What have I gotten myself into this time...

I did something today that *might* have been a little foolish.   But like most of the foolish things I get myself into, it should at least provide some blog fodder ;)

What did I do?  (I'm going to assume since you're still reading, you're at least moderately curious as to the answer -- except Kennedy, cause, well, she already knows :).  I, for reasons beyond logic, have committed to participating in the Ride to Conquer Cancer this June.

This goes well beyond my usual insanity in that it is a ridiculous challenge on not one, but TWO levels.   First, she who has never ridden more than 60km in one day and never without doing a whole lot of nothing the next day, needs to somehow pull off 200km in two?!?!   And it's Canada, so I'm not counting on consistent Laur-approved cycling weather any time soon ;-P. This does not strike me as a reasonable ask.  I have booked the day after the ride as a vacation day ;)  And second, she who is phenomenally bad at asking for help and hates asking for money with a passion (there's a reason I've never been in sales!) is somehow supposed to raise a minimum of $2500?!?!   Minimum -- yeah the "recommended" target is $3800.   Ummmm.  Right.   Let's just lower the bar a little shall we?   Sheesh.

For the uninitiated, this ride is one involving a bicycle instead of a horse.  Fail.  It covers 200km from Toronto to Niagara Falls and should, at least, be a rather stunning ride :).  Can we all start hoping now that the weather gods choose to make it sunny, breeze free, and about 20 degrees that weekend? ;).  I do, in fact, own a bike -- which I purchased last year and have really enjoyed riding.  But there's "enjoy" riding and "capable of spending all day" riding -- I'm pretty firmly in the first half.

So why?   Well we all know I'm due for another completely ridiculous goal.  And this one at least helps humanity -- it's a fundraiser to benefit Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, one of the world’s top 5 cancer research centres, which has a goal of defeating cancer within our lifetime.   They're doing so by focusing simultaneously on four areas: detecting cancer earlier, diagnosing more accurately and specifically, focusing treatments to target cancerous cells while leaving healthy tissue in tact, and support programs to help families living with cancer.  So that seemed a reasonable place to start.

I once wrote a post -- something along the lines of "why I ride", that was, of course, focused on horseback riding.   Nostalgic me wants to go find it and reread it; practical me has too much stuff to do tonight!  And last night thinking of the above question, I re-wrote "why I ride" to be the more personal answer to the above question and have decided to use this to support my sponsorship page.  It seems slightly wrong somehow, to post the more personal answer on the public page, but I feel it is by far the more important reason. (And yes,  I get that this is public too -- but I suspect far fewer people read this than hopefully will see that).

So grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the ride ;).  And if you have a minute while you're waiting for the stories to roll in, feel free to visit my Ride page.   You have no idea how much help I need!

Oh - and if anybody else wants to ride with me -- use this link to register: it'll get you $50 off the registration price and put money toward my goal :)