WhooHoo! It be over! lol We are refreshed this morning having slept in late (no interesting presentations for the first few hours this morning) and in a few minutes we will dive into the swirl of the conference with renewed vigor!

Yesterday's ride went well, 28.5 miles, designed to be shorter so we could make the triumphant entrance at 2pm. The terrain was pretty much flat into the Outback in Seattle, a place for lunch and to organize the last push. Of course it rained the whole way, ;-) , but the company was good and the pace on the slower side. Outback again outdid themselves; they have been so supportive on this ride. There were even about a dozen of them on the ride. At lunch we got the bad news, to get to the hotel we had to go over the "Mt. McKinley" of hills! 1 mile long and the first stretch a 21 degree uphill climb!! I warmed up on the 10 block ride to the hill's corner, then as I came around the corner to immediately start up the hill my front sprocket refused to go into the lowest gear! Gaaa! Struggling, muttering loudly, I only made it 3o' up before having to stop! Darn! As I was standing there trying to spin the wheel to put it in low the first trike with Sean from Alaska came around the corner. When he put it in low (his worked!) his driving wheel started spinning; he couldn't get traction on this steep grade! So I abandoned my bike (wasn't doing me any good anyway) and started pushing him up the hill. About 30 more feet up the hill I realized I had no traction either; my foot warmers with the Safeway grocery bags inside were sliding off my feet! As I stopped to pull them off two other bikers took over pushing Sean, what teamwork! When I turned around for my bike another biker was ride behind walking his and mine behind the group. Again, what a group effort! These 70-ish riders have pulled together like this the whole ride! Since this was the steepest part of the grade and I no way could mount my bike to get a start (nice excuse, eh?) I walked the bike past this first challenge and remounted just after. At the top was a pretty sight; my lovely wife giving a turn instruction and shouting encouragement! A kiss or two later off I went on the downhill leg to a church only a few blocks from the hotel. We let everyone catch up and rolled in together, trikes out front, to the roar of the welcoming crowd! Nice finish.

For me the total miles was 193.56, my max speed was28.3mph, and the average speed overall was 11.1mph. And of course the best stat is my bod supported me well through this adventure.

Below are some pics of that Lewis & Clark bridge from Day 2, the Day 4 Hill, and a couple other of Day 4 after the Hill.

I do want to thank my sponsors SO much for their financial help, and to all the folks that followed my ride and The Ride so closely, Emailing me support and prayers! All was much appreciated! The total for Ride Ataxia 3 is somewhere beyond $220,000, and some think it might get to $300,000! With matching funds from NAF and FARA we may be funding research grants of a half a million dollars as a result of this effort! Wonderful! My sponsor total is currently at $2,448, certainly more than I had envisioned! Thank you again! And of course there is still time to be a post-ride sponsor! ;-)

On to the pics!

8:05am of Day 4! Last night at midnight I fell asleep in front of the computer and could not do a blog. Only have a minute! No rain yesterday!! Super! Lots more flat riding; this is what we were waiting for! lol And it was the longest ride, 62.95 miles! 20 miles flat, 30 miles a bit uphill and hilly, and then about 10 miles of more challenging riding, but we made it!

Got a bunch of pics from others last night so I'll share shortly.

Today is 28 miles with quite a few hills. We will mass a few miles from the hotel so we can all make the triumphant entry there! lol A picture opportunity.

Day 2 - done! I need to correct last night's blog; the amount raised so far is $175,000, not $275,000, darn! Too rummy last night.

Our day started at 7:55am as Susan dropped me off outside Bob's Cycle Shop in Longview, WA to wait for the shop to open at 9:00am. As I put my riding stuff under the overhang a car stopped and the man called out "Whatcha doing?" so I replied "I'm waiting for Bob", to which he replied "I'm Bob"! He let me in, got me coffee and we talked about his store, FA and Ride Ataxia for some time while waiting for his bike tech. A really nice guy and a really nice store! So Genece arrives and whips through my bike! In only a short time she's determined not only my shifter cable is broken but also the cable holder in the shifter. Whip, whip and there's a new shifter with cable, brake adjusted and front shifter better aligned. Now you might think I was outta there spiff-spot but first I talked more to Genece and Paul about the ride and FA. So now there's 3 more good people in the world aware and informed about FA! ;-) I even met Bob Sr. the founder.

