This is a blog post you don’t want to miss… Today we officially started our trek across the country, but it was not as glamorous as we imagined. The day started off normal with our 7am departure from Central Park. However, it took the team about an hour to travel the 10 miles to the Gorge Washington Bridge (not surprising considering we were biking through the heart of NYC). On the way, it started to rain, and the temperatures plummeted, giving riders the chills deep into their bones. Although crossing the bridge meant the start of the rain, it was a highlight of the day as we got to see the beautiful city of NYC from afar.Once in Jersey, our riders confronted many more challenges, in addition to the weather. Through five flats, a broken derailleur, many wrong turns, and a good dose of hydrogen peroxide, the team pushed through our first 70 miles and came out for the better!Even though the first day was tough, it was worthwhile in the end. In New Jersey, we had the pleasure of staying with the family of one of our Illini 4000 founders, Anish Thakkar. They were wonderful hosts – greeting us with fresh watermelon, cold drinks, and hot showers. After dinner, our hosts surprised us with cake! As we sat around the table, we discussed the Illini 4000 and our mission. Discussing the purpose of our ride, especially after a tough day, reminded us of just how much our hard work will pay off.We would like to extend a special thanks to the Thakkar and Sangankar families. We may have had a rough morning but your hospitality turned our day around! Thank you so much for always supporting us!
Photo by Mukesh Kashiwala
[Journal] Day 0; NYC, NY
"Everyone has his/her reason to be the part of this team.The Team has its reason to bring everyone as one."Thanks for Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation for hosting us an awesome brunch and great time to share thoughts and cheers for fighting cancer today.I also would like to say thanks to my lovely wife, Haeley Park, for all she has done for me prepared. You are the world for me, honey♥My sister-in-law, Yeadeun Park hosted the stayover for first 3 days of my visit to NYC before Day 0. Thanks so much your kindness and love.My both family and family-in-law have made such a huge support from overseas that never fails on me. God bless all of you.Alumni association of U.Illinois hosted the dinner for us and shared great time with us. And finally, St.Paul's Apostles Church gave us a sweet place to stay overnight. With your support we once again find every reason to take on this journey and pray to God for his blessing upon you.Now is the time for us to put our step on the pedal and roll!
WE'RE IN NYC!
After a long 23-hour train ride, we arrived in New York City on Thursday night. We were met by a former rider, Sean Laude, who lead the team through the heart of the city to the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, our stay over. After unloading our bikes and bags, we were given some free time to explore the city. Some riders went out to Times Square. Some ate 1 dollar New York pizza, while others simply turned in early for the night. Two of the riders even got their picture taken with Matthew Broderick outside of the Imperial Theater! All in all, the first night in New York was a success.The next morning, we took the subway to the Damon Runyon Foundation Headquarters. The Damon Runyon Foundation is an organization that funds young scientists who have promising ideas in the field of cancer research. We listened to presentations on what research is currently being done. It's pretty safe to say that the whole team found it rewarding to hear how I4K money has benefited their scientists.After we left the Damon Runyon Foundation, several of us went to sightsee again. Some popular sights were the Statue of Liberty, Wall Street, the New York City Bull, and the 9/11 memorial. To top our day off, the NYC Illinois Alumni Club took us all out to dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. We enjoyed socializing with the alumni over a delicious meal.On behalf of the Illini 4000 for Cancer, we would like to give a special thanks to the city of New York, The Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Sean Laude, The Damon Runyon Foundation, and The NYC Illinois Alumni Club for making our stay in New York great!Tomorrow morning, 5/25, the 2013 Bike America Team will arrive in Central Park (108th St. NW entrance) to embark upon their 4000+ mile journey to San Francisco. If you are in the area, stop by and cheer them on! Next stop: North Brunswick, NJ!
Home, home on the chains, where the cogs and the derailleurs play....
