I have officially entered my very first Century Ride!!!
For those of you unfamiliar with the lingo this means that in May of this year I will be participating in my very first 100 mile bike ride!
If you can believe it – that’s not even the coolest part, seriously. First of all, I won’t just be rolling around NYC or its surrounding areas. This ride is none other than the Echelon GranFondo, in Napa Valley California!
Not bad huh?
It gets even better. The ride benefits LIVESTRONG and both The Queen of the Valley Medical Center and The Saint Helena Hospital located in the Napa Valley, California. All donations will be given to cancer research and support, most of them local! For my ride I’ll be raising at least 300 dollars but I hope to have with much more than that by May!
Think of it, I get to pack up my bike, fly to one of the most beautiful places in the country and do what I love best, all while raising money for local cancer research? I can’t wait!
How did I get involved in this? Well, one of my favorite fellow healthy living/food bloggers posted word a couple of days ago that she was starting a team for the ride. I read her post and I realized almost instantly that this is exactly how I wanted to spend my Spring.
Training for a long ride with a tangible goal in mind is absolutely perfect for me. I admit I let myself mull the idea over for maybe, I don’t know, 3 minutes? Then I just went ahead and signed up. Many of my most cherished memories in my life have begun with decisions just like this one. Spontaneity isn’t for everyone, but it most certainly is ideal for me.
So, I’ll be doing a LOT of training for this ride and blogging all about it but I’ll also need your help. I won’t need much – but any donation would make a difference in a really meaningful way. So think about it? I’ll be posting links to the donation page soon.
In the meantime here are some more images of Napa and the of the layout and difficulty of the race. I can’t imagine how wonderful it will be to ride the California country side with hundreds of other like minded cyclists. I have a big smile on my face right now just thinking about it.
The course:
The difficulty:
The view:!!!
It’s definitely shaping up to be an incredibly exciting Spring!!
I’m so excited for you Jill! I know a few people training for the ride in Tahoe and I think it is crazy scary but mostly wonderful. The thought of clipping my foot into a bike….yikes.
Good luck!
Thanks so much! I am really excited too! If you ever need tips on cycling please ask away, in the meantime it looks like you’re kicking some butt of your own running 8 miles a pop. I’m impressed.