So I get on the road at 9:45am! 43.2 miles to go and I"m behind the pack. I've decided since I'm way back I might as well let it out to see what I might do; usually I'm in the back giving help and support. So I give it my best for 21.9 miles to lunch. 1 hour and 49 minutes, and average speed of 12.1mph. I did catch one good downhill for a max speed of 28.3mph. Can you believe I only burned 950 calories?? Felt like 4,000. Yesterday's forecast was "rain" and it rained 80% of the day; today it was "showers" so it only rained 50% of the day! Cold (46 degrees at 9:45am, 63 degrees at about noon and 50 degrees at 2pm), so cold. The rain suit kept the rain out but I sweated right through all my clothes which then were chilly. But if I had not worn the rain suit the wind and rain would have frozen me.

Last night the crew said today would be rolling hills through the morning; what they forgot to say was each suceeding rolling hill was higher than the last! lol We worked hard today! The second 21-ish miles was easier than the first, but after lunch I stayed back with the groups that enjoyed the outdoors and weren't in much rush to finish the ride. We got in at 3pm. PM stats: 21.23 miles, 2 hours and 9 minutes, average speed 9.9mph. Day's calories - 1776.

Dr. Lynch arrived about 5pm to claim his bike and will ride with "us" tomorrow he says. We ate in an operating train station this evening with Outback once again. Here are a few pics from the first two days and an Utube clip a friend of ours, Donald, took at the ride start. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPAkq2D3ucE&feature=email

Let's see if I will survive 62 miles tomorrow! lol

It is late and Day 2 starts at 8:30am but for me at 8am; more on that below. Today, Day 1, we rode from downtown Portland to Kelso, OR, a distance of 58.95 miles. Whew! We started riding at 8:45am and for the first hour at least wound our way through Portland. Not fast and a bit hairy with 70 riders and all the traffic. I averaged 11mph overall and the day's ride took me 5 hours and 21 minutes.

It started to rain just before we left and continued about 80% of the day. My Friedman's Hardware rain suit worked well. It was also 45 degrees so the windbreaker effect was welcome. Of course over the course of the day I sweated profusely so all the clothes are hanging up drying. Also by the end of the day my shoes and feet were soaked. I have a second pair for tomorrow and a second dry strategy; plastic bags inside the foot warmers.

I rode with Sean with his trike for the first 2 hours and 17 miles. He ran out of steam and took a car ride to lunch. Then I rode with Sandy, Amy and Mary until lunch. After lunch we had our first casulty, Karen somehow had her tires slide out on a railroad crossing. Police and ambulance responded. Several stitches over her eye, a bad wrist sprain and some lower back pain; mmm, not good. I think a few more slipped but did not hurt themselves as badly.

We had quite a lot of flats today; I missed that adventure. Repairing tires in the rain was not fun.

The two worst spots today were in the vicinity of the Lewis and Clark bridge over the Columbia River. About 4-ish miles south on US30 is a looong uphill that is a killer! Then crossing the very high and steep bridge in a rainstorm with hail, sleet and 30 mph winds, together with riding in the roadway with manical truck drivers wasn't fun. Adding to it for me was my rear shifter started to bind up requiring much strength to get one gear change at a time. I couldn't get below 4th gear which took a lot of riding leverage away. But I made it. I had a young man with bike repair experience look at it today and in the process of trouble shooting the shifter wire broke. Susan will be taking me into the repair shop at 8am to wait for them to open at 9am to fix it. Well I'm off to bed. I'm certainly earning those sponsorships! lol Thank you all! BTW, Kyle announced we're at $275,000 now! Awesome! With that, good night!

So, it's close to 10pm, Susan and I are tucked into bed consciously not listening to the pitter-patter of raindrops outside our window. Pretty cool here in Portland today, plenty of rain and plenty of wind too. Went to the airport at noon to pick up Marion and wound up with 4 others! lol Everyone arriving noonish to be at the Outback lunch by 1pm. Lunch was great. Kyle shared the rider count is at 70 and it snowed in Seattle today (And I left my knobby tires at home!) We all split up until tomorrow at 7am and the ride beginning at 9am. I am still working on several rain plans and worrying about some of the others that may be underestimating the rain effect.

My riding plan now is to hang back the first day to talk with and support the slowest group. Then Tuesday I will push myself more if there's anything left to push lol. We're getting up at 4:50am so I'll sign off now. Thanks again to all my sponsors and supporters!