So, I meant to write this some time ago, but one thing led to another and then THOSE things led to finals, which is always a confusing time where up is down, black is white, and the concept of any regular circadian rhythm is cast irreverently aside in favor of figuring out how to do all the things I never understood the first time someone taught it to me, but seeing as we leave tomorrow and anything I post here on out is likely to be typo laden as a result of being typed on a phone, I figure I might as well get around to typing it now. I’d come up with a thing to write about before arrival of finals, and now that they’ve passed (with minimal harm) I suppose it won’t come with same perspective as it originally would have, but in any event, I’ve some thoughts and if you care to read them I suppose I’ll share them with you.The Ol’ University of Illinois campus is kind of a strange place, geographically. Surrounded for miles around by open fields and quaint Midwestern towns, it arises out of nowhere into high rises of twenty-somethings. Given a large portion of the University hails from the greater Chicagoland area (I’m on the far western rim of it myself [corn to the south and west, cities to the north or east]), it on occasion gives, to me anyway, the impression of a miniaturized version of Chicagoland relocated around 3 hours south (to which I’m sure some of those from the southern and central Illinois are greatly irritated, but that’s just a dynamic that sometimes arises between the factions). Anyway, it’s an isolated little pocket of urban life in an otherwise pretty rural part of the state, that to people like myself who grew up in the shadows of shopping malls and the glare of streetlights, doesn’t seem all that odd. There’s traffic and sirens and rows of shopping centers up on Prospect, such that the country that lies between up north and Champaign is often little more than a blur at “55 *cough cough*” miles per hour during travel from one to the other. Everything you’d ever need is either on campus or a short drive/bus ride away, so it’s easy to remain on the small island of concrete, go to class, get some work done, have some fun, go to sleep, and do it all over again the next day.But this spring (once it finally decided to warm up enough) provided a bit of a different experience, being part of an organization that regularly takes to the road to get off of the urban island and surge forth into the countryside on two wheels and the notion of doing something perhaps a little crazy this summer. In the course of training for I4k this spring, we’ve all spent our fair share of time on seldom traveled country roads, battling the wind (Oh, God, the wind…), water, and hell hounds (well, maybe they were Corgis, but Kara, Connor, John, and Jordan would back me up that there was at least a quarter Cerberus or wolf in there…) in the name of making a difference. And for those accustomed to Suburbia, or even those hailing from the country themselves but marooned at the University for several months, it’s something different.Pages of textbooks replaced by the dappled gravel of old asphalt, drywall clad rooms replaced with newly green grass and trees with budding leaves, florescent lighting replaced by the warm glow of the sun; it’s enough to make you forget about that whole “school” thing we’re all supposed to be down here doing. And when I say forget, I mean it. Despite often having 19458623 other things to be working on, those several hours on a bike on Saturday or an early Wednesday morning moved any thought of work or stress from my mind, and as much as it seemed like a less important thing than finishing a lab report when getting ready to depart, as soon as we’d hit the road it was clear that getting out and doing something, seeing the open air, breaking out of the textbook prison; that was really what was important.So while we’re all sitting on bike saddles this summer, even if you, as the reader of this post, aren’t with us, I recommend you do the same once in a while. Get outside and find a stretch of the middle of nowhere, and you’ll find that when you think there’s nothing much to look at, you can see everything just a little bit clearer.
The time has come!
I am on my train to meet the team in Chicago! It was a super early morning and the last week has been a whirlwind of time spent with precious family and friends as well as frenzied unpacking of everything I moved back from school, whilst packing for the summer adventure.I somehow got everything to fit in my backpack (woooo!) and made it to the station super early thanks to my mom! Getting up before five am is a feat for anyone I'd say.So far the train ride is going great and I just noticed our fundraising goal just surpassed $100,000!!! GO TEAM!!!!!!! I am so so proud of everyone for their dedicated fundraising and could not feel more blessed by the countless people who have donated and supported the cause.We're not done yet. The adventure is just beginning! I'm excited to see all of you in Chicago. I can't wait to embark on this journey and have full faith that we can keep fundraising strong to reach our team goal of $150,000 towards cancer research and patient support services - a beyond noble cause :)
time flies
