How far would you go to save a life?

100 miles on a bike?!

Hi, my name is Sara McGinley. On June 7, 2009, I will ride 100 miles around Lake Tahoe on my bicycle to help raise funds for blood cancer research. I am participating in America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride as a member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives.

Why am I doing this?

As many of you know, my dad was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma on April 12, 2006. Fortunately, the cancer was detected at a very early stage and he began treatment immediately. In August 2006 he finished with chemotherapy and in October 2006 he finished radiation. In November, all of his scans and tests showed no evidence of cancer. The doctors have issued him a clean bill of health and he is in remission now. It is because of organizations like Team in Training that my dad is alive and well today.

In addition to riding in honor of my dad, I am riding for our little honored Mississippi hero. His name is Felder. He is a 4 year old little boy from Bogue Chitta, MS. Felder was diagnosed on August 28, 2008 with Acute Lymphocitic Leukemia. He loves playing sports, playing outside, riding 4-wheelers, fishing and hunting, drawing, playing video games, playing with his little brother, and puzzles. Felder will undergo 2 & 1/2 years of treatment. He reached remission in the first phase of treatment and is currently still receiving chemotherapy in a consolidated phase of 6 months.

A cancer diagnosis, especially if it is to someone in your family, totally changes your outlook on life. You begin to see what things are truly important and which ones are things that you can live without. It was a very humbling experience to watch my father go through his treatments and then less than a year later participate in the same biking event I will participate in this year. If my father can go from barely able to climb stairs without losing his breath to riding 100 miles on a bike, I think I can too. He has been such a huge inspiration to me, and so now in his honor and in honor of all blood cancer victims, I ask for your support in helping these true heroes cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

I need your help!

I have set a personal goal of $10,000 for my fundraising. That is $100 for every mile I ride. You can help me by making a secure online donation right here on this website, or by sending me a check (please email me for more info about sending a check). Your tax-free donation will go towards patient aid, blood cancer research, and education for doctors and care providers. In addition to your donation, I ask you to please support me through your prayers and encouragement. 100 miles is a long way - I'll need your help!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission.

I hope you will visit my web site often. Be sure to check back frequently to see my progress. Thanks for your support!

Progress

2-8-2009

Well training has not officially started yet, but Dad, Chris, and I have done a few little get our rear ends used to the seat again rides. Last week Dad sent out an email asking if anyone in the area's cycling group knew of a women's bike for sale that was my size. I'm pretty sure he got a quick response. A guy was getting rid of a bike he had bought for his wife. She just never really got into road biking. Well we went over a looked at it that night, and I left his house with a new bike for my ride. I got an Orbea Aspin Sport and I love it. Yesterday morning I got to ride my new bike for the first time. Dad, our good friend Zach, and I did a little 10 mile ride. I certainly notice a difference from my faithful mountain bike and my new road bike. I love my mountain bike, but man am I glad to have gotten the Orbea. Until my next ride, take care! Thanks for checking in!

2-21-2009

First of all I want to apologize. I have not been very good at updating my page as often as I should. Last Saturday we did another 10 mile ride out Old West Point Road and back. The ride felt good. I can tell the hills are getting less intimidating. That is not to say they're easy, but they're just not so brutal. After the ride, we went and met up with some of our other MS teammates from the running group. It was nice to all meet up and talk about our progress thus far.

This week has just been filled with little maintenance 3, 5, and 7 mile rides. Thursday's 7 mile ride was the hardest until today. Thursday we had a sustained 16 mph headwind fighting us. Usually, going down the hills there is not so much need for pedaling. That day though, there was no such thing as coasting. I thought, surely most rides aren't like that. I learned how wrong that thought was this morning.

This morning we went out to the Natchez Trace. That is a beautiful ride. Let's just say the first 7-8 miles were smooth and well paced. The trees were so beautiful and the temperature was just right. On the way back though, another headwind deicided to come at us. Zach, being the machine that he is, just cranked right on through and made it look easy. I, on the other hand, looked like the amateur I am:) The last seven miles, our pace changed from a steady good pace to a grinding weak 14mph avg. In all, it was really nice to get out and ride hard this morning. The feeling of getting up to go early in the morning is hard, but the payoff after is so worth it. I send my thanks to dad and Zach for continuing to be patient with me! Also, thank you to all of you who have donated and are praying for me! I'll try to do better with the updates. Til next time....take care.

3-15-2009

I just got off my bike from a good long ride. It was my longest thus far, in fact. We went (according to my odometer) 27.73 miles. That might not seem like far to a lot of people, but I sure feel like I crossed a big line today.

Back tracking a little bit, last weekend we did a 20 miler. That was a fun trip, because at the turnaround point I noticed I no longer had a water bottle. We found it a few miles back toward town. Dad picked it up for me as we rode by and caught back up to me. When he handed it off to me, I took a nice long swig and though "uh oh....we grabbed someone else's water bottle that was lost." The drink that was in my bottle was not what had been there before. Luckily dad had just handed me his instead of mine, but we all got a little laugh out of that.

Usually during the week, I get a maintenance ride in. Last week, though,I got the flu. Talk about a schedule interupter. That pretty well kept me off the bike this week. After today's ride though, I'm back and ready to go. Bring on next week! WooHoo! Thanks for your continued support and encouragement!

5-13-2009

Sorry all for the lack of updating. There is no excuse for not updating, but it seems as though I let school take over. Well this past weekend (Saturday the 9th) was a 60 mile ride. Whew! We got about 20 or so miles out and the weather started turning for the worse. We turned around and headed back to the house, refilled water, and by that time the weather was good enough to head back out. We headed back out Old West Point Road and looped around through the university. About the time we got to the university, I was wearing out fast. I felt a hand on my back and thought "the Lord is pushing me through." I looked back and laughed when I saw my dad literally pushing me up the hill. Since the ride was a bit tough last week, I'm stepping up my training this week. Once again, special thanks to my dad for being patient and pushing me up those hard parts. Also, thanks to all of you for your prayers and support!