Last message until Sunday night after the Outback kickoff lunch. Sonoma Mountain was tough today. Only 4 days since our last ride we kept telling each other. Toward the top when I was low on oxygen and the "red mist" and blurred vision (Honest!) started I started wondering at 63 when you tear down muscle through exercise do you have enough testoserone to rebuild it?? It wasn't feeling like it! lol Then I thought of 4 days in a row, mmm.

The computer calibration worked like a charm. Temperature when we started was 43 degrees. At the top mileage was 3.8 miles, max speed - 17mph, average speed - 6mph and I don't remember the elapsed wheels turning time. I'll see if Dave remembers tomorrow. It took a while. ;-) Back at the house total miles was 7.591 miles, max speed - 25mph, average speed - 8.7mph (average on the way back was over 12mph) and time was 52 minutes - 18 seconds.

The radio worked great on the level but it was irritating to me as I was struggling up the steep grades. Finally unplugged it. I guess it interferred with my concentration?

Well, that's it! I'm trained! Guffaw! Talk to you again in Portland!

We made the new, improved and latest goal of $2,000! Thank you to all that have sponsored me, or thought of sponsoring me and couldn't for whatever life limiting reason (and there are lots of them out there right now). I, Brianne and the whole FA community around the world (and yes I am plugged into a number of them and indeed they are thankful!) thank you all so much. You are all so wonderful! There are numbers of good basic research ideas and one or more of them will hold the answer; money is the key now. The more money the faster the research pace. So, now should I move the goal to $3,000?? Mmm, I think not. Moving it once because I was too conservative, maybe, but now I think we'll just see how much higher it will go on its own!


Kyle Bryant reported last evening Ride Ataxia (of which your money is part) has reached its goal of $100,000!! Wow! A hecka bunch more money for research! Mmm, should he raise the goal?? lol Naw, let's also see how high that total will go!


Kyle also said pray for good weather! lol I guess the extended forecast is looking gloomy. We will ride on in whatever weather! C'mon Advil and Vit C!


My bike is ready! I finished it today.
- Susan just rolled her eyes, but she keeps making me things to help. Yesterday she made me a beanie from the same stretchy material my arm/leg warmers are made of. It goes accross my forehead, down over my ears (barely), and accross the back of my neck. This compliments the smaller top 'o the head one she did Saturday. So, if it's really cold, on with the ski hood, at 40-ish swap for the beanie, up to 45 - 50 and the smaller top goes in. how will I know when you ask? The thermometer in my cycling computer of course! lol
- The raised handlebars and rearview mirrors, not to mention the headlight and single rear LED flasher will keep me safe and upright.
- The Konanz don't-stop-'til-you-drop hydration system (long aquarium tube stuck in the drilled out top of my water bottle) works flawlessly.
- Today I tuned in the cycling computer's odometer calibration so I will be able to give you exact max and average speeds, miles traveled, elapsed time, and, a running tally of how hot or cold it is throughout the ride! Whew, maybe communicaton/information overload, eh?
- Finally, saving the best for last, I dug out my $1 garage-sale-brand-new-sealed-in-the-box armband jogging radio and have afixed it to the right upright of the raised handle bar! Sweet! If only it were bluetooth! lol
See if you can find all my goodies in these pics!



Tomorrow morning Dave and I take on Sonoma Mountain one last time before I leave for Portland. I may wear my rain gear just to see if it disinegrates in the first 2 miles or if it has terminal tight spots. :-)

Paul

Well it's been a week since I've written and a week since I've ridden! My bike is ready. I put the finishing touches on it last night; headlight and red flasher rear light, and after my free computer wouldn't work I bought one! :-)

We rode the Sebastopol run this morning and everything hummed. Good pace and no chain shifting problems at all. I like this. No black oil on the fingers. The cycling computer says I went 17.4 miles at an average 13.5mph and achieved a max speed of 20.5mph (musta been downhill and a stiff back wind!). All this took me 1 hour and 17 minutes. I have some reservations about the timer accuracy that I have to check out but with this performance a day's ride might be right at 4 hours; only a half a day's work! Now I just have to work on not wanting to go directly to bed after each ride! lol One more training ride next Tuesday then on with the adventure!

We leave next Friday for Portland, will visit with our long time friend Jo and her new hubbie Donald, have an organizational lunch Sunday provided by Outback Restaurants (do patronize them please, they do wonderful community donations all the time!), and then Monday morning it starts! Stay tuned.