June 25...ACCOMPLISHED!!! The story is written and going down in history...here are some photos. The saga will be shared shortly.

Wednesday, June 2...Fundraising - ACHIEVED!!!

Done and DONE...thank to YOU! It is a beautiful sight...I have achieved my fundraising GOAL - $4300+ (a few checks are in processing). Looking back to January, I did not think I could do this; BUT with the HELP of my friends, family, co-workers, and complete strangers. ACHIEVEMENT was made. The ride is less than 4 DAYS away...YIKES! But I am feeling great and looking forward to tackling it; it is a strange feeling to have - confidence, but looking over my training log I know that I am ready. My team will be there in full force and I know most of you will be thinking of me that day (I will send you a reminder).

For those of you who did not donate...FEAR not I will be doing something again in the future and I WILL hit you up...so look out for my next cause. I believe good karma comes to those who give.

Many thanks to each and everyone of you who supported me - via text, email, hand written notes, on-line donations, phone calls, cash, dinners post long rides, and good old pep talks. My final recap will be coming sometime next week. I will try to post some pictures on FB before hand so be on the look-out.

Tahoe here I COME!!!

Wednesday, May 26...last weekend ride...

On Saturday, I was unable to ride due to a wedding; I several times throughout the day I thought of my TEAM and them riding 90-miles. To try and stay tuned-up my coach Ed agreed to go on a 50-mile ride on Sunday.

It wasn't ideal conditions - cold, muddy, but NO RAIN. We had a pretty adventurous ride - started in Georgetown, then road to Crystal City joined "Ride DC", saw a traveling bike trailer showing the history of bikes, than road the Mt. Vernon trail down to Mt. Vernon. We stopped and snacked on a banana, got back on headed up the trail and crossed over the Woodruff Wilson Bridge, visited the National Harbor. We crossed back over the bridge, rode through Old Town, continued back up Mt. Vernon trail. When then crossed over the 14th Street Bridge, rode by Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and ended back at Georgetown.

Our bodies were covered in dirt, grim, and specks of mud. We both commented on how fun of an adventure we had for the day. I have to say I was 100% full speed; I had been battling a terrible chest and head infection so breathing was a challenge. Every now and then Ed would ask if I was OK, my response, "I have two lungs, as long as one works, I will be fine."

Funny moment in the ride - we were on a residential road and a squirrel jetted out in the road. It ran right toward my bike, in my horse voice I shouted, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!!! WATCH OUT!!!" The stupid squirrel ran right into my tire and bounced off, it scared the stuff out of me. Ed warned me never to swerve, they will either bounce off or suffer; I was more important and swerving could cause me more damage.

At the end he educated me on the gear shifting of Tahoe; sit back in the lowest gear and peddle...don't get caught up on speed, breathe easy...STAY OUT of the big gear unless it is flat or going downhill. I was like a sponge. He then reminded me on how to clean my bike. We then parted ways and he was off to spend the rest of his day with his wife and celebrate her birthday which was earlier in the week.

On Wednesday, it will be my last "buddy ride"...I have mixed feeling about it. But I will make a post afterwards and hope the words come to me.

Friday, May 21... a fundraising milestone and Walter Reed "Hill"...

So I just got a notice that I am over $4000!!! Holy GOODNESS...only $300 more to go. I have to say I was really nervous initially taking on this goal. But I thought long and hard and realized I have amazing friends, co-workers, and family; together we can accomplish this goal.

Last night was one of my last training "Buddy-Rides"; it is typically a 15-20 mile ride and there are several of them offered throughout the area. I usually ride on Tues or Wednesday and Thursday nights. My Thursday night ride is in Shirlington - Barcroft Lake. It is a hilly; woody's ride...told it is a great strength conditioning ride. At the end of our ride, Kirk (my "buddy") said, let's do Walter Reed...I was like...WHY??? He said if I did it I would be deemed "Tahoe READY". So we tackled Walter Reed at the end of our ride. LOVE the DOWNHILL! I will eventually post some buddy ride picks.

It is the tale end of my training and time to make the last two weeks count. This weekend I have my last long ride, plus a wedding (not mine :)). Next week, I will try to get in a couple for more rides. We have to drop off our bikes on Wed and Thursday.

Cheers to riding!!!

