by coming out to the start/finish line, there will be food, drinks and entertainment going on at El Dorado Park (Golden Grove Picnic Area), 7550 Spring Street, Long Beach. Let me know if you'd be interested in doing that.

My Donation Page

Just got my Rosarito Ensenada photo.

Here it is, the unflattering image of my self taken near the peak of the longest and steepest incline of the ride. Notice the lack of horizon line in this image, and how small the ground level looks. It was quite the climb, but so worth it for the 35 mph downhill run, whooo! Pumping Power, By the Hour, Speeeeeeeeeeeeed!!! (bonus points if you know the film reference)

50 miles & over a mountain, on bicycle, in 4 hours.

It was one hell of a ride, though very beautiful. But I did it and I think pretty well for this being my first bike event, and having never done any serious elevation climbs or a distance that long before. I finished in a few seconds before the clock hit 4 hours. Richard, another tech artist from Sony whom I went with finished a few minutes after me. There certainly were a lot of people who finished long before I did, but it felt good knowing I passed quite a few people who looked more experienced, and were riding professional racing bikes.

Big props to the guy in the full body sponge bob square pants suit who finished only a few minutes after me despite being in the most unaerodynamic outfit imaginable, that's pretty hard core. I also ran into one of the group leaders for the Friday Night Skate rollerblade group. He was rollerblading the whole course, which is quite the impressive feat, and I saw 2 other rollerbladers out there as well.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the trip as my camera would have been a heavy and expensive liability, but next time I go, because I do plan to do this again, I'll get a portable camera for the trip. There were professional photographers out there getting pictures of everyone during the slowest part of the mountain climb, and I'll probably buy mine when it gets uploaded, though I'm sure my face will be in some unflattering cross between heavy breathing and cursing the mountain.



I hung around for a little while at the finish line Fiesta, and communicated the best I could to the man serving food that I did not eat meat, which was a little complicated and I think a bit of a shock to him, but it worked out and I got a fairly satisfying meal for 2.50 US Dollars.

Also of note was seeing the Mexican flag in Ensenada, the most ridiculously big flag of any nation I have ever seen. Here's a picture I found of it online.

Skating Santa Monica & Venice

I went out for the LA Friday Night Skate last night for the first time, and whew, that was some crazy fun. I was expecting a rather chill outing, which it was for a little while, just going down the beach and around Venice, but there was some intense sections of the course. Which included skating all the way up to the top of a Santa Monica parking garage (9 stories I believe), and then rushing all the way down again (I'm sure to the displeasure of the cars and staff). The evening was concluded with a race to the beach downhill from one of the higher points on Montana Ave. I think I need to invest in some safety gear if I want to hang with this crowd and not break something.

I remember as a kid, after watching the movie Hackers, I wanted to grow up to work with computers and thrash through the urban landscape on rollerblades. Now I have fulfilled my destiny.

P.S. If you haven't seen Hackers, and would be interested in seeing a younger Angelina Jolie on rollerblades with mad computer skills, then this is the film for you. Keep in mind hacking as portrayed in this film is several dimensions removed from reality. Seeing this film also made me disappointed later in life when I actually went to some night clubs and they did not have giant arcade machines with indoor rollerblade tracks and ramps.