Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Final recap for 2005

Thank you very much to everyone who supported the Ride to Cure Diabetes. The donations have all been collected. Personally we raised $7,000. Our West Michigan Ride Team raised over $115,000, and overall the Death Valley Ride raised more than one million dollars for diabetes research. The ride itself was a very intense experience. We rode 105 miles through Death Valley in 95 degree heat. The toughest part was a six mile climb at a six percent grade at the half way point of the ride. It took us over an hour to get up the hill to Jubilee Pass, and 10 minutes to get down. The entire route took us about nine hours to complete.

We'd like to send special thanks to our coach Mike Clark and the rest of the West Michigan Ride Team. It was definitely a team effort that helped us complete the route. As wiped out as we felt at the end, we also know that we have accomplished something great that will help our son Jake and all the other kids with Type 1 diabetes. We've also decided to do it again in 2006. So watch this space in the coming months as we send training updates for the Death Valley Ride to Cure Diabetes 2006.