Yesterday was GEAR UP day for the Ride to Conquer Cancer, and we were encouraged to get new members to sign up to our teams.  I am happy to announce we had THREE new members sign up!

I have already welcomed Krista Butt, who had pledged to join our team, and is now officially on it.  Welcome again!  Can't wait to get out on the road with you!

I would like to welcome our two other newest members:

Jay Strelaeff:  We met Jay at the League of Rock and he was a fabulous supporter of our ride last year. He tried to join our team last year but missed the cut off by only a few hours.  He has joined us because he feels it is the right thing to do.  We are excited to have you with us!

Mick Dalla-Vee:  We also met Mick through the League of Rock, and he expressed an interest in joining the ride last spring as well.  Here is what he wrote about his reasons for riding:

My mother died at a young age (49) with me at a very young age (9). Cancer has weaved it's way in and out of my life ever since (as it has with many many people). Most recently my family lost the life of my dear friend and ex-wife Joanne. Watching her fade from life so quickly over the course of months was an ugly thing to behold.

I have a few friends who are survivors and some who continue to struggle at this writing.  My ride this year will be in memory of: (and sadly, I will be adding names to this list...)

Joanne Dalla-Vicenza, My brother Mario Dalla-Vicenza, My brother-in-law Ren Bertolo,My mother Cecelia Dalla-Vicenza,My dear friend Mike Norman

Mick is already proving to be an AWESOME addition to the team - in his first 24 hour period after joining, he has received over 20 donations to the tune of over $1600!  Way to go Mick!  Hell of a first day!

We are still looking for new members - if you feel you would like to help us make a difference, please do not hesitate to contact one of us and we will hook you up!

OTHER NEWS:

We now have an official Rock the $#@! Out of Cancer band! 

Main vocals:  Wayne Oberst

Bass:  Dave Tucknott

Guitar: Jay Strelaeff

Drums:  Mark "Sparky" Hodson

Keys:  Krista Butt

Backing vocals and Sax:  Lory Oberst

If we are lucky we may even get Mick to sit in with us when he has time! 

We have put the band together to help with our fundraising efforts, and hopefully to play for the riders during first night.  We haven't come up with a name yet - any suggestions?

So here it is September already - how did the summer go by so quickly?  It seems the ride was only yesterday. 

But here we are, getting our team together again, setting up training rides and thinking of ways to fundraise.  But first, we have some great new members on our team this year and we need to introduce them:

Peter Goudswaard volunteered as one of our support crew on the last ride, and was so inspired by the riders that he has joined the team to ride this year.  This is a cause very near and dear to Peter's heart as his wife, and our wonderful friend, Lisa, passed away from brain cancer last November.  She is always in our hearts and is missed very much.

Krista Butt also volunteered as one of our support crew last year, and was also inspired to join to ride this year.  This is definately a pattern, as I myself volunteered as crew the first year and ended up riding the second year.  Krista hopes the ride will help her to set and achieve goals and gain more self discipline.   Krista was also fabulous last year in donating her time, talents and frames for our silent auction - Thank you Krista!

Terry Senft, my dad, has joined our team this year.   This really makes it a family affair as my brother and his wife have signed up again this year and my mom has said she will work as crew.  We lost both my dad's parents and his younger brother to cancer,  and many extended members of our family have been hit by cancer as well.  However, I think the biggest motivator for him to join was the fact that if I could do it, ANYONE could!  Race you to the finish dad!

Angie Peters joined our team right after the ride this year - we welcome you aboard!  Angie is riding for those she loves who have fought this battle, including her nephew who at the age of 10 was diagnosed with a rare form of adult male brain cancer.  He was not expected to live but is 20 today. 

Jayson and Evie Dirks have pledged to join up, and we are holding them to it!!  :)  We would really love to have you on our team, riding by our sides.

We welcome back old members as well:

Our team captains, Wayne Oberst and Scott Dunnet

Our island girl:  Nieves Sierra

Our Calgary connection: my brother and sister in law Darren Senft and Marcia McLellan

And then there is me:  Lory Oberst

We have a few others who have talked about joining our team, YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! and we look forward to seeing your names on the roster soon.  We would like to send out an open invitation to everyone to join our team and help us raise money to combat this insidious disease. 

We are also putting together our own rock band for the cause.  We would love for it to be comprised mainly of riders and are looking for other musicians to join our ride. 

I would also like to THANK AGAIN, all our wonderful sponsors from last year, especially our four major ones:

SIGNAL SIGNS AND GRAPHICS

98.5 THE HAWK

JACK'S CYCLE

KLOHN CRIPPEN BERGER

We are always on the lookout for more sponsors and if you or anyone you know would like to sponsor us, please let us know!