after attending my younger sister's high school graduation, it really hit me how fast this school year has gone. she's a high school graduate, and i'm now a senior at the u of i - when did this happen?i would be lying if i said this past year was easy. junior year, especially second semester, was by far the most difficult. between work, training, and studies, it was hard to juggle everything, and i admit that i took on too much. it not only caused me a great deal of stress, but i also feel like a i missed out on a lot. true, i was able to manage everything, with the help of post-it notes galore and a detailed planner. but i regret not being able to enjoy life more this past year. managing really isn't equivalent to living. it's ironic, isn't it? everything about this year revolved around me - i was enrolled in classes towards MY future, i worked to pay MY bills, and i trained to prepare for MY summer. yet, i feel like i lost MYself in the process.there's something about kids my age that we tend to feel this need to fill up our free time with more activities. we have this mentality that in order to make the most of our lives, we need to take on as much as possible. we fill our schedules to the brime with things to improve our resumes, things to pass the days. time flies, but only because we make it.in biking across the country this summer to fight against cancer, i am working towards something so much bigger than just me. and i truly believe that you learn the most about who you are when you are faced with challenges such as this ride. there's a certain beauty to this ride: that we will not only make a difference in other peoples' lives, but in the process we will uncover a part of us that got lost in our hectic lifestyles, or a part that we never knew was there. i don't know exactly what to expect. i mean, no matter how much you train, no matter how much advice we are given from i4k alum, no one can truly know what this summer will bring. who knows how many flats i will get. who knows how many things i will forget to pack. but i do know that come august, i will be more than ready to take on my senior year. i will have a newfound appreciation for life, nature, friends, and tailwinds.it's crazy to think that after months and months of preparation, this adventure is finally here. as i pack my bag for the train station tomorrow, i am making a promise to myself to make the most of this ride. each day will bring new struggles and it'll be tough, but i'm ready."time is what we want most, but what we use worst."- william penn
Forgetting about the bike
I graduated on Saturday. The ceremony was long, and I knew almost nobody there. There are just under 80 students majoring in Physics or Engineering Physics, and I have met perhaps a handful of them. So while I sat in my seat, it became painfully apparent just how little I fit in with this physics crowd. Physics coursework has clearly not been the center of my attention over these past four years.I do not mean to say that I received poor grades; that certainly was not the case. What I do mean is that my efforts on behalf of the Illini 4000 have proven to play a significant role during my time at UIUC. From Quad Day before my freshman year through this coming summer adventure, this organization has surrounded (literally) the entirety of my undergraduate degree.Clearly I stick around for a reason. More than one reason, perhaps.I want to begin with my talk at TEDxUIUC. Thanks to David Sher for connecting with that, I finally found the stage to share my passion for this incredible organization. In only 17 minutes, I tried to convey 4 years worth of learning, biking, fighting, and understanding. Those of you with whom I've discussed the event know just how challenging that speech was to write. And then to hold on to it for a week as I rehearsed it, I was exhausted.This story is about losing my father at a very young age and then coming into this organization to learn that cancer does the same thing to just so many other people. And these people move on, and I walk past them as I buy my groceries and as I bike between classes. They sit next to me in the library and they're in the front of the room teaching quantum mechanics. They move on not because they want to, but because they must. The pains of cancer extend much beyond the discomfort of the treatments, but they are always emotional, physical, and almost every time they sit just beneath the surface.As a result of me telling my story, I have been given the chance to speak with a number of people, each of which has their own relationship with cancer. They'll mention they saw my Ted Talk, and then they'll tell me about their mother, brother, uncle, or grandmother who had a run-in, not unlike my dad's. These are painful stories to hear, but as we move along on this planet we need to be grounded and connected with those whom we find important. This is the Portraits Project in person, right here. So while these stories are sad and difficult to hear, they bring us together in such a unique and powerful way.So now that graduation and that talk are out of the way, my focus finally comes back to the bike. I repeatedly forget that people regard us simply as a cycling organization. From where I stand, the biking is the easiest thing in the world. We've just spent months juggling fundraising, training, coursework, social lives, and extensive preparations for a cross-country journey. For the next 10 weeks, our job is to get on the bike in the morning and hop off it in the afternoon. Sure, it's not always comfortable, but even during a century climbing mountains through wind and rain, our job has not changed: we just keep pedaling. When our legs are tired and we want nothing more than a nap and a snack, there is no question to be asked. We keep riding.We signed up for this, so we signed up to climb every single little hill, cross every headwind, and put on a smile through cold, rainy mornings. Like I always come back to, this summer is not about us; it's about those fighting cancer, receiving treatment, and those who will one day come to face this challenge. We are not riding because it's easy, and that inspiration is going to get us from coast to coast. It's about the people we meet along the way just as much as it is about those who send us off at Union Station on Wednesday.
