Last year at this time I was getting ready to ride 75 miles for the first time in my life. I wasn't sure I could do it, and I was equally unconvinced that I was going to succeed in completing my goal of riding the full 100 miles of the America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride that I had signed up for. A year, and about 3000 miles later, I'm getting ready to do it again. It's been a good year. Since I completed my first century, I've ridden with Team in Training to complete 2 more centuries - one of which was a dusty butt bashing 111 miles in the desert of Tucson. And I'm not done yet! After I complete my glorious return to the ride in Lake Tahoe this June, I will be getting ready for my biggest challenge yet. Over the next few months I will be training to ride 120, yes, you read that right, 120 miles in Las Vegas in September. Oh. Yeah. Vegas, baby!

During the last year, I've become a bit of a Team in Training junkie. I've volunteered as Fundraising Captain for 3 seasons back to back working with the teams to help raise over $100,000 for patient care and blood cancer research. It's been more worthwhile than my addiction to Cheetos and box wine, and I've gotten a lot more out of the arrangement than I've given. You should see my calves! Team in Training has given me great friends, a great way to spend my Saturdays, a chance to see places I would never have seen, and it's given me an effective way to make a difference.

Don't I sound all kinds of noble? Well I'm not. What I am is tired of burying my relatives or tossing their ashes out to sea because they've died from cancer. That's how we die in my family. We don't do accidental death. We don't do heart attacks. We do cancer. I'm tired for hearing the phrase "he/she has cancer" tossed casually into conversation. It happens all too often. Last year when I first started doing this, I found out that one of my childhood friends had breast cancer and another family friend had been diagnosed with Leukemia. It's gettin' old. I'd also like to be pleasantly surprised to find out in the afterlife that I died in my sleep (next to George Clooney) because someone found a cure. A girl can dream, can't she?

Last year I was able to personally raise $6000 for the cause through the kindness and generosity of my friends, my family, and a lot of total strangers. And I'm hoping to do as well this year. Every dollar raised makes a difference. Help me make my dreams come true!

And if you've got George's phone number...

I ride each day in the memory of the people I love that I've lost to cancer:

Donn Tatum

Vernette Tatum

Parrish Tatum

Corb Donohue