AND A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY WHO DONATED TIME AND MONEY TO OUR CAUSE, WHO CAME OUT TO OUR EVENTS AND SUPPORTED US, AND WHO ALWAYS STOOD BY US IN OUR QUEST.  WE LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Check Out The Rock The $#@! Out Of Cancer Truck while it rolls around the Fraser Valley promoting cancer awareness.
Special Thanks to signal Signs & Graphics.
Better photos coming soon.

This beautiful guitar has had custom graphics designed and applied by Dustin Hamel from Ace Signs in Chilliwack.
The bidding started at $1000 and quickly shot up to $3000.
If you want to bid on this piece of art you can do so on this site or in person at the Rock The $#@! Out Of Cancer Benefit Show this Friday night at the Evergreen Hall in Chilliwack.
The bidding will close at midnight and the winning bid will be announced at the show.
All proceeds will go to the BC Cancer Agency via The Ride To Conquer Cancer.
Please bid generously.

Every Easter weekend my family sails to Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, with the Pt Roberts Yacht Club.  It's a fun weekend, with boat hops (any excuse to eat and drink), a pot luck dinner with a crazy easter hat contest, and a huge Easter egg hunt in the rose gardens for the kids.  We manage to get in lots of card playing and kicking back and relaxing (read DRINKING).  I have always enjoyed this weekend.  Roche Harbor is beautiful and peaceful - a great place to unwind and let go of your cares and worries.

However, NOW it also means PAIN, and lots of it.  This year, Wayne and I decided to bring our bikes and Scott elected to come with us.  What could possibly be a better training ground than a hilly (VERY HILLY) peaceful island?  My father ALSO thought this was a fabulous idea and brought his bike along to ride with us. 

Saturday morning we awoke to beautiful clear blue skies.  I was eager to get going - I'd been out riding (on FLAT Chilliwack ground) and had been feeling pretty good about my progress.  While I knew I wasn't going to be riding circles around these guys, I figured I atleast wouldn't hold them back too much. 

We started out with a few gradual long hills.  I was going along ok - if by okay you mean managing to stay on the bike while going slower than someone walking and feeling like your heart is about to explode out of your chest.  But I was STILL on the bike, and that was good.  The downhills were my rewards and I was happy.  Then came the first killer hill (for me).  LOOOONG but gradual, I was about half way up when my thighs siezed right up.  I had to get off the bike and walk.  And realized I couldn't.  My thighs had somehow been replaced with blocks of granite.  It was the wierdest feeling in the world.  At that point they hurt, but it was more the feeling of immobility that struck me.  While standing there, dumbfounded by my lack of movement, I spotted some deer across the road.  I snapped off a few pics and decided that would be my excuse for stopping!  Aha!  The guys would NEVER know the real reason.  (They were already over the crest of the hill and couldnt see me) 

I did manage to get walking and made it to the top of the hill.  The next few hills were ok, and at a few points I had "Wayne Assist" - where Wayne would ride beside me and actually PUSH me along.  Then he would take his hand away and I would go OOOMPH. 

Half way to Friday Harbor we came across Mona the Camel.  We stopped and took some pics with her, she is very gentle and nibbled on my shoulder for a while, which I thought was humourous until I realized my shoulder was sloppy with camel spit.  UGH. 

FINALLY, we came around a corner and there she was, beautiful in the afternoon sun, Friday Harbor.  I rejoiced in my heart as I rode down to the waterfront - I made it!  I made it!  Not realizing I was going DOWN to the waterfront and would have to then RIDE BACK UP.  After a protein bar and gatorade, we headed back to the hills (did I mention it is REALLY HILLY?)  We had been in Friday Harbor for about 30 minutes and I had not moved around very much.

We started on the hill back up and I simply could not do it.  I couldn't even walk.  My legs just refused to move.  It was SO FRUSTRATING.  And thats where the tears came in.  Wayne was wonderful and supportive and after a few minutes I was able to get going again. 

Going back to Roche Harbor I walked up a lot more of the hills than I rode.  And even the walking was hard.  Once I was warmed up again I was able to ride up more hills but the pain became a constant companion. My legs would spasm as I was trying to go up hills, and just stop working. Now, this was more exercise at one time than I have EVER done, in my entire life.  I have not exercised regularly in at least 10 years, and have only ridden the bike 3 other times.  So perhaps I should not have pushed myself so hard.  But I did it.  I rolled back in to Roche Harbor still in one piece. 

Now, anyone who knows me well, knows I have a low pain tolerance.  But this REALLY HURT!!!  It was crazy. And yet, yesterday they didn't hurt at all, and today I feel fine too - with just the occasional spasm.  I view this as a good thing - I shall get back on my bike tomorrow and ride (on flat ground) and keep my legs in motion.  I made it through one trial by fire,  I know I can push myself and keep going. 