One week to go!
There is one more week remaining before the 2013 Bike America Team departs for New York City! With 21 riders led by Illini 4000 President Gregory Colten, we're all very excited to see them off at Union Station.They have all completed their training, experienced a day in the life of I4k by completing the 90 mile ride with an overnight stayover, and become warmly acquainted with the peanut butter and jelly lunchtime tradition.They are finally ready for their journey. Good luck 2013 Team!A few photos of training for the 2013 team:
Cheer Up! 2013 Riders and Fellow I4K Members!
Spring 2013 is finally over!It has been a tremendous semester personally for me. The most exciting thing was to be the part of Illini 4000! Thanks for everyone letting me join the group and give me a chance to fight against cancer.Now is the time to prepare for an amazing summer ahead of us!
90 Mile Training Ride - A Day in the Life
Today was our 90 mile training ride and we got to experience what a day in the life of I4K is really like. The 2013 Team had the opportunity to lead groups on our own today which was really great preparation for the summer.The morning started off great, but once we made it to the hills of Indiana we got some rain and tailwinds! Our ingenuity was tested again today at lunch since we didn’t have knives for our peanut butter and jelly sandwich but we made it work with cardboard. Classic I4K.Half of the riders did the marathon this morning, so it was great when the team was reunited at Faith Church. We also got the opportunity to meet Pastor Chris and his wife after cooking our first I4K dinner of lentils and pasta.Thank you to Faith Church in Fairmount, Illinois for hosting us tonight. We couldn’t do this without great people like them.Today made us all really excited for the summer to begin and for this to being our routine every day!XOXOIllini 4000
Miles and miles of smiles!
Riders completed their 75 mile ride last weekend, encountering Kickapoo hills, flooded roads, and some much awaited warm weather!Later that day, we attended Relay for Life, hosted by Colleges Against Cancer, and cycled on trainers for 12 hours!Next week is the final training ride, a 90 mile ride complete with an overnight stayover!Director of Team Development, Connor Ramsey, enjoying a classic I4K PB&J.
Riders saved their shoes, socks, and bikes from the flooding! Nothing can stop team 2013!
Riding from 7pm til 7am at Relay for Life!
one month.
Today marks one month until our team boards the train in Chicago to begin our adventure! I can't believe it's so close already. The reality is beginning to set in that in just a few short weeks, our lives will be consumed by nothing but Illini 4000. This past weekend gave us a tiny taste of what this will be like!We had our 75-mile training ride on Saturday. It was crazy awesome! The recent abundance of rain added a bit of extra fun to our trip by providing us with flooded roads around what seemed to be every turn! My group made the mistake of walking through the first one without taking off our shoes/socks, so that made for a bit of a soggy journey. However, we survived! At a few points, we had to re-route in order to avoid roads that were completely impassible. Nearing the end of our journey (as we were approaching Homer Lake) we stumbled upon what seemed to be a river in the road! We actually saw a few people travelling through it by canoe, which would have been a viable option if we only had a canoe! However, we all tossed our shoes/socks in our pockets, picked up our bikes, and forded the river! It definitely felt like more of an adventure with all of the flooding. We ate lunch as a team at a gas station, which was also super fun! For most of us riders, it was our first experience with the infamous I4K PBJ lunches. Our mealtime was extra special because we forgot to bring knives to spread the peanut butter and jelly! So luckily, David Walder ran inside and bought some beef jerky sticks and we used those (inside the wrapper!) as our knives. Style points for innovative solutions. There are definitely pictures of all of these endeavors on the Illini 4000 facebook, and they'll probably be posted on here shortly!April has been an incredibly busy month, and none of this will calm down before the end of the school year. However, we had a great reminder at the meeting tonight (shout out to Tory Cross!). Though it may seem easy to get overwhelmed with everything going on and the huge commitment we've made to the organization, it is important to remember why we made that commitment in the first place. All of us gathered together to stand up for something we found to be unacceptable: Cancer. The long term product of the work we're doing is not to increase our strength, make our friends jealous with cool pictures on facebook, or see how many group activities we can attend in one month. We're doing this for people whose lives have been turned upside down by Cancer. This is such an encouraging reminder amongst the busyness of preparing for the summer adventure, coming into finals season, and for some of us (myself included!), gearing up for graduation.
