Oh wow! I cannot believe I did not see this yesterday! Thanks so much everyone! The ride was emotional, but fun. I'm so glad I did this one! I am including my "official" race report:
We raised $1.5 Million in San Jose alone! This is the BIGGEST fundraising event in the history of the Live Strong challenge! Thank you for helping me be part of it. I knew this ride would be emotional, and it was. I even got to hear Lance Armstrong, the man himself, give an incredibly touching tribute to Tony Snow. Regardless of your party affiliations, knowing that cancer took a man with such power, strength and resources is humbling. I’m glad I got to participate in this ride as it really brought home how necessary the cancer research remains.
Yes, Lance rode along with us. No, I did not see him on the ride (I’ll bet very few people did – no one can keep up with him!!), but to know I was riding in the same event as Lance Armstrong is pretty powerful. I also got to ride with a cancer survivor. My company’s VP of Support’s sister-in-law is a breast cancer survivor and has been for a year. I loved getting to know her as well. I was also approached many times because of the number of people I was riding for.
The ride was fun. We started off in downtown San Jose. The streets were closed so we had them to ourselves. What a powerful sight as thousands of cyclists filled the streets of downtown! San Jose is in the middle of the Silicon Valley, so it’s fairly flat in the middle, but we have mountains on both sides, and we rode both sides. We started by heading to the west through Saratoga and Los Gatos. We hit some minor hills, then we had a killer climb heading in Campbell. The hill was deceptive – it did not look as if it should be as hard as it was! I hate those kinds of hills! But, at least it was behind us and we had a fun, curvy downhill back into the valley.
We rode to the far reaches of San Jose, and then finally started heading East. Around mile 30 we started the big climb up into Silver Creek Country Club. The East side of San Jose has no trees, so the climb was brutal as the breeze had died, but fortunately, just as many of the riders decided to walk (no, not yours truly - I had been doing Cathe leg work, the hill was doable! :+), we turned a corner, the hill lessened and a breeze came up. I have never appreciated a breeze more! Once over the hill we had a fun downhill (I got up to 40 mph) then had a sharp right turn and another uphill, although not nearly as bad as the first. Then it was down hill from there, and what a relief that was! From there it was smooth sailing to the finish line! I’m feeling good and ready to go for another ride, but not today.