Again, thank you to everyone who is following us in this journey, and supporting us.  One of the things that helped me carry on was knowing how many people were pulling for me. 

I shall continue to keep everyone posted  -  and will stick some photos of our training up here later. 

Lory

Darren and I took our bikes outside on Sunday April 10 for the first time – prior to that we were busily spinning in the basement!!  We went 40 km all in all with a big uphill to start and the same big hill to go down at the end!!   Something to keep thinking about on those nasty uphills: it’s just like putting money in the bank so you can spend it later!!!  Here was our route (thanks Scott for showing us this website, very cool):  http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4424606 

We were accompanied by every other road bike rider in the Calgary area, as it was our first nice day SANS SNOW since November! 

 We are joining a weekly ride group that leaves from our neighbourhood every Tuesday  night.  These guys, led by our neighbour Nigel, are riding in the Calgary RIDE so have similar training objectives.  If Darren gets home early enough tonight we will join them, if not we will see if we can catch them!  It’s a chilly 5°C today but sunny so we will be bundled up!  Our back-up (if we chicken out due to temperature) is a group ride in Sherri’s garage – we went there last week with our friend Blair (thanks for inviting us, Blair, and having us, Sherri!). These guys are hard-core racers and triathloners so yet another good workout!

 Happy riding team!

 Marcia & Darren

 PS, these pics were taken on March 25!!  Thankfully that big pile of snow behind me has largely melted!

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Click here to download:

So_nice_to_be_outside.zip (2.38 MB)

Hi Team!

Klohn Crippen Berger, Marcia and Darren’s employer, has pledged $1000 to the RIDE!!

Thank you KCB!

Marcia & Darren

I wanted to post earlier, but life got in the way! 

First off, a few thank yous. 

THANK YOU to Dukes Pub for hosting our fabulous pub night.  THANK YOU to everyone who came out to said pub night!  THANK YOU to everyone who tried their luck at the twoonie tosses and the 50/50 draws.  THANK YOU to everyone who bid on our silend auction items.  We brought in just over $2000.00 - YAY!

THANK YOU to all the companies and people who donated items to the silent auction:

Home Depot Abbotsford, Mountainview Harley, Jack's Cycle, Winks, Country Colour Photo, Undines Day Spa, Wellington Emporium, Jackson's Steak House, Valley Toyota, Dukes Pub, Royalwood Golf Club, Don Turenne, Pacific Eye Doctors, Mopac, Green Apple Hair Care. 

Please let me know if I have missed anyone. 

THANK YOU to the Chilliwack Yard, Garden and Renovation Show for giving us a free booth last weekend.  We were able to talk to many people and spread awareness of the ride.  THANK YOU to Show In Motion who provided power to us for free so we could have a video and slide show constantly running.

THANK YOU to all the people at the show who bought gumballs to help us raise money!  We made just over $500 in donations that weekend.  YAY!

Now for a WELCOME!! 

We have a new member on our team!  Please join me in welcoming Nieves Sierra to Rock the $#*! Out of Cancer!  She is from Sydney, BC and has been training and raising money all on her own.  If you're on the island, please support our Island Girl as much as you can!

And finally, some pics from the weekend:

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Click here to download:

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Well it looks as if I am going to skinny down that name just a touch.
As many of you know and most of you probably do not, we are working very hard to put together a benefit Rock Show with the proceeds going to The Ride To Conquer Cancer. The show is scheduled to happen on Friday May 13th at the Evergreen Hall in Chilliwack BC.
We have had an excellent response to this idea thus far and are overwhelmed with the generosity that people have shown in trying to help make this a reality. The event will be brought to you by 89.5 The Hawk, Sound Octopus, Go Audio, and McDonald Entertainment. The plan is to have 4 top notch bands perform that night to give people a night to remember and raise as much money for cancer research as possible.
We have managed to secure 3 so far and I personally am very excited to have them on board.

- Jesse Wainwright and Cam Melnyk from the Juno Award nominated band State Of Shock will be performing an accoustic set of their hits including  the chart topping "Money Honey" which was #1 on the Canadian All Formats Radio Chart for eight weeks and has spent more than nine months on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 Chart.
- Reel Vinyl has had two albums released through Universal Music Canada, four singles to radio and a top ten Canada wide charting single "The World Will Notice". REEL Vinyl is entering the infamous GREENHOUSE STUDIO in April 2011 to record their next album.
- Shady Mae is a hard hitting Southern Rock band who are about to release their first album. While still relatively new on the scene, this band is already making a name for themselves in the Vancouver music scene.

I am still working to secure one more act that is legendary in Canadian music. As soon as I get the green light I will officially announce it here first!!!
Check back frequently and watch as this thing develops a personality of it's own.

Wayne Oberst