Saturday May 15 - 82-miles...Davidsonville, MD and Ocean City, MD

I work up that morning feeling a little froggy and coughing up a delightful color of stuff. I uttered “I AM NOT SICK…it is a BIG DAY!” This was another first - 80 MILES! On Saturday, while most people were sleeping I was eating my normal pre-ride meal: a banana w/PB and a protein bar. My gear bag was sitting on my bench. I was walking around my home jamming to some videos on VH1. I then took a moment on the sofa and start to think about the next few hours. I started to get a little nervous but that faded quickly. I started to view it as just a few hours on a bike enjoying a RIDE...not a RACE.

I arrived at the parking lot in Davidsonville a little bit earlier than expected; amazing, no traffic on the road on a Saturday @ 7AM. The team started arriving bit by bit. I was feeling anxious to get started. My friends started chatting and gathering up. My tires were pumped (100PS), helmet on, sunscreen applied, and chewing on the last bits of my protein bar.

Phyllis approached me and we determined we should ride again together. Melissa asked if I would join her…but she is about an hour fast then me…I politely declined. She managed to find her pace group. Phyllis and I have a great pace and enjoy each other’s company. I also think we manage to push each other at just the right moments. We also are comfortable “drafting” off each other.

The first 26 miles were kind of a blur. I remember that I needed to drink and eat a lot in those first miles so that I was fueled for the end of the ride…when it counts the most. Headwind was low but still apparent. The second SAG was in Ocean City, MD…a cute beautiful beach community. By far one of my favorite parts of the ride; there is something great about riding around forest and inland communities that eventually lead you to the ocean. This was mile 45. We took a little potty/food break; snapped a couple photos. The ocean breeze picked up but the scenery made it a pleasurable/resistance segment. The third SAG (mile 67.4) was at the waterfront in Galesville, MD a lovely bay area just west of the ocean. Here Phyllis and I were feeling the drain. Then a teammate said, “have some PIE, everything will be better.” I was saying to myself, “seriously, no way! How can someone think of eating pie at this time.” Phyllis ended up having some blueberry and loved it; well I ended up having 3 DELICIOUS bites of apple pie. My body was feeling good but I was craving a shot of SPEED or CRACK. I need a caffeine pill or 5-hr like a model needs to hurl before a runway show.

It was time to pull out the mental power…less than 14 miles..I must of said that 20x’s in my mind. The last 5 miles we had this nasty hill – St. George Barber Rd. Riding up I grunted like Monica Seles; at the top a car rode by and shouted “you girls look like rock stars!” At first I thought he was shouting, “get off the road” but Phyllis told me what he said. Those words made me feel much better. We caught up with 2 mentors and rode into the parking lot together. It was 82.5 miles in 6:28:35 (hr/min/sec)…but who’s counting. Phyllis and I embraced and commented on how if we can do this we can do 100. I wanted to stay and welcome in my other mates but had to jet off to a bachelorette party. I welcomed in another dear mate (Lillian) and wished the others well.

Driving off I realized 100 is totally achievable. Next Saturday is 90 but I am unable to attend because I have a wedding. Due to nerves and catching a nasty cold I emailed Ed (team coach) and he has agreed to ride with me on Sunday. It won’t be 90 but it will keep me conditioned.

Trying to keep in good mental and physical health is important over the next 2½ weeks. (Currently fighting a nasty flem situation…BUT I AM NOT SICK.) Com Tahoe I will be 100% lean & ready to conquer the ride and enjoy it with style and enthusiasm.

Saturday May 8 - 71-miles in Gainesville, VA

The coaches decided to go for the "Naked Mountain" ride out of Gainesville, VA described as "more challenging, but you're all able to do this ride", from what the alums said, Naked Mountain was about in the middle of the ride, and a really hard climb. The start was about 45 minutes from home for me. I was apprehensive before the ride (as usual) but motivated myself be thinking about people going through chemo and how they must feel waking up to that prospect.

The forecast was 20-30% chance of thunderstorms and a little windy. Not terribly exciting for riding weather, but that's 70-80% chance of no-rain, right? Most people didn't take a rain jacket, since the window for the storm was short, and the weather was pretty warm.

We rode into dark clouds, very storm like, within the first few miles. Anyway, about 5 miles in, it started to rain. And then rain pretty heavily, big fat drops. I thoughts about taking off my sunglasses to see, but my teammate was in front of me and water kept splashing my face. I thought, if this last an hour I’m OUT! Well, after about 15 minutes, we rode out of it, which was AWESOME!. At that point, however, the wind picked up :) Who pissed off Mother Nature? Seriously! Headwind for 65-miles!