For the families, researchers, and doctors committed to the fight, we pedal. By the hope, love, and support of people we meet, we keep going.
blessed.
This blog post has been very long overdue. So many things to say and so little time!We've been finally training on our bikes, which has been awesome! We’re increasing our weekend training rides in 15-mile increments, so it has been a bit strenuous, but very rewarding. A couple weeks ago, we had a 45-mile ride in some ridiculous wind. Going into the wind proved to be quite difficult, but we didn't experience true troubles until going perpendicular to the wind, thus giving us crosswinds. What a trip! I was constantly trying to keep myself from being knocked over, whilst keeping my balance so that when the wind let up, I wouldn't fall to the other side! As always, though, we were blessed with some AMAZING tailwinds for the last ten miles of the ride. It was beyond glorious and a great experience! Now that I've experienced such intense crosswinds, I’ll be prepared to encounter those again. Plus it was alumni weekend, so we got to ride with some really cool cats.Last week we had 24 Hours of Cycling, in which we were on the quad from noon on Thursday to noon on Friday! 24 Hours of Cycling was super exciting for me, because it plays a role in why I joined the Illini 4000 for this summer! Last year, I was biking back from hanging out with a friend and passed the 24 Hours of Cycling event on the quad. For some reason, when I passed the group I felt this overwhelming urge to do something bigger than myself. The Illini 4000 seemed like the perfect way to do it! I’d known about the Illini 4000 since my freshman year, so at that moment, I knew I couldn’t push it off any longer. And here I am today!With that being said, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m doing this ride at the perfect time in my life. Though it has put a bit of a kink in the whole ‘job search’ thing, after getting a full-time job I will not have the opportunity to take three months out of my life to bike across the country. Plus, I could not be more excited about the amazing things being done by the Illini 4000 and all of the wonderful people involved.I also have felt beyond blessed by the overwhelming support I have received from family, friends, and members of the community. I'm amazed every time I see a new donor show up on my fundraising feed! I can’t believe generous people are. To all of my donors, I extend my greatest gratitude. I assure you, your donations are going to a very noble cause.I’ll try to keep blogging more frequently to keep everyone posted. Have a wonderful day!
Alumni Weekend meets Portraits Gallery!
Last Saturday, Illini 4000 alumni joined the team at Allen Hall for the annual Alumni Ride, this year a 30 mile ride. Riders from 2010 through 2012 joined the 2013 Bike America Team for some of the strongest winds we've ever had during a training ride. Alumni returned to campus and, like always, came together for some delicious Mexican food!Later that day, Directors of the Portraits Project presented their work at the campus YMCA, displaying dozens of new Portraits in both text and video format.Thank you to all who came out and supported us! Below are some photos from both events.
As Sean Laude has moved to NYC, he wasn't able to hold up the 2007 fort this year. All of the I4K Pioneers were with us in spirit though!
Matt Cillick representing the 2008 team.
Erik Volkman and Conor Canady from the 2009 (and 2010) team!
Several members of the I4K 2010 Team
A group of 2011ers reunited!
First I4K Alumni Weekend as alumni for the 2012 team!
2013 team - leaving for NYC in just over one month!
Some of the Portraits being shared for the first time ever at the 2013 Spring Gallery.
Former rider, Connor Wilson, presenting on a Portrait he participated in during the 2012 ride.
Experiencing the Portraits Project Gallery
How close we are...
