Day 2 - Run for the Roses, Kids CARE Ride, Exploring Austin

Today started with a couple of the smaller weekend events. The Run for the Roses is a 5K run which Sean and John participated in, while the Kids CARE Ride involved Lance Armstrong riding through the streets of Austin with hundreds of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. We all watched the Kids CARE event and participated in the excitement.

Janus Wall of Hope 

The Janus Wall of Hope provided all attendees and participants to write a note or their own words of inspiration in support of and in memory of those who have touched their lives and have been stricken with cancer. There were many messages of inspiration along the wall, with many drawing at each person emotions.

While my message wasn't long or flowery I wanted to remember those who have touched me along the way, as well as those who have inspired, and continue to inspire me. I owe a deep thank you to many people and this is one way I can return the thanks.     

AMD Kids CARE Ride

Here the kids are getting ready to start off the annual Kids CARE ride. AMD sponsors this event and provides all of the volunteers to make this event happen. They also donate money as part of the event to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Though the volunteers stressed that this was not a race, it was impossible to keep the energy of the kids to a minimum. 

            It isn't very often that a 5th grader gets to race against Lance Armstrong.

Meeting Mari Holden

Accompanying Lance on the Kids Care ride was Mari Holden. Mari was a Silver medalist in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. Since everyone was swarming around Lance we got a chance to meet Mari and get some pictures, as well as autographs. Although I am sure Mari wished the boys had taken a shower after their 5K efforts before having the picture taken.

Mari was also the 2000 Time Trial World Champion.

Meeting Lance Armstrong

Lance was also very accommodating to the crowd and provided ample opportunity for autographs, which we were lucky enough to be in on. Hard to believe you can be nervous getting someone's autograph, but after watching and reading about his story and his career it was difficult for me not to be nervous when it was my turn. As you can tell the media was also very involved in the weekend, wanting to get Lance's time as well to broadcast the event. All of the events were on all of the local TV stations.

Powerbar Sports Expo and Survivorship Panel Discussions

Held in the Austin Music Hall, the Powerbar Sports Expo was also home to Survivorship Panel Discussions. The goal of the expo and panel was to enlighten people on cancer, what it means to survive and how they survived cancer. There are many amazing stories in this crowd and I am sure we will hear many more. 

Some of the images below are very fuzzy as they were projected onto a screen at the front of the auditorium, making them very grainy.

Part of the event was a continually scrolling slide show of names and pictures of individuals who have survived cancer, as well as those we remember who lost to cancer. I submitted the name of the family friend I am riding to support, Raymond Addler. Though this picture is very fuzzy, it includes a picture of Raymond on the Alaskan Highway along with his bike all packed for the ride. Raymond is truly an inspiration to all of us having survived four separate battles with cancer, including the loss of a third of one lung and a large chunk of his thigh. Despite all of this and being over the age of 70, Ray recently returned to the bike and rode again. While Lance is an inspiration in the way he fought his cancer, Ray has come back four times and refuses to lose.

Exploring Austin

After the morning's events we all set out on our bikes looking for a good place to eat. We stopped by Chuy's, a local Mexican restaurant, and got some grub. We then rode to Barton Springs at Zilker park to hang around the park and even took in a rugby match. Oh, in case you were wondering, we chose Chuy's because it is listed as one of Lance's favorite restaurants - you never know when you might have a hankering for Mexican.

You may be wondering what Sean is looking at in this picture. Chuy's has hundreds of old hubcaps hung from the ceiling throughout the restaurant. When they set the table your silverware is in a sanitized bag with a small, colored sticker holding it shut. The hubcaps and most other fixtures are covered with these small round dots with messages written on them. They are very entertaining to read, so we added our own messages to the collection.

We will probably have more to add later today, but this has been a full day already. Tomorrow brings the first real ride of the week. They are expecting over 7,000 riders for the event, so look for updates again tomorrow.

Thanks again for the continuous support and the donations to date. We have raised over $2,000 for the two events combined and will hopefully have more donations when we return from the trip. For those still interested in donating, the cut off date for donations is May 15th.

Riding Update

Very little riding was accomplished today, but we did log the miles.

Miles: 5.6
Average Speed: 10.3
Total Trip: 5.6 Miles