It all begins.

Before I get started, I just wanted to jot down a bit of an introduction: Hi, my name is Ian.

I am very excited to be selected to participate with Ride:Well this year. The month since I was accepted has been crazy! Writing letters, building my funding site, restructuring my financial life to allow me to be gone this summer, training, oh! and working. I feel like I have more to do then I have time to do it each and every week, but that's how I like it most: a full plate and a rigorous schedule. I have to rely on God to as I try to juggle various social, financial and tour-related needs: trusting that He will help me to complete all my tasks.

The need in Africa is something I've known about for a long time but never on a personal, this is real, kind of level. The more I learn about it, the more real it becomes. Just the very idea of not having clean water is so foreign to me that I have to focus to even grasp what that would mean for daily life. Can you imagine it? The closest I can come to relating it to my life is at a time when I'm on a hike, out of water and wonder if a stream is clean enough to drink. Thats it. That's the entirety of my ability to directly relate.
I have friends that have visited or lived near Africa in regions that didn't have clean water so I turned to them to try to get a better understanding of what the need really means 2nd hand. I heard things like shortened life, severe dehydration, lack of hygiene. My friend Joe brought it home to me on the education side: "Often times people don't know that you shouldn't build a latrine right next to a water source! Their thinking is that nothing could possibly get through 6 ft of earth." One of Joe's co-workers lives in Uganda and may write to help me learn more about the needs (I will of course share his thoughts when I hear from him). A friend from college, Patty, told me stories about hiking for days through the jungle to deliver medical supplies: passing through a town and finding that only days earlier someone had died of snake bite or a broken bone. I have to be honest. The more I learn, the more I realize how significant the need is. Participating in this tour has started to change from an exciting adventure that benefits an important cause to an exciting adventure that benefits men, women and children who are desperate for clean water and health clinics; some of whom don't even know they need it. When I'm off doing something in a "remote" area and I'm thirsty, I can just wait till I get back to my car or bike or whatever I used to get me there. In the land of opportunity it is so easy to think that all you have to do is really try and your situation will change. It's not like that everywhere.

Cycling.
This I love. The more I do it the more I love it. I picked up a Trek 1.2 last summer and rode it around whenever I got the chance (which wasn't really that much). When I was accepted for the tour I decided that I would jump into cycling in as serious away as my life allowed. It has snowed, iced, and been generally dark in the evenings ever since. But I have put in many hours on the stationary cycle at the gym (ok, so even if there wasn't that much snow, cycling below 45f isn't that fun for me). I joined a couple cycling forums and bought a book on it. I even got to visit a training center in CO Springs. I'm slow. Very slow. Last night I swallowed my pride and went to a somewhat local team's meeting. I mentioned what I was doing and talked to them about cycling in general. They were welcoming. Looks like I've got a team to train with! I've not decided if I'm going to officially join yet because I'll be gone half the summer (that and they're semi-pro racers and I'm not). The more I talked to them the more I realized just how much cycling they do. The member who cycled the most had put +11,000 mi on his bike last year. 2nd most? 10,000 mi. One of their racers won the masters div time trial in San Fransisco last season. These guys are very fast. I definitely will be going to some of their spring events to see what it's all about, even if I'm the slowest guy out there.

This week's training agenda: more indoor cycling (it's supposed to snow and ice. sigh.)
This week's fund raising agenda: getting letter's mailed.

Good luck to the other riders as you prepare. This is such an exciting opportunity!
And for watchers: jump on board! Whether it be through the much needed financial contributions or by joining Ride:Well's tours next year, find a way to become a part of this solution.