One of my more experienced teammates commented as we were getting ready to ride out that the 72.5 mile ride was really more like an 85 mile ride because of Naked Mountain in the middle. Since 72.5 already seemed like an awful lot of miles (10 more than last week) I tried not thinking about the bigger number. When the wind started up, I just had to laugh, because after hills, nothing makes a ride harder than riding into a headwind (except for perhaps temperature). The first SAG stop was at 26.2 miles, I had been feeling EXTREMELY sore for the first 20 or so - from an earlier workout. I convinced my fellow teammate, Phyllis that we were going to go easy at the start of the ride and pace ourselves, since no matter how great our starts were, the ends were always a grinding slog. She was a trooper and we managed to help each other throughout the ride.

The wind took it out of me a bit, so I rolled into the first stop, had a bunch of food and filled up my water bottles. The alums and team pointed out that that the next stage of the ride was the most difficult by far, and to pace ourselves. I like to be told the truth, NO BS…I need to prepare myself. They tried to describe Naked Mountain, the steepness of the top part (last 100 yards), but when they said "there's no shame in walking" that really kind of made the point.

OK, Naked Mountain is a stern climb, and the top gets really steep. The particularly hard part (much like Sugarloaf) is that you climb gradually all the way to the start of the mountain, so once you get there, your already kind of worn out. I started to climb. I got into a good rhythm, and started feeling like I was going to conquer the mountain! I saw my teammate(s) up ahead get off their bikes as we got to the steep top part of the mountain, I stayed on the bike...kept riding...and just kind of hit a wall as it got steep. At which point, I walked. Phyllis & I were huffing and puffing, calves burning. My HR Monitor was reading at 228!!! At the top, our honored teammate's father was a SAG volunteer for the ride, and was waiting at the top of the mountain to congratulate us and refill our water bottles.

He told us that that this was pretty much the hardest ride he had done when he was part of the team, and one of the all-time hard climbs. And then he said what everyone else kept saying - after the training rides, the Tahoe ride will be great. So that was about mile 46 out of 72.5. Still some miles left to go. They were hilly, they were rolling, and they had some sweeping downhill (clocked at 30MPH)…really cool and exhilarating feeling. Along the way the san was warming my back and coating my farm tan; then I saw a large black SNAKE on the highway sunning itself – FREAKED me out! Good thing I was on a bike that helped me kick up my speed.

At the last SAG stop mile 58.3 they had Oreo cookies…I was totally craving sugar at this time I burned about 2900 calories…I ATE 2…I didn’t feel guilty at all…in fact one of the Alum said I was probably burning it off as I chewed it up – AWESOME!! I look at the que sheet – mire 15 miles left! Another teammate (Kirk - he’s done this ride 6 times) who I’ve trained with mid-week; we started to pick up the pace. I shouted back to him, “let me know when we hit mile 67, I want to shout for cheer…never gone past 67…”, he said, “well we are at 69…”. I started getting ROCKY amped. I realized I only have 4 miles to go. He started talking about mile stones; the time he hit 5,000 and then 6,000.

About 2.5 miles from the end, we wait for my mate Phyllis. We cruised into the parking lot on sheer adrenaline. It was incredible. By then I though…I CAN totally do 100! She and I were just yelling all the way into the parking lot. I was incredibly glad to be done. It took 6 hours and twenty minutes. The lead group finished in about 4:45, the last people rolled in at least 55 minutes after I got back. Happy to be in the middle, happy it was a good ride, happy to have it behind me.

In the car on the way home, I heard all these weather advisories - high wind! NO KIDDING, I could have told anyone that…weathermen are geniuses. What a day! GO team!

May 7...This Saturday – to quote our training coach, “The team is doing so well we decided to change the ride from Lovettsville and the W&OD trail to a more scenic ride that is very popular with the alumni. The terrain is a bit more challenging on this ride but we are confident that everyone is ready for the challenge.”

WISH me LUCK and Donate to my cause…

May 3...a "warm-up" ride - Thurmont, MD (aka Gettysburg & covered bridges)

This so far has been one of the prettiest rides so far. We clocked another 60+ miles…warm-up . It was a warm day, hit 90 degrees around noon. My sun block had worn off and I can now tell time on my wrist w/o a watch and my legs are going to win the contest for “Best Farmer’s Tan”…stay tune for the results.

