Yesterday was the 2009 Katie Ride for Life, a cycling event for novices to serious riders to participate and raise funds to increase awareness of the importance of organ and tissue donation and encourage Floridians to make a positive decision
about donation.

It offers several courses, ranging from 31-miles (50 kilometer) to 100 miles. I participated in the 100-kilometer (62 miles) event and had a wonderful time, while raising money for a very important cause. Overall, there were 550 riders registered for the event, which started in Amelia Island, just north of Jacksonville. The course was fantastic, with most of it taking us along roads covered with tree canopy and past the coast in Fernandina Beach. This year the event also added 5- and 10-kilometer walks for folks who do not cycle.

It was a beautiful day for a ride, starting out at about 60° and staying sunny all day. There was only supposed to be a slight breeze (4-6 mph) during the time I would be riding, though the wind speed by about 10:30 or 11:00 was closer to 12 mph, which makes for a bit of a challenge when riding into the wind along the coastline. For about 30-40 minutes, it wasn’t much fun, but once we got a little bit inland and started riding through Amelia Island Plantation, it was all worth it.

I ended up on a team that a friend of mine rides on each year, called Team Liver Families. A couple members of my triathlon club rode with us as well. Most of us did the 62-mile course, though my triathlon friends went on to finish the 100-miler.

I decided to ride my road bike for a couple of reasons, as my triathlon bike was in the shop for a tune-up and I had planned to ride in a group for most of the ride and it’s hard to do that on a triathlon bike since it requires sitting more upright
in order to get to your brakes easily. As it turned out, our group split up into faster and a slower groups, and while I was running out of gas trying to keep up with the faster group (they were doing 24-25 mph) and knew I couldn’t do that for the entire 62 miles, I wasn’t wanting to stay with the slower group, which was doing 17-18 mph. I ended up riding with different teams and even by myself a bit in order to stay at the 20-21 mph pace I wanted to maintain.

I hooked up with two women cycling in a group as we came out of Amelia Island Plantation when the three of us broke away from the group to ride a little faster. We followed the rest of the course (along the coastline) back toward the start and after about 30 minutes or so, I was struggling to keep the pace with them. We were doing 21-22 mph into headwinds for most of it and they showed no signs of tiring. I stuck with them until we got to the Finish Line, by which time I was pretty much fried and they seemed barely out of breath.

It was a beautiful ride and a great opportunity to see friends and make some new ones. My physical therapist was riding with the Mayo team (they always have the best jerseys!) and I saw a couple other folks out there as well. The Fernandina Beach police department did an excellent job (thank you, Mark!) at keeping us moving through the course despite being on roads that were fairly busy with traffic. I raised a little over $300 for the Katie Caples Foundation thanks to these donors:

• Kim Brock
• Janis Compton
• Louise Favata
• Kim Fore
• Alan Harmon
• Heather Harper
• Gloria McNeil
• Rebecca Nimnicht
• Edward O’Keefe
• Amy Sharp

This was my first cycling event and I can definitely say that I’m looking forward to doing another one. The Tour de Cure (a ride to benefit Diabetes research) is at the end of May, but I’m reluctant to try to fundraise again that quickly (my friends get a little tapped out if I do this too much) but that could change since it’s only a $150 minimum. I’d like to do the Tour de Forts next weekend, but I have a half-Ironman coming up in three weeks and should probably not kill myself during what should be the start of a taper period. I’m definitely doing to do the MS-150 this year, though I haven’t yet decided if I will ride with Team Citi or Team Mayo, as I have friends on both.