forgetful

Fresh off of Shannen’s 10K performance, we’ve set another goal – Ride the Rideau – a 100km bike tour on September 10, 2011.  This one’s a bit different though.

• Good: riding 100km along the Rideau canal and river from Ottawa to beautiful Merrickville.
• Better: fundraising to support the Cancer Research Centre at the Ottawa Hospital.

Cancer has had a profound impact on our family, so this is definitely a cause we can get behind.

But beyond raising money for cancer research in general, the work that the Cancer Research Centre at the Ottawa Hospital is doing is pretty amazing.  For example, they have discovered that in order for cancer cells to divide rapidly, they have left behind some of the typical defenses that a cell has against viral infection.  This has led to the development of “oncolytic” viruses that replicate in cancer cells and destroy tumors without harming normal tissues.  They are now in clinical trials with this technology.  How cool is that?

There’s lots more information on the good that the Cancer Research Centre is doing and more information on the research programs underway.

Shannen and I both hope to raise $1500 to support the Cancer Research Centre … links are below to pages where you can donate and help us towards that goal.  Choose who you donate to wisely – it’s a competition, of course!  These donations are of course tax deductible, and you get a receipt to your email right away to file away for use next April.

• Support Dan!
• Support Shannen!

(I was tempted to make the “support Shannen” link go to Dan’s page, but that would have been unfair 😉 )

We promise to follow up with photos of the event, and report on how bad our bums hurt after a full day on the bike.  That reminds me … I need to tune up the bikes …

Rather than go through a minute by minute replay (which would take you 70 minutes to read) I thought I’d share some of the awesomeness from Saturday.  In bullets:

• 10K is always longer than I think it is.  When I rounded the bend and saw that I’d only passed the 1K mark I almost stopped.  I was already tired.  But not stopping was so much more excellent.
• The crowds cheering us on are Ah. May. Zing.  Seriously.  At points where I was most tired the crowd would start shouting and clapping and giving high fives and I was able to keep going.  So, whether you were cheering for me from afar (your emails, messages and tweets, btw) or standing on the side of the road giving me, a complete stranger, the will to carry on, thank you.  You are awesome.
• The water stations are too few and far between.  But when you get there, it’s like heaven.
• I ran a full 7K without slowing down to a walk.  That may be my record.
• When I did slow down, my legs felt like jelly and I briefly thought they might collapse under my weight.  Note to self:  Slowing down to a walk after 7K is dumb.
• I can’t believe that people run full marathons.  They are superheroes.  And also crazy.
• A good playlist can make a world of difference.  Mine was only so so.   There we a couple of gems on there though, so next time I’ll be prepared.
• I set a goal for myself in January.  I followed through.  It is literally the best feeling in the whole world.
• The day after my whole body hurt.  Every muscle that can throb is still throbbing.  But on the HUGE upside, my knees aren’t in pain.  Did you hear what I said??  MY KNEES DON’T HURT!

I’m not sure it’ll be anytime soon, but I will run 10K again.  Maybe next time with a buddy.  Anyone interested?