We rode through 3 covered bridges; every time we went through one I thought of my Mom and her romanticizing the Bridges of Madison County. After crossing that we rode up Liberty “Mountain”…not what a girl form the west coast would call a “mountain”…put on a bike I do feel a bit different.

I also rode into another state…Pennsylvania!!! That was cool, riding and then I looked up and saw a sign…”Welcome to Pennsylvania”.

A high on the ride was riding 5 miles through Gettysburg…in my group was one of our coaches; he is a History teacher who happened to given several tidbits about the area – VERY COOL.

It ended with a nice picnic at the start point.

April 28...money - half way

I just hit 50% in my fundraising...half way there!!! Thank you to all who have joined in the journey...BUT...we still have more to go. Cheers!

April 24...Berryville, VA

It was a cold, overcast EARLY morning. I left my house around 6AM headed out of the city on a 90-minute drive to Berryville, VA. Where I met the crew of usual suspects...my TNT team. My spirit was somber and nervous, after last week's miserable ride (blast Sugarloaf Mtn.). We gathered up, our coach Bill said this ride is one of his favorite and is used on the Century touring ride circuit...BIG DEAL (eyes are rolling). He said, it would be less intense a more gradual hills. I decided early on to hang out with a lovely woman Lillian (her husband Rob is a cycling machine - leaves us in the dust). The clouds continued to show promise of rain. Finally about mile 16 it started to come down and it lasted for about 30 minutes.

At our first SAG stop(Support And Gear...layman's words - potty and food break) - mile 21.9...love peanut butter sandwiches - surprised...think not. I was feeling pretty good. Thrilled the rain stopped, not too wet; I wore a bright neon green cover thanks to my power biking couple Karen and Rob. The scenery was quite lovely, rolling hills, lots of old historic mansions, farm animals (sheep, horses, lamas, cows, etc...). I came across a few climbs that I may have used an expletive word or two. The ones around mile 50 are just not nice.

At our 2nd SAG stop - mile 43 I was not feeling so lovely, truly jonesing for a piece of crack or speed. But I settled on energy jelly beans - trust me they work but I am still banking on the speed. Around mile 55 I was just wanting to stop, finally another coach - Bill rode with me and talked me through a pretty good climb. Now he assured me that the rest was "down hill". I was happy but still a sceptic - can you blame me? Now my Que sheet said 62-miles at mile 62 I realized that I needed to flip it over and see the remaining 5 mile course...UGH!!! Well mentally at mile 66 I was getting nervous with force and determination to pull up and sprint the last mile.

The happiest sight of disbelief is the finish. I slowly hooped off my bike. Stopped my heart monitor - 5:25:13 / avg heart 148/ calories 4092...that made me smile. Started to un-layer my super moist clothing...call it rain or sweat - no difference. I was DONE. It was a small feet and one that will get me ready for this upcoming Saturday.

April 17...Sugarloaf Mountain

The toughest ride so far...it broke my spirit but looking back I feel like it was good for me to hit the wall early so that I could rise above it with 6 more weeks of training. I was feeling great, little did I know I would be facing "THE WALL", "Old Road 100", and "Sugarloaf". I managed I clim the wall with my body feeling solid. The view from the top of Sugarloaf...inspiring and I even took a moment to enjoy the view

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I have to say by mile 44 I was SPENT...but I got off my bike, walked for 5 minutes and then pulled my self together and rode the entire rest of the way. I finished around 5 hours and knew there were still 2 large groups behind me. It was not my proudest moment but I knew I did something I had not done before. On my car ride home I took a moment to reflect on having the physical ability to do what those with the illness could not have done. It was a humbling moment and a good reminder that I am not doing this for myself but for others.

April 10...Amish Country...50 MILES. It was a beautiful ride. I felt like a rockstar. I wanted to take some photos of the Amish but was told I would be fined and bad things would happen. So to avoid any bad karma I just enjoyed the scenary.

February 22nd...the beginning

Welcome Friends and Family to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to ride 100 MILES in Lake Tahoe on Sunday, June 6 to participate in an endurance event as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

I believe that I have been given a healthy life and want to do something for those that can not. 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!

XO!

Carrie Valentine