Here is the question I asked myself yesterday after I received my mom's phone call."How close was I, and could be?''It may seem pretty far down the road of one's life, especially if you are just in early age of 20. Well, at least I felt that way for quite a while. The last time I ever felt that I was close to my edge was 4 years ago. Back then, I was diagnosed with Fatty Liver, requiring immediate action for proper diet and regular work-out. That moment drove me into a whole new path. However, as I have become confident in my physical status, I forgot that lesson.Over this spring break, my wife Haeley and I visited my family back in S.Korea. During that one-week-long visit, I visited a medical center in Seoul for my health check up. It was a very thorough process, which involved colonoscopy. The doctor put me into a coma while practicing colonoscopy, and when I woke up, he told me he removed two irregular groups of cells grown in my colon. Also he mentioned that those cells could be developed into a colon cancer if not treated for several years.The official result just came out this Monday. My health in general was fine. My family's major concern, however, was the result of the colonoscopy. According to the cell analyzing, one of those removed groups in fact was the potential cancer cell group. As soon as the result came out, Haeley changed my entire dietary into "Cancer-Resistant" ingredients with low sodium. Yet it is not only my dietary to be changed, but once again I remind that very lesson from 4 years ago; Always ask yourself how close you could be.Because if I am asking myself that question, that means I am still alive, and that is something to be grateful.
Portraits Gallery - This Saturday at the Campus YMCA!
The Illini 4000 is hosting an event at the YMCA to share the stories of how cancer has affected America. From 6 to 9 p.m., come and learn from individuals from across the country about how facing cancer has changed their lives.This is the second presentation to visit the Champaign-Urbana community since the founding of the Portraits Project. This program aims to lend a voice to the American cancer experience, as recorded over 6 years by cross-country cyclists. The teams conducts interviews (or Portraits) as they encounter cancer patients, survivors, care-takers, and anyone else willing to share their story. These stories share insight into their heart-felt experiences as they gain new focus on family, friendships, and community. There is no agenda, and the interviews always begin with: "In your own words, tell us story."At 7 p.m., there will be a special presentation from the the Directors of the Portraits Project, which we hope you will attend.This event will include stories in various forms of media. A number of them will be presented as videos, including commentary from someone present at the interview. Others will be shown as text, attempting to convey the messages of struggle, hope, and inspiration that the Portraits contain.
First Training Ride!
And just like that, April is upon us! This month is always the most active for the Illini 4000, packed with training rides, events, and fundraising!Speaking of training, the team just completed its first training ride, a 30 mile loop to Homer Lake. Leaving from Allen Hall, we battled headwinds for the first time on the way out. Every rider pushed through, finishing around noon on a beautiful, sunny Saturday. Good work team! Check out some pictures below!This Saturday, April 6th, is the Alumni Ride! Alumni will meet the new riders in the morning and leave from Allen Hall around 10am. We're very excited to see members from the past 6 years of rides!This Saturday is also the Portraits Gallery! From 6-9pm, come to the U of I YCMA, where we will be exhibiting many Portraits- interviews with those affected by cancer- that we have collected along our cross country journeys.
How Often the Train Goes By
For the last however many years it’s been since I first saw The Blues Brothers, it’s held a secure place in my top 5 favorite movies, boasting the honor of being included on my “You-need-to-drop-everything-you’re-doing-right-now-and-familiarize-yourself-with-this-[movie/album/book/what have you]-if-you-have-not-already-done-so-in-order-to-fully-understand-what-in-means-to-be-part-of-functioning-society” list as well. (If you haven’t seen it, go rectify that situation right now before you finish reading this. I’ll wait. No, seriously, go do it.) I mean, any occasion when Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and James Brown are all on the soundtrack for (and appear in) a film, more vehicles were destroyed in the filming process than in any motion picture up until then, and you have Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, how could you go wrong?It’s a quality film, is what I’m getting at. Anyway, I’ve watched it enough times by now to be able to recite back to you large chunks of the film on command, and a few weeks ago I was bored and had homework to do, so naturally instead of doing that I popped The Blues Brothers into the ol’ DVD player. It was the obvious choice. “How often does the train go by?”