Cyclebetes Me!

At the end of last week, a friend of mine sent me an email asking me for a donation for a bike ride he's doing in Canada at the end of August. Not only did he get money out of me, but I actually signed up to be on his team.

Cyclebetes. To be more exact, I signed on to participate in the 2009 Accu-Check Cyclebetes Provincial Relay. My team and I will be taking turns riding one tandem bike across the province of Newfoundland. After we hand the bike off to the Nova Scotia team, this tandem bike will be ridden by provincial teams all across Canada. We will start in St. John's, Newfoundland and the ride will end once the bike reaches Victoria, BC.

This is going to be an absolute blast. So far, there are four members on the team. There's Heath who is from Australia. I worked with him during my last stint in Japan. I love Heath (he's rocking fun at karaoke). I also love Jim, who's an American like me. He works in Japan, too. The other member so far is Heath's sister Megan. I think that Megan is actually in charge of the whole Cyclebetes logistics thing. It's more than just the tandem ride across Canada. There are all sorts of other events that take place. As for the relay ride, each provincial team has space for 10 riders.

The aim of the ride is to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, a foundation that supports worldwide research for juvenile diabetes. This is an issue I care about. My mom was diagnosed with this type of diabetes (aka Type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes) in her fifties. She must stick herself at least 10 times per day, either with a needle in the midsection or with a little machine to check her blood sugar. She's lucky. She has competent health care and access to education. As for diabetics in Kosovo...I've tried to find organizations actively working to diagnose type 1 diabetes in Kosovo, but I haven't come up with anything yet. Without proper management, it can be deadly and there is no cure.

So even though I'm complete crap at riding a bicycle and even though I could never really use the tandem bike I had years ago because my upper body strength at the time was too weak, I figure that I can try to raise $2500 Canadian (approx $1950 USD) and I can be part of the team that spends three days riding a tandem bicycle across a small part of one of the smaller provinces of Canada. All the money I raise will go directly to the JDRF and not just the proceeds (ie. money left over after the operating costs have been taken out). The ride starts August 23rd.

If you're interested in supporting my participation, check out my donation page. I'm so excited about doing the relay. I've never been further east than Quebec City and I've always wanted to go to Newfoundland (I wonder if it'll give me any insight to Newfie jokes...). Plus, I'll get to be on a tandem bike! Followed by a support team in an RV! How could that not be fun? Especially if there's even the slightest possibility of throwing karaoke into the mix!