My oldest and best friend, Allan Goldberg, died of cancer in 2008. Following his diagnosis in the summer of 2006, Allan challenged me to spend the winter preparing myself to race in the 2007 Leadville 100 mountain bike race in Leadville, CO. My first reaction was to tell him that he was out of his f*%$ing mind. How the hell could I get myself in shape to ride a mountain bike 100+ miles over 14,000 feet of mountain climbing at altitudes reaching 12,600 feet in one day at nearly 40 years old? However, when he reminded me what chemo and radiation was going to be like for him over the next 6 months, I quickly changed my mind and agreed to do it.

At the time, Allan was the Executive Director of the First Descents cancer foundation. I loved everything about the mission of this foundation as it combined youth with adventure and the outdoors and, most importantly, a noble purpose . . . to serve a wildly underserved young-adult cancer demographic. If I was going to do this asinine race, I wanted to make a mark. So Allan and I created Team First Descents and rounded up several like-minded (or should I say, out-of-our-minded) individuals to not only join me in Leadville, but to use the race as a platform to raise money for First Descents.

Needless to say, I finished that first race in 11 hours and 11 minutes and Team First Descents succeeded in raising over $85,000 for the foundation. Since then, I finished Leadville in 10:35 in 2008 and 9:56 in 2009 and am delusionally hoping to break 9 hours in 2010. More importantly, we raised nearly $200,000 more for FD in 2008 and 2009 and I am hoping that Team FD can raise another $100,000 this summer with our Leadville fundraiser. Please support us.

Postscript: I am now a full-fledged endurance biking fanatic and log thousands of miles a year on my road and mountain bikes. This summer I will be participating in the Triple Bypass, Silver Rush 50, Leadville 100 and Shenandoah 100 along with several informal centuries and epic rides.