Hello friends....well I am coming out of a brief summer retirement to ride again and finish the 10 Century Challenge this fall!  I have made it through 7 centuries to date, my last one being the "Velo4Yellow" right here in Wake County on July 16.  The heat was a major issue and I only made it 86 miles - but we're counting it!!  I have my eyes on 2 rides coming up, one in Greensboro and one down at the beach - I like rides east of here because the land gets flatter!!  I'm updating today because I saw this heartbreaking video.  Why watch something like this?  Because it hits me so hard and injects me with determination to do all I can to eradicate this horrible disease that devastates children and their families.  Please join me.  

http://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/moms-heartbreaking-reason-back-school-photo/story?id=41919865

Greetings friends & family, I’m overdue for an update on my quest to complete 10 Centuries.  5 down, 5 to go!!!  Since my first ride at the “After the Bridge Run Ride” in Charleston SC, I’ve completed 5 100-mile rides in a space of 7 weeks, one every other weekend.  I’ve had to make one adjustment to my schedule – I did not ride in the 2^nd day of the Tour de Cure on May 17^th, as I had to attend the funeral of a friend that day – so I created a “Capital Area Greenway Century” and rode 106 miles last Sunday (May 24^th) to make up for the miss on May 17^th.

The riding has been pretty good, and I’ve only had to deal with one thunderstorm, three weeks ago during the Raven Rock Ramble.  I’ve avoided any significant injuries, and I have to say that as I have completed more rides, they have become a little easier, though I always seem to struggle through the final 10-15 miles.

Fund raising is going well and I am VERY thankful for all of you who have made a donation to the cause of curing blood cancers!  A great deal of progress has been made in the development of treatments, but it is still the case that one-third of patients diagnosed with a blood cancer do not live beyond 5 years.

There are two people close to me currently fighting – my Dad’s very close friend Walt, battling multiple myeloma, just received a transplant of his own stem cells, and a good friend of mine has a son named Brandon who was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia several months ago – he is being treated with the drug Gleevec, a miracle drug that was developed in part with funding from LLS.

Next Sunday, June 5, I’ll ride in the Fletcher Flyer out in the Asheville area., which will be my 6^th ride.

Ride #7 will be the Velo4Yellow ride on July 16^th, out of Wake Forest.

As you can see, I am working very hard for a cure!  Please consider making a donation, every dollar goes to help saving lives!!  Thank you again for your support!!

Dear friends - it's Sunday morning and I am really sore (again)....yesterday I completed my 2nd 100 mile "Century" bike ride in 2 weeks.  My inaugural ride was the "After the Bridge Run Ride" in Charleston - actually northeast of Charleston in the Francis Marion Natinoal Forest.  That was a great ride, very flat with excellent weather.  I posted a personal best time, though I try not to focus too much on speed, other than to "pace myself".  

Anyway, with some fortunate drafting I was able to finish in about 5 and a half hours.  After a week in California with Renee, celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, I participated in the "Tarwheel Century" ride yasterday in Elizabeth City, NC - about 3 hours from Raleigh.  Another very flat ride (I like these rides out in coastal Carolina!), but we got a very windy day, with 20-25 mph winds kicking in around 10:30 am.  That made it a tough slog, but we persevered to the finish.  I was thinking of all the people who are fighting cancer as I was riding into the wind and remembering Jim Valvano's iconic words - "Never give up, don't ever give up".... 

Next up is the "Raven Rock Ramble" on May 1, two weeks from today.  So, we're off and running!!  Fund raising is going well too; please consider a donation any time; there's no rush as I will be working to complete this challenge into the fall.  For those of you who have given, THANK YOU very much!  Your donations save lives!!! 

Welcome to my 2016 fundraising page!  Today I am thrilled to announce that as my endurance “event” for 2016, I will complete no less than ten 100-mile “Century” bike rides.  My objectives continue to be:

• To inspire other cancer patients and survivors to challenge themselves to accomplish great things, possibly even greater things than they did before cancer
• To leverage this incredible miracle that I’ve been given – a cure from Richter’s transformation , leukemia and lymphoma – for all the good I can
• To creatively plan events that push me to higher levels of fitness and new experiences and achievements
• In so doing, inspire others to contribute to the cause of curing blood cancers, especially in children.

There are many really exciting therapies in trial now, therapies that are not chemo-centric, nor transplant-centric, but that have demonstrated “cure-like” results.  Here is a link to one such story:  https://youtu.be/__PUhj8thr0

This will be a nearly year-long quest.  I have already begun training, with 50-mile rides each of the last two weekends.  I will work my way up to 75 or 80 mile training rides over the next couple of months, then do a practice century sometime in mid March.  The first official ride will be April 3^rd in Charleston SC.  I have chosen 9 rides so far and registered for the first 3.  Here is the schedule thus far:

April 3                        After the Bridge Run Ride                  Charleston SC

April 14                      Tarwheel Century                                Elizabeth City, NC

May 1                         Raven Rock Ramble                          Raleigh, NC

May 14                       Day 1 – Tour de Cure                         Raleigh, NC

May 15                       Day 2 – Tour de Cure                          Sanford, NC

June 5                        Fletcher Flyer                                     Fletcher, NC

July 16                        Velo 4 Yellow                                      Wake Forest, NC

Oct 2 (TBC)                Bike MS NYC                                      NYC, NY

Oct 22                         Carolina Century                                 Greensboro, NC                    

Today my website is open for donations, but in light of the unique event that I have planned, feel free to consider a unique way to give – as an example, you might consider making one donation per Century (I know this creates additional busy work but c’mon it’ll be fun!).  Of course any gift at any time is heartfelt and deeply appreciated. 

I am very fortunate to have a great friend, Rob Allan, who loves to ride and said “I’m in!!” when I told him about this quest.  So for most of these rides, I will have a riding partner to plan and participate with.  I appreciate all your prayers and positive thoughts concerning this pursuit – I will need some divine grace to have my body hold up through this punishment.  Until my next update - Love to all.  Dan