Do I look fat in this spandex?

Welcome to my Team In Training home page! Because I am ridiculous, I am training for a 100-mile endurance bike ride, the Solvang Century, which takes place in March 2009 near Santa Barbara, CA.

I am riding to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Those of you watching at home who recall my lone year on the Smith College crew team recall both my lack of team spirit and my inability to raise money, but that was seven years ago, and now I've got a reason to ride.

I'm riding in memory of my friend Andrea Coller, who died in April 2008 after a long battle with Hodgkin's Lymphoma that consumed most of her

young adult life. Ironically, on the day she died, Glamour magazine published her prize-winning essay on surviving cancer, called "I Want My Life Back."

You'll learn a lot about her from that, but it's also worth mentioning that I met her when I was in college in 2003, living in Northampton and volunteering at the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton. Being part of that community changed my life==and so did knowing Andrea. A talented musician (hear some older stuff here), an amazing writer, a stylist, and a Tic-tac poppin', coffee-and-whiskey-drinkin' genius with attitude to boot. Her friends==of which I was only one, and not even in her closest circle==miss her. I am riding for Andrea. (That's her, in 2003, on the left. I took that picture. We were stamping ourselves with the hand stamps at PACE which were all old farm feed stamps. Andrea's showing off her RABBIT FEED tattoo there.)

Please consider donating in support of my efforts and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's pathbreaking work. At a time when someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer every 4 minutes in the United States, supporting research to find a cure is ever more critical.

Thank you so much. And check back here for updates on my ridiculous adventures riding around the Bay.