darren
Poobah Emeritus
First off, big thanks to all the team riders and volunteers. I'm really psyched that you all joined me for the event. You all said you would be back next year and I hope so. You were a great bunch to ride with and hang out with for the day!
Next, big thanks to everyone one that sponsored us and donated to the Brain Tumor Society. The donations are still coming in and being added up. Right now we are at about $4100. With some late donations, I hope to make it to our original goal of $5,000. Please consider donating if you haven't already.
The ride started off with teejay crashing (sleeping, not actually crashing his bike) at my house the night before the ride. Carmel, teejay, and I had some semi-cooked shizmac sized burgers and then enjoyed watching another Red Sox win which featured the Sox pitcher, Josh Beckett, hitting a home run. Nice!
Sunday morning we headed up to the ride. Due to a some miscommunications we didn't get to meet Roxi before the ride. She knows her way around a bike, so no issue for her! She was down to business and off on the 50 miles. We met up with John Satterlee (who has done the ride almost as many times as me - you rock John!) and skiguy. John and skiguy were also going to do the 50 mile route and they were right down to business too.
John's daughter Emily volunteered to help at the ride again this year. Big kudos to her! Emily was joined by her friend Michelle and they were both all smiles.
We met up with DaveSunRa, who had also volunteered to help with the event. Dave was busy helping people register. He had a busy job, because the registration table he was working at was for a team that had well over 100 members.
Now that is a goal for VFTT!!!
I had planned on doing the 50 mile route, but sadly enough I have had no time to train this year. I have been doing just a little bit of traveling for work this year. In the last 5 months I've flown on 32 flights. They don't allow me to set up the trainer in the aisle on the planes so I only got to ride 3 times before the event. So, I figured I would do the 25 mile route. It worked out because no one else on our team was doing the 25 mile route so I made sure Team VFTT was represented on all 3 routes. The group doing the 25 mile route lined up at the start and I was off on my ride.
Carmel had hurt her knee and so she elected to do the 10 mile route with teejay. She was really bummed out that she couldn't do a longer route because she knows from last year how nice the longer routes are. She was also bummed out because the injury has made her feel like she is "getting old". Now that is funny. teejay grabbed his bike, named "the beast" and they were off on their adventure.
You start the ride and before you know it, it is over. As Roxi said, "it was the fastest 50 miles I have ever ridden." And she has biked across the US, so that is saying something. Everyone was all smiles after the ride. We took some group shots - Roxi, teejay, Carmel, and I, and another one of Roxi, myself and teejay. And then we hit the food tents. Awesome food again this year. So many companies and restaurants donate free food to the event and it is all great. Grilled burgers and hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, bbq chicken, grilled chicken salad, shrimp cous cous, the list goes on and on. BTS puts on a first class event and they do it with VERY low overhead. Hats off to the BTS management team. They really know how it should be done and they should serve as a model for other charities.
Post food chats moved to the parking lot and teejay and skiguy got a new avatar. It was great seeing John and Emily, and teejay again. It was also great meeting Roxi, DaveSunRa, and skiguy. All of them were really nice and it was like we had all known each other from a past hiker gathering. Classic VFTT event!
Tom Rankin signed up as a virtual rider. So I'm guessing he rode his bike on the Devil's Path. Tom - tell your story and post pix if you have them. Hope your day went as well as ours.
Once again, big time thanks to the riders, volunteers, and everyone that donated!!!
- darren
Next, big thanks to everyone one that sponsored us and donated to the Brain Tumor Society. The donations are still coming in and being added up. Right now we are at about $4100. With some late donations, I hope to make it to our original goal of $5,000. Please consider donating if you haven't already.
The ride started off with teejay crashing (sleeping, not actually crashing his bike) at my house the night before the ride. Carmel, teejay, and I had some semi-cooked shizmac sized burgers and then enjoyed watching another Red Sox win which featured the Sox pitcher, Josh Beckett, hitting a home run. Nice!
Sunday morning we headed up to the ride. Due to a some miscommunications we didn't get to meet Roxi before the ride. She knows her way around a bike, so no issue for her! She was down to business and off on the 50 miles. We met up with John Satterlee (who has done the ride almost as many times as me - you rock John!) and skiguy. John and skiguy were also going to do the 50 mile route and they were right down to business too.
John's daughter Emily volunteered to help at the ride again this year. Big kudos to her! Emily was joined by her friend Michelle and they were both all smiles.
We met up with DaveSunRa, who had also volunteered to help with the event. Dave was busy helping people register. He had a busy job, because the registration table he was working at was for a team that had well over 100 members.
Now that is a goal for VFTT!!!I had planned on doing the 50 mile route, but sadly enough I have had no time to train this year. I have been doing just a little bit of traveling for work this year. In the last 5 months I've flown on 32 flights. They don't allow me to set up the trainer in the aisle on the planes so I only got to ride 3 times before the event. So, I figured I would do the 25 mile route. It worked out because no one else on our team was doing the 25 mile route so I made sure Team VFTT was represented on all 3 routes.
The group doing the 25 mile route lined up at the start and I was off on my ride. Carmel had hurt her knee and so she elected to do the 10 mile route with teejay. She was really bummed out that she couldn't do a longer route because she knows from last year how nice the longer routes are. She was also bummed out because the injury has made her feel like she is "getting old". Now that is funny. teejay grabbed his bike, named "the beast" and they were off on their adventure.
You start the ride and before you know it, it is over. As Roxi said, "it was the fastest 50 miles I have ever ridden." And she has biked across the US, so that is saying something. Everyone was all smiles after the ride. We took some group shots - Roxi, teejay, Carmel, and I, and another one of Roxi, myself and teejay. And then we hit the food tents.
Awesome food again this year. So many companies and restaurants donate free food to the event and it is all great. Grilled burgers and hot dogs, pulled pork sandwiches, bbq chicken, grilled chicken salad, shrimp cous cous, the list goes on and on. BTS puts on a first class event and they do it with VERY low overhead. Hats off to the BTS management team. They really know how it should be done and they should serve as a model for other charities.Post food chats moved to the parking lot and teejay and skiguy got a new avatar. It was great seeing John and Emily, and teejay again. It was also great meeting Roxi, DaveSunRa, and skiguy. All of them were really nice and it was like we had all known each other from a past hiker gathering. Classic VFTT event!
Tom Rankin signed up as a virtual rider. So I'm guessing he rode his bike on the Devil's Path.
Tom - tell your story and post pix if you have them. Hope your day went as well as ours.Once again, big time thanks to the riders, volunteers, and everyone that donated!!!
- darren
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