Less than four weeks till the Furnace Creek 508

The infamous Stage 3, Furnace Creek 508

As the clock continues to tick down to the start of the 2011 Furnace Creek 508 (watch the countdown on this page) Team Wild Hare is finalizing logistics, race strategies, and training for the race that is now less than four weeks away. The Furnace Creek 508 is unlike any other ultra endurance cycling race I have participated in previously and while Team Wild Hare will be a 2-man squad as opposed to the 4-man team I raced on last year, the crew is equally important to a successful finish! We are fortunate to have two friends joining us that not only have a professional medical background but are also ultra cyclists themselves. The team and assigned stages are:

Amy Bode: Co-crew Captain

Peg Miller: Co-crew Captain

Steve Bursley: Stages 1, 3, 5, 7

Mike Melville: Stages 2, 4, 6, 8

We are at roughly $4,000 in donations for this season and I would like to thank everyone who has contributed and reach out to those that may still be waiting to consider hitting the link on the top right side of this page and show your support. While I am excited to participate in the Furnace Creek 508, my main goal is to raise awareness and MUCH NEEDED research dollars so that the great work that the Jeffrey Modell Foundation started more than 25 years ago can continue delivering breakthrough treatments for Primary Immunodeficiency (PI) and ultimately a cure. As I have shared before more than 10,000,000...yes TEN MILLION people around the world are living with this disease and due to the frequently overlooked common symptoms, often go undiagnosed for years. Once again, I have the personal commitment of Vicki and Fred Modell that all donations will be matched and directed to Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford which is under the direction of Dr. David Lewis who is a world renown Immunologist and also one of my son's doctors. Last year "WE" raised more than $10,000 which meant that more than $20,000 went locally to the Jeffrey Modell Diagnostic and Research Center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

As I shared at the start of this post, this race will take a team effort and "WE" can't finish strong without strong riders on the bike and a great crew supporting those riders. This will be a difficult race and at least twice a hard a last year but as I make the 13 mile 3,800 ft climb up Townes Pass (EL 4,956') in the dead of night as my second of four stages, I know I will have the inspiration of my son Nicholas and the 9,999,999 other children and adults around the world that deal battle the PI every day...for me, it's a choice to participate in this race but for someone with PI it was something they were born with.

I am also pleased to share that you will be able to track the team again this year on the web thanks to the generous support of our friends at SPOT. The following link was captured during the race last year and then photos uploaded and linked to the various locations/times during the race - 2010 FC508 Magical Liopleurodon. I will post a new link on this blog to access the web page that will enable you to follow us again this year with updates roughly every 10 minutes as we compete in this 508 mile non-stop ultra endurance bicycle race...this can only be done with a SPOT GPS MESSENGER that posts via a satellite uplink! We'll also post photos and updates during race check in and if possible during the race from the very rare locations that offer cell access. We'll also post to the one.tough.ride FB Fan page so if you have not LIKED US yet please check us out.

Last, we just received the new one tough ride "Racing for 10 Million" silicon bracelets that will be sent to everyone that makes a donation of $20.00 or more. They look great and are obviously for a great cause. Also, if you would like to make a donation but would prefer to send a check or cash, please send those to:

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

I will try to post once per week up till the team leaves for Southern California for the race and then will be posting to the blog and our FB page throughout the day during race check-in and up till the race start at 09:00 PT.

Best,

Steve