Race To Anyplace

This weekend's big event...The Power of the Pen Tournament. Just kidding. But the creative writing team I coach did do well at Friday's district tournament...8th grade took 1st, 7th grade took 2nd, and all 12 writers are advancing to the Regional tournament. My co-coach and I took over the coaching from quite a winning dynasty and we were a little nervous about keeping our school's winning reputation. Looks like we were able to do it! Way to go Comets!

Anyway...the event that truly consumed our weekend was The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Race to Anyplace.

Race to Anyplace is essentially a 6 hour team spinning event. Teams of 12 each raise a minimum of $500 and then take turns riding 15 minute shifts on a spinning bike (set to a very high resistance to make it extra difficult). Since Eric works for LLS (Leukemia and Lymphoma Society), he spent most of Friday night setting up for the event, which was held in the lobby of a large downtown office building.

And then he was there ALL DAY Saturday for the event. I couldn't let the opportunity to cycle pass me by...and the Race to Anyplace was a great chance to see some of my Team in Training cycling friends (some who rode on our team, some who rode for other spinning teams).

So I headed down to take my turn on the spinning bike.
Cate was my biggest fan. She even put on her cycle gear, which was a hit with just about every person there.
She even showed off her stretches.
My cycling friends kept me entertained while riding by cheering me on and dancing to the music, which came courtesy of a local radio station.
In the end, our team--Team Olive Branch (named for a killer hill we train on outdoors with Team in Training)-- rode over 80 miles between the 12 riders. Quite a feat when you consider how high the resistance on the bikes was.
When we finally got home, we napped, slept, scrounged for dinner, and went back to bed. It was busy day for all (yes, even Cate, who made more than one rider smile with her outfit and who busied herself running all over the lobby).

I encourage you all to check out Race to Anyplace and see if there's an event near you. It's sure to be a fun, if not exhausting day.

~Melody :-)

PS...My legs are still killing me.

PPS...In other LLS news, my homeroom at school raised over $420 for Pasta for Pennies, another LLS campaign. So now, I'm getting duct taped to the wall (we made a bet on our team that the homeroom who raised the most would get to duct tape their teacher to the wall). Pictures will be forthcoming when this actually happens and if I actually approve them to be on this blog. :-)