Ride For Jim!

First. What is the Ride for Jim? Well, four years ago a doctor at MCV lost one of his good friends, who also happened to be a doctor (Jim), to cancer. A year later the first Doctor decided he was going to ride his bicycle from the West coast of the United States to the East in order to raise money for cancer research. In the years following others have continued the ride for Jim by cycling the roughly two and a half month trek across the Country. There was also an event created where those who may not be able to do the full ride, can still participate and help raise money by finishing the last 70 miles with the coast to coast riders.

So less than a week before the 70 mile event Josh asked me if I would do it with him. I still don't know what it was that convinced me to do it since I probably hadn't ridden a bike in six years. However, the following Sunday morning we were in downtown Richmond with about 100 other EXPERIENCED riders, maybe 10 inexperienced ones, with a borrowed mountain bike and road bike, waiting to get started on our 70 mile adventure. (Sadly, we only started documenting our 70 mile adventure about 55 miles into it. Hence, the pictures are what they are.)

This was the second pit stop of the trip. The first break was just to stop for a few minutes and refill on water. This second one was a stop at a restaurant in Williamsburg to grab some lunch and a few minutes rest from one of the toughest parts of the ride. (You can clearly see from the picture how tiring and hot the last 15 minutes were before we got to stop for lunch. Just going to say now, never been so sweaty in my entire life.)... and we're sporting our "Ride for Jim" Tattoos. :)

After filling up on lunch and relaxing in the nice air conditioned building we headed back out to finish our epic adventure, but not before snapping a few awesome pictures.

Gearing back up. (We felt so awesome with our equipment, which is funny because I never thought I would feel cool putting a helmet on.)

The last 15 miles. (My attitude had done a 180 degree flip from the beginning of the ride, all thanks to a great hubby who offered to take the cursed mountain bike off my hands after a little less than half way. I never would have finished if he hadn't.)

(I have no explanations for the scream at the end of this video. We survived though, so it couldn't have been too bad.)

WE MADE IT!!! 51/2 hours on our bikes, and not the last ones in! (That was my main fear, other than not finishing.) We were thrilled with our accomplishment, and some refreshing watermelon to finish off the day wasn't bad either.

At the end of the ride they do a ceremonious "Tire Dip." When the riders began their cross country ride they started by dipping their back tire in the Pacific Ocean, and then when they finish the trip they dip their front one in the Atlantic Ocean. It would be an awesome thing to say you'd done. Josh and I still want to do it one day...

Josh, and his fellow M2's who rode.

We were tired and VERY sweaty, but we had fun and can't wait to do it again next year. ...we're thinking we'll train a little more next time, and NOT borrow a mountain bike.

Urban Camping - It's All the Rage!

Last weekend I took my first test of the second year of medical school. It was a tough 2 weeks of Pharmacological madness, but my brain held onto some of the millions of drug names and I did pretty well. That evening, we had planned a camp out for my young men. We originally had planned to go to Pocahontas State Park, but when I called to reserve our campsite a few days before, I found out that there was a 6 person limit per campsite. We were going to have 8 people, so we needed 2 sites. Total cost - $63. To camp. I couldn't believe it.

Basically, if we chose to go, we would wipe our budget completely & it's only August. So, I came up with a great solution. We camped out in my backyard.





We dug a fire pit & had a fire building contest. Brother Sykes was the team leader for Eric & Tay and Brother Rainey was the team leader for Raul & Yusu. Raul & Yusu went first & went for almost 5 minutes with the flint & steel with no success. They tried again for another 5 minutes with a lot of matches & were still unsuccessful. (I will mention that we had a large rainstorm the night before & it was difficult finding dry wood).

Team Sykes then took the stage & Tay basically stepped up & showed us all he is a professional outdoors-man. 2 minutes & 38 seconds & the string above the pit was burnt. Pretty impressive Tay.

We made Tin-Foil dinners after getting the fire made & the boys all made their own. It started to rain as we were wrapping up, so we just headed inside for a Rock Band session! My favorite part about it all is how everyone sings along.



We then made some smores on the stove top, since the rain had soaked our campfire & wood. It was nice to enjoy the comforts of the indoors. I was going to take a picture of Raul cooking his Mallow, when it erupted in flames! I guess according to the Sandlot, he cooked it just right. Then SCARF!




The next morning the boys cooked waffles, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, toast, & it was a good breakfast. We then headed out to our favorite Pony Pastures for a float down the rapids.



I have to give Yusu & Eric some credit because they both admitted to not being very good swimmers, but still dared to ride down the rapids. Luckily Tay was a strong swimmer & ready to catch them. This next picture is my favorite. You can see our safety chain to catch Eric as he sits up above the rapid deciding whether or not to go.


What a blast we had with these guys! Thanks to my counselors for the help!