Now what?

So yesterday was the big ride. I hope you all had as much fun as I did, and I also hope you're all less sore than I am. But while you rest your legs today, it's time to give your fingers a workout by sending more fundraising emails. The MS Society is counting on raising an additional $1 million between now and the fundraising prize deadline of November 23. But they can't do it without a strong showing from the Top Tier teams like ours.

Now is the time to tell everyone about your ride. Tell them how hard you worked. Tell them how early you had to wake up. Tell them how many weird protein bars you ate. Tell them how bad everything below your waist feels today. And tell them it's not too late to sponsor you.

I'm attaching the email I sent out to my company below. It's a tech company, hence the geeky p.s., but even non-geeks should click on the "Google Earth export" of the route (you'll need Google Earth installed, of course). It's pretty cool.

Feel free to use my email for inspiration, raw material, or wholesale plagiarism. I don't mind. The key is to make your effort personal and real, and wallets will start opening up.

It was great to see so many old and new Credit Suisse faces yesterday. I'll see you at the awards party and at next year's Tour!

-joel

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Well, I did it. 117 miles total (I had to get to the starting line and home afterwards, didn't I?).

It was a beautiful day, a huge turnout, and I hit my goal of 100 miles in under 6 hours. The hills were as big as I remembered (well over a mile of climbing all told), but my legs somehow held out and I'm not in any pain today except pretty much everything below my eyebrows.

But though the ride may be over, fear not, fundraising continues! You can sponsor me with cash or a check payable to National MS Society, or by credit card online (preferred by the MS folks).

For those of you who've already sponsored me, thank you so much for your support. For everyone else, I'd just like to reiterate that this is an important cause for me, so anything you'd care to donate is greatly appreciated. Also, just FYI, all the cool kids are doing it.

Thanks,

-joel

p.s. Attention geeks and/or athletes! You can see my mile-by-mile progress here. All that data came from a pretty cool little app for GPS phones called Bones In Motion Active. I just told my phone to start and end recording and it tracked my progress. Afterwards it uploads the data to their site to calculate elevation changes, calorie output, and more. It generates maps (including topographical ones) can output blog entries and Google Earth exports (very very sweet), and lets you compare training sessions over time, virtually race against others on the same course, and more.

There are no airtime charges and no hardware to buy (as long as your phone is supported). The only knock against it is you need a fully charged battery for a long event like this, and GPS signals are affected by buildings and trees, so the maps indicate that I occasionally rode the wrong way down some highways, into the Hudson river, through several buildings, etc. I didn't.