I Did It!!! …Sort Of

I rode 100 miles yesterday! Actually, probably closer to 110 miles all total. But I didn’t finish the ride. I’ll explain after the jump, along with photos from the day.

But first, I want to thank everyone who donated to this cause. You were all very generous and I really appreciate the support. If you didn’t get a chance to donate before the ride, it’s not too late. I won’t be submitting the donation to the charity for another week or so, so you definitely still have time to put some money toward the cause. Click the “About” tab above for more info on the charity and for a link to donate.

Anyway, click below for a long-winded explanation of what the hell I was talking about in the first paragraph…

Jesus Christ

mile 80. ugh

Flat Albert

We’re at mile 45 and Eliz is on her 3rd flat tire… I’m posting from some hilarious tiny bike shop in the middle of Queens while she buys a new wheel. I guess the usual clientele aren’t avid cyclists, since the mechanic is explaining– out of habit it seems– the most rudimentary things to us. “Make sure you inflate the tube! Here is where you screw the wheel onto the frame!” Um, thanks, guy. Once this gets settled, we’ll be back on our way, hopefully without any more delays **fingers crossed** Still feeling good stamina-wise, which is definitely a plus.

Dear Dickhead at the Intersection of Tillary and Navy,

Thanks for making a last-minute, illegal left turn that forced me to brake suddenly and slip on the wet pavement. When I bought my new cycling shorts yesterday, I remember thinking to myself, “Man, I hope I only use these things for 11 miles before some fuckstick in a Honda Civic cuts me off and they get ripped open!” Seriously, I am forever in your debt. You do God’s work.

Love,

Jim

So my leg is all gauzed up, which is pretty fun. Photos to come post-ride. I’m at the mile 15 rest stop now, waiting for Eliz to get her tire fixed. Going really well so far (road rash on hip notwithstanding), looking forward to the remaining 85 (hopefully crash-free) miles. More updates to come…

POST-RACE PHOTO UPDATE (warning: gratuitous nudity below)

Here Goes Nothing…

On the eve of ride day, the donation total stands at $2120, which is more than I expected and will definitely make a huge difference for a lot of needy and deserving people. If you haven’t donated yet, there’s still time… hit up the button below:

If you have already donated, I seriously can’t thank you enough. Everyone’s generosity has been tremendous.  I’m still holding out hope for a few stragglers to make some last-minute donations, and I also want to make sure all the e-checks through PayPal have cleared, so I’m going to wait a week or so after the ride before I make the lump-sum donation to FINCA.

I hope to do at least a couple of in-race posts tomorrow from my phone, but we’ll see how that goes. I’m off to sleep, I have to be up in 5 hours to head up to central park to start this absurdly-long bike adventure. Thanks again to everyone, especially those who wished me luck on the ride… I’ll need it.

- Jim

5 Days To Go, $1435 Raised So Far

Here we are in the home stretch. Only 5 days to go and so far I’ve managed to raise $1435 with the help of a great group of generous friends and family… but I’m hoping to add to that total before ride day. If you’re interested in helping out, please click the button below to make a donation. And if you’ve already donated, thanks so much for helping out! You are awesome.

I did a pretty solid bit of riding over the labor day weekend, with a 42-mile ride into the Palisades Park in New Jersey–a forest area along the bank of the Hudson–and a couple of quick 10-mile rides. I felt totally fine on the 42-mile ride, which had some steep climbs and was a lot more technical than the 100-mile ride will be (there are, not surprisingly, more hills in coastal New Jersey than there are in Manhattan). Toward the end of the ride I felt like I could have kept going forever, which is good because come Sunday I’ll have to do a 42-mile ride, another 42-mile ride, and a 16-mile ride. I think as long as I do at least some riding every day between now and the ride, everything should be fine. It’s not a time trial or anything, so it’s not like I’ll be killing myself out there.

Below are a few pics that Eliz took during the ride, including a pretty awesome shot of the George Washington Bridge. She’ll be doing the 100 miles with me and should have some good photos from the ride, as well.

