Things are getting tight.......

 Doing it for our brother.

Back of the 2024 Huntsman HEROES jersey.

Front of the 2024 Huntsman HEROES jersey.

This is the eleventh year riding for Huntsman. It's been a helluva ride along the way. I've written about that first year and how I spontaneously wrote my cousins name on my sleave the night before the race. Her fight was with Glioblastoma (brain cancer). A few years later it was little Hadley - same thing, Glio. Along the way, every jersey has been worn only once with meaning to each one. Names of individuals somehow involved in a fight against the "Big-C". Last years jersey was pretty intense and I cut it a little close on the finish. After all that, I felt a little of the gravity that goes along with the honor and commitment of doing this type of thing. Right - I know, I'm not curing cancer, nor am I making that pain go away, but I can do this - I hope. Turns out our brother (Reed) is fighting Glio as well. As such, the "gang" has all agreed to place their names on the jersey in honor of Reed and his fight. We didn't have time to send it around to all twenty-something of the group, as I just received the jersey about nine-days ago. At that, two-weeks ago I thought I was out of this thing (another story that I would just as soon forget). Here were are, getting it ready and I'm in this thing for keeps. The jersey will go to the family tomorrow to markup the front, sides and wherever it fits. Reed won't know about it until after the race (ride). Absolutely zero pressure on this one.......UGH!

The biggest mobile billboard on the road

Lets face it, I'm not built for road cycling - at all. That said, as wide as my shoulders are, I can put up a pretty good platform for a billboard. You want to get a message out, well.....I'm only a little smaller than a box-truck. It's not about me, but that is a lot of "beef" to push to the top of three mountain passes over the course of a 200+ mile bike race. Last evening I did a session of hill intervals for basic maintenance. I mean.....at this point, other than dropping about 3 ounces of mass, nothing is going to change between now and Saturday morning (barring an injury). I can say those first three sets were still pretty painful. By the mid way I was using the harder gears and pegging the force at lower cadence. To my surprise, my heartrate was still mainly in zones 3 & 4. I never did get into the threshold - again. One thing is for sure, that is definitely some serious mass. I'll use it to my advantage.

Donations

This year is a little different, as I have also pasted a link to Reed's "Go Fund Page". I still have the link to Huntsman over at the top righthand-side of the "PAGES" column. To be clear, Huntsman is a registered 501(c)(3), so you can claim it if needed. When you make that donation to Huntsman, you have the option to direct your donation to an area of your choice, but not an individual patient. It is my understanding that Reed is getting his treatments at Huntsman, but is also having to cover some expenses out of pocket expenses as well. From the looks of it, they haven' seen much activity there for the past several months. The Porpoise rides for everyone, but cannot make decisions as to who, how or when donations are handled. That said, please follow your better sense and do what you believe in your heart to be the right thing to do. I know that things are tight for a lot of people these days - I get it. If nothing else, pass this Blog page along to a couple people and get more traction. The Porpoise gets nothing out of it, but it does help the algorithm find the page when people try to search for it. Page views do make a difference. Donations always help  - regardless of where they land.

The "Gang"

I've mentioned this group before, but will go in to a little more detail in future posting -hopefully before the race. Until then just know, we are all brothers (and sisters) from a long time ago. These jerseys have seen too many of our fellow Scots & Lass names over the past few years. I have a picture in my office of the "Porpoise" coming into the finish line in which you can clearly see a specific name on my right shoulder - that went all the way back to second grade. She had lost her battle with the "Big-C" earlier that year. I mean...........this has gotta be stopped! Until then, our gang still supports those a part of our lives and our principles.

Talk about "big" bodies and mass......... Eric and boys got together back during Covid, as to not be outdone by Morgan and Doug (see the previous post and compare the work).

Click here for "Big Fat Funky Booty" - Spin Doctors

Pulling for REED! Ride HARD!