“So often you won’t even notice it.”Ah, one of my favorite lines. Funny because it sounds ridiculous as an answer to that question, but as the scene goes on it’s clearly a valid response. The train goes by so often that it becomes part of the soundtrack and you really don’t notice it. It’s consistent enough that your brain tunes it out and it just becomes part of the background, which is really true of a lot of things when you think about it. Pretty much anything that happens on a regular basis becomes so natural you don’t notice it. And as regrettable as it is to say, the same can be said of cancer. If you’ve existed on earth for any appreciable amount of time, and if you’re reading this it’s safe to say you’ve been here at least enough years to learn how to read (so, what, like 5?), chances are you know a staggering number of people who have had cancer. I think the numbers on it are something like 1 in 3 women and 1 in 2 men over an 80 year life span will get some form of it, though that data is a little skewed because it occurs most often in people over 60. But, hey, everyone still knows tons of people over 60 and age isn’t important, what’s important is THAT’S A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE. So many that whenever you hear yet another person you know gets sidelined by the disease, it’s almost not a surprise. Sure, you never expect it to happen to anyone, but after hearing about so many people affected by the disease it becomes another element of the background noise unless it’s someone you see every day. Far from an ideal response, and one that I can admit to have had, but that’s how things go some times. The key word in that sentence, though, is “some.” I don’t know if I’ve just matured a bit, if it’s a result of being part of an organization actively involved in the brouhaha between mankind and the scourge that is cancer, or the fact that as years go by the issue becomes more demographically relevant, but this year in particular the whole cancer situation has shifted out of the background of my day to day and reared it’s dissonant face much more frequently. Allow me to elaborate. About a month ago, we of the Illini 4000 had what can best be described as a pow-wow during one of our meetings to refocus and discuss what we’re here to do. All this talk of tubes of metal propelled by rubber circles and the various accoutrements required to do that effectively has a way of overshadowing the whole “let’s put an end to this cancer business” aspect of what we do. And when you have a room full of 25-ish college students going around a room, pretty much all of whom have had a close relative or friend or themselves go up against the disease, it’s hard to look at it as a background issue. I mean, it brought us all here to spend large amounts of time combating it, so it obviously has some strong influence. To summarize my turn in the circle, part of why I’m doing this is to put some things into perspective. When you go from one coast of the United States to the other and physically do all the moving yourself, I imagine it becomes clear there’s a lot of the country you would never know existed if you didn’t bike through it. And I have a feeling that kind of experience gives you an idea of where you fit in the whole scheme of things a little bit better. I might have said it better in the meeting because it sounds stupid written out here, but whatever. Anyway, as for this cancer thing, the other reason I’m part of I4K, the case I always come back to is my mom’s cousin Tina. To condense a long story into a short one, she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer when I was in eighth grade, and from the get-go it sounded like the doctors knew it was going to be a rough battle. But what struck me as amazing was that you never would have guessed that was the case based on how anyone in the family reacted. My mom has an enormous and very close extended family, and not a single one for a second doubted that Tina would make it through the whole ordeal, if for no other reason than she was too stubborn and full of “piss and vinegar” to give up. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, and it wasn’t a battle she ended up winning. But it wasn’t until recently I really appreciated the attitude that everyone in the family had. Regardless of the odds, failure wasn’t considered an option no matter what anyone said. I don’t think I fully appreciated how difficult of an attitude this is to maintain until this year, and maybe that’s an age thing. But so that’s what initially pushed me to get involved in the organization. Granted, Tina is not the only person I know to have battled cancer, but she was the closest of the ones I’ve known to lose that battle so she’s been at the front of my mind throughout the process.What I didn’t mention at the meeting, mainly because I didn’t have time to sort it out in my head yet, was that five days prior, one of the guys I ran track with in high school was diagnosed with leukemia. While admittedly I didn’t know Kyle super well in school (he’s a year younger than I am, I didn’t meet him until the end of my junior year, and it was a big enough school you didn’t always run into people during the day) he was “one of the guys” when it came to track, and a upstanding guy at that. I haven’t seen him a whole lot since graduation, but I follow him on twitter and facebook and whatnot so I’ve kept up with him that way. And one day he said he was sick and going to the doctor the following day, and three days later he was in the hospital. Life, as they say, comes at you fast. A guy I went to school with. A guy I ran with every day in the springtime. A guy going to college while still working a job, and the kind of guy who waits for summer to go to Warped Tour as much for the mosh pits as for the bands. And within two days he went from feeling under the weather to in the hospital. I don’t know if it’s because he’s the same age as me. I don’t know if it’s because I’m just that much more aware of things now. But that hit me. Hard. So, over spring break and some of the other guys I run track with went into the city to pay him a visit in the city, at Comer Children’s Hospital in the University of Chicago medical complex.
Hey look! A Picture! Not of the exact hospital he was in, but same complex.