Midway through the 42-mile ride. The dude at the diner asked if I was on the now-defunct Discovery team… sadly, I am not (though coincidentally, I now work at the Discovery Channel).

Doing my best to reverse any health benefits gained from the 42 miles of riding by stuffing my face with fried diner food. Mmmmmm… delicious cholesterol. Also, doing my best to avoid laughing hysterically at the looks I was getting from confused elderly people, who now probably think the new trend in youth fashion is dressing in tight spandex clothing covered with sponsor logos.

30-second exposure, shot from under the GW bridge on the Manhattan side. Yup, Eliz knows what she’s doing. Click here to check out her site.

Almost at $1000!

The donation total is now at $975, which is awesome… HUGE thanks to those who have donated so far. If you haven’t donated yet, please consider doing so by clicking the “Make a Donation” button below. More info on the charity and ride can be found in the “About” section (above).

The training is going pretty well so far, I did another short training ride over the weekend along the Brooklyn coastline, just shy of 22 miles roundtrip. It wasn’t difficult at all, which is a good sign I think. Sometime over the next few days I’m going to do a 40- or 50-mile ride just to see how it goes, but I’m confident it won’t be too much trouble. The goal is to work up to a 75-mile ride the weekend before the NYC Century, followed by at least 15-20 miles per day during that final week… I figure 175+ miles of riding in that final week should be more than enough to prep for a 100-mile ride (*fingers crossed*)

In other, unrelated cycling news, the Discovery team– former team of Lance Armstrong– has disbanded… sad news for cycling fans, especially given how dominant Discovery was in this year’s Tour (Tour winner Alberto Contador and third-place finisher Levi Leipheimer were both Discovery riders, and Discovery won the Best Overall Team competition). Good thing I bought my Discovery jersey before they stopped making them…

And The Training Begins…

Robocop has a brand-new rear wheel, as well as a new seatpost and new handlebars, so I’m finally ready to begin training for this ride. To kick things off this afternoon, I went on a 25-mile ride up the west side of Manhattan and back, along the Hudson River. A map of the ride can be found here, for any out-of-towners who have no idea what I’m talking about.

I hadn’t ridden a bike in the 3+ weeks since my wheel got stolen, so I was expecting to be pretty far out of riding shape, but it was nowhere near as bad as I’d feared. I was able to maintain a reasonably hard cadence for most of the ride, except for a few areas along the bike path where every toddler in the entire city was stumbling around chasing balloons and I had to slow down. Stopped a few times for a brief water break, but overall I wasn’t super fatigued and could easily have pushed it to 40 or maybe 50 miles without too much trouble (100 is another story, but I’ve got plenty of time to work up to that).

Thanks again to those who have donated, the total is now $800. To check out what impact $800 will have, check out the donation calculator. And if you haven’t donated yet but would like to, please do so here:

Wheel of Misfortune

My replacement rear wheel arrives today, if FedEx’s online tracking system is to be believed. Having two wheels on my bike should make it a bit easier to prepare for the 100-mile ride, which is nice. I plan on doing a 30-50 mile ride this weekend to start getting my legs back into shape after 3 weeks of being off the bike, so we’ll see how that goes (I’m predicting it’ll end up being closer to a 30-mile ride than a 50-mile ride, though).

Thanks again to all who have donated so far, the donation total now stands at $740. If you haven’t donated yet but would like to, please go here:

Off to a Great Start…

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of my friendly neighborhood crackheads, Robocop is currently an amputee:

But I’ll have a new rear wheel soon and can resume riding, and still have more than a month to prep for the ride.

Huge thanks to those who have donated already, I’ve raised $110 just from donations this afternoon/evening. If you haven’t donated yet, please do so here:

On a related note, my friend Omar is training to run a marathon in Chicago to raise money for the fight against Leukemia, Lymphoma, and other blood cancers. It’s also a great cause, and you can donate here.