So, the other day I’m sitting around BOB 2.0 and not feeling particularly gracious toward anything on Netflix after having spent 85 minutes of my life watching “Zone Troopers” at the suggestion of my friend Jason. So, I was looking at cycling stuff and I made one of those rash, impetuous decisions that has become a hallmark of why things happen to me like they do.
I signed up to ride in an event called Soldier’s Ride San Antonio. It’s for a great cause – The Wounded Warrior Project – which provides wounded veterans assistance and helps them rehabilitate and get back on with their lives after being wounded in service to our nation.
The ride is one of those deals where a person who has never ridden more than 20 miles at a time (and that was today, by the way) gets people to donate money for them to ride a set distance. Now, a little research shows that the distance for these rides tends toward the 20-60 mile variety which, I can say without fear of reproach, will be a stretch for me, but well worth it considering the cause.
Basically my selling point is this, if you donate money you can rest assured I will be in no small amount of pain by the end of it – probably well before the end of it actually.
The good thing about this event is that whoever organizes these things made sure it was in mid November here in Texas. This does a couple things – first, it gives me time enough to prepare to the point where I can fool myself into thinking I’m in good enough shape to finish whatever the longest distance is they put in front of me – and second, it’s not going to be 110 degrees.
Like it was today. Ok, not really 110. I think the actual temperature was something like 103 or 104. But when you’ve never ridden 20 miles at a stretch before and it’s 103 it may as well be the eighth ring of hell. If you’re not familiar with that place, it is, according to Dante, where those involved in fraud and treachery hang out in the afterlife.
Rarely do you feel more of a fraud to yourself than when you’re 10 miles from your car, without a map (which goes without saying), wondering how much water you have left and discovering how those shorts with padding, while nice, don’t really compensate for not having an ass in the first place.
So, I’ve made the move and put my name down and now I just need to find some folks willing to throw some money my way – well, not my way specifically, but to the Wounded Warrior Project. Ideally, if I could get all 226 of my FB friends to kick in 10 bucks that would more than double the $1000 goal I’ve set for myself. But I’ll settle with whatever you can do and I’ll thank you for it because there are loads of good causes.
So, if you’d like to help a great cause, or perhaps you’d just like to see me on ass-crutches, please follow the link below. If you want to donate but don’t want your credit card information online, send me an email or respond to this blog or on my facebook site and I’ll send you my address. You can address a check to the Wounded Warrior Project and send it to me.
One last thing – please go to my FB site – I posted something there the other day and link my post to your facebook sites – or link this blog to your facebook sites – maybe you have a friend who has been looking for a way to help a vet.
Thanks for your support for America’s wounded veterans.
http://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=447736&lis=0&kntae447736=D37418DC04A240E58F94CC3521DDC2AA&supId=334307797
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