I am hoping we are in Twentynine Palms two weeks from now

Nick at the top of Longview Drive

Nick and I in our Team Wild Hare jerseys - top of Longview

As I write this post there's now less than two weeks till the start of the Furnace Creek 508!  And while finishing the 508 for a second time would be a welcome achievement, it just cannot compare to the thrill of reaching the top of Longview Drive in Pleasanton on Saturday with Nicholas. Longview Drive was actually relatively short in relation to our overall 16.3 mile ride (that we completed on Saturday) at just over 0.3 miles but that's only part of the story. Longview Drive hits grades of up to 28.4% (AVG Grade is 15.2%)! Nicholas and I set a goal just after we got the tandem (in May) of making it to the top of Longview Drive and we nailed it this past Saturday which was also the day we were celebrating his 11th birthday as he'll be at Outdoor Ed this this Wednesday during his actual birthday on the 28th. I was extremely nervous about doing this climb with Nicholas for a number of reasons but as we neared the top Nick dug deep and once we reached the top we stopped and after a round of High-Fives, we shot a couple of photos and then headed down the hill to complete our ride.

Anyone who has ridden a tandem knows that it takes two people working together as a team! And in many ways, this is similar to winning against diseases such as Primary Immunodeficiency. Last year, we worked together and raised more than $10,000 which was matched by the team at the Jeffrey Modell Foundation resulting in more than $20,000 going to the Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

You have donated more than $4,000 to the one tough ride 2011 project and we're going to keep the fund-raising going through the end of October. THANK YOU to everyone that has supported the project and to those that still wish to make a donation, you can do that electronically by clicking on the JustGive button on this page or if you prefer to send a check or cash, those can be sent directly to:

Jeffrey Modell Foundation
780 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Attn: one tough ride project

I'll continue to update you as we prepare for the race and I'll also post various links for you to track Team Wild Hare as we compete against a field of 230 racers from 10 countries around the world in the 2011 Furnace Creek 508, "The Toughest 48 hours in Sport".

Best,

Steve