And he was still the same, sarcastic Kyle he’s always been, flirting with nurses, giving one of the guys a hard time about who he was dating, and swearing at the machines randomly beeping behind him. Cancer has obviously cropped up as a roadblock for him (to make an egregious understatement), but I can guarantee you if there’s a way for him to be at Warped Tour with an IV drip in tow, he’ll be there. It was a nice visit, and hopefully I’ll be able to see him before we leave in May (hopefully he’ll be out of the hospital and back at home by then), but the thing is that after chatting with him for a few hours, the other guys and I got to leave. We’re back at school, dodging snow and soaking up sun, but Kyle’s in a room on the sixth floor of a hospital in Chicago. Cancer returns to our background, but it’s the only ground Kyle has right now, and no part of that is fair. Again, maybe part of the reason I find myself thinking about Kyle and his cancer now is because he’s my age and a friend of mine, maybe it’s because I’m older now and can appreciate how terrible of a situation it is, more so than when I was younger. But then I remember that freshman year, one of the girls in my grade, in the same band as me, who took piano lessons from the same teacher I did when were little, and who I was in class with in elementary school and junior high, was also diagnosed with leukemia (around the same time her father passed away from stomach cancer). Someone I saw every day, someone the same age as me. It should have hit closer to home, but I don’t remember being unsettled by it. Maybe it was because she had to leave school so I didn’t see her every day any more, maybe it was because I was busy with other things, or maybe it was because I was young and stupid, I don’t know. But it light of everything I know, it bothers me that I don’t remember feeling affected by it. I let her slip into the background. I shouldn’t have, but I did. Eventually Faith was able to beat the cancer into remission, but in the meantime her younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia, the third member of her family to be diagnosed with cancer in just a few years. Later, her's came back. It’s not fair to have cancer, and it’s a travesty to have it hit one family so hard. About a week or so ago, Faith went into surgery for an infection in her spine. And this morning I learned that she's passed away. When I read it this morning I felt like a semi hit me in the stomach. It’s been years since I’ve seen her, but it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing quite the same as learning someone you grew up with, someone who’s still a kid, lost their life, when they did nothing to deserve it. There’s more I want to say about that, but I can’t think of how to say it. Sometimes the electricity in your brain doesn’t move your mouth or fingers in the right way to make it presentable to others, but there’s a certain power of being at a loss for words that says more than you could ever hope to. But it’s things like this that change the focus of day to day life. They make it clear as to what actually matters, and what doesn’t. It makes you feel guilty for complaining about a class or school work or waking up early because we’re lucky to be able to do any of those things at all. And as easy as it is for cancer, or any disease, or anything that stands in the way of people living their lives to fall into the background, it’s the last thing that should. And I’m not sure what the best way to fix that is, but I suppose what we’re doing in the Illini 4000 can only help. I realize this is really long, and I offer bonus points to anyone who’s made it to the end of this blog-novella (the word post doesn’t quite seem applicable any more). They’re worth less than sea-shells, but they’re yours now, and I suppose if you present me with them at some time I’ll give you a handshake or play you a song or some such thing. Anyway, so even though you stop noticing them after around number three, I went back and counted the number of trains that go by Elwood’s apartment in that Blues Brother’s scene. There are 11. And each one of them, whether you notice it or not, is going somewhere. Somewhere important to whoever is on that train.
Spring is in the air?
Last week, riders went home for spring break, enjoying some time away from school. We've now raised over $60k, but we're still working hard to reach our goal of $150k!Although today is a snow day at UIUC, this weekend, we will have our first training ride: a 30 mile ride to Homer Lake! The team is excited to get out on the roads for the final leg of team training!April will be filled with I4K events, old and new. On April 7th, Illini 4000 president, Greg Colten will be participating in the UIUC Ted Talk!Well also be having our annual Portraits Gallery on Saturday 4/6 at 6pm at the YMCA (1001 S. Wright St, Champaign)! We are excited to share the stories of many of the people we have met over the years, and we hope to see you there!Stay tuned for more news!
Alumni Buddy Potluck
Yesterday, 2013 riders met some I4K alumni at the rider buddy potluck dinner! Past riders are paired up with current riders, serving as a resource, or buddy, helping their buddies prepare for the summer. Here they are enjoying some homemade grub!Thank you to all the I4K alumni who helped make this happen!
