Rider Recap - Adam

-- Submitted by Project 11 Member, Adam --

Despite some weather concerns, the Sea Gull Century turned out to be a great ride for Project 11! Eric and I completed the 100-mile century, Tim Laupert, Uncle Greg and Uncle Larry completed the 60-mile ride, and Mary Ann, Rose, and Dani completed ~30 miles of riding. Congrats to all of the participants and thanks to the spectator crew!

Eric and I saddled up and departed the start line at approximately 7AM. We encountered some rain and soggy conditions for the first few hours, nothing major but enough to make curves at 20+mph a little more interesting. The first half of the ride went very smoothly, and we hooked up with some fast pacelines to make great time. Definitely the fastest I’ve gone in a group setting on the bike. The century course was some flat, picturesque countryside to cycle through. A lot of the fields had some kind of plant that was turning yellow in them, reminding me of the quintessential Tour de France snapshot of cyclists going through rows of sunflowers. Alas, our major mechanical trouble came about 5 miles from the Assateague Island rest stop when Eric got a flat tire. There must have been something nasty on the road because we saw what seemed like dozens of similar incidents in this section of the race. After having a couple of CO2 cartridges discharge on us, we got rolling again. At Assateague we turned into a vicious headwind, and things got difficult pretty quickly. Perhaps a sign of the difficulty was that both Eric and I turned down pie and ice cream at the last rest stop. This may be one of the only times in my life I didn’t feel like eating pie. But we pushed on, and crossed the finish line at approximately 5 hours and 18 minutes of pedaling time, a personal record for me and close to Eric’s PR! As Eric and I relaxed in the finishing area, Eric was randomly picked out of the crowd to be interviewed by the local news station! Great publicity for Project 11!

But I think the biggest effort of the day came from Uncle Larry and Greg. These guys did 60 miles on what they described as a “continuous uphill” (Eric and I encountered on such obstacles, but it was a different course) and they did it on minimal training. That’s true grit and determination, great job guys!

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P11 Makes the Headlines

Project 11 was featured on NBC's Universal Sports website today! For the full article go here.

It is extremely well written and has a great photo gallery from the Savageman Triathlon. Please take the time to go check it out. We're really excited about it.

Once again thanks you to everyone out there for your support and well wishes. We are still fighting hard to raise the $11K...and any donations are appreciated greatly.

-JB

PS...the Seagull is in 2 days. This is going to be the biggest P11 participation event of the year. If any of you are from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, come on out to Salisbury University. You're sure to run into someone with a P11 shirt on. Just come up to us and show your support. Click Here for Full Post

P-11 Publicity Blitz

Project 11 has been going strong for nearly 3 months now and things have been great so far. We've had well over 600 distinct visitors to the site...that means 600 real people have read about us and now we're seeing more and more people coming back to the site regularly. The donation pool is over $1500 and climbing. We're extremely excited about the progress that we've made and of course we really appreciate all of your donations. Times are tough for a lot of people these days, and the fact that so many of you can find it in your hearts to help, really shows how great our Project-11 friends and followers are.

At the moment Project-11 is tackling a new goal. We feel that our story could be reaching more people through other media outlets...namely magazines or television. We're in the process of compiling a list of publications to reach out to. We started with local exercise magazines (Metro Sports DC, Blue Ridge Outdoors) and progressed to niche national, publications (Endurance Mag, Triathlon Mag). We plan on sending them our story to see if they would be willing to print a story about what Project-11 is doing. The goal is to begin contacting them by June, so right now we are focused on compiling a good list of targets.

That's where you guys come in. This month, I'm going to take a break from bugging you about donations. All I ask is that you help us in our quest for publicity. Do you know anyone in the print media/television industry? Can you think of any magazines that we could target? Do you run a blog of your own that can post a quick blurb about P-11 to increase our exposure? Can you send the link to someone you know who is training for an event of their own...or might think about starting?

Anything you can do to help would be appreciated. If you have suggestions, please comment below or email me . Once again, the comments are now integrated with Facebook, so there is no need to create a seperate login for P-11.

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Why We Race

It's the Thursday before the biggest spring race, and I am really excited. It has been a great spring, with some solid efforts and good races under our belts. We feel prepared and ready to set some personal bests at White Lake. The Wilts are making their way to NC today, and tomorrow we will head down east for the weekends events.

Rumor has it the third member of P11 is tackling an event this weekend. That's right P11's self proclaimed 'tech geek' is cranking the pedals in the character counts mid-shore metric this weekend. Here's hoping for some adversity and cold ones at the finish line, rock their faces off man!

I wanted to take a second to remind folks why we are participating in Project 11.

Project 11 is dedicated to raising funds and increasing awareness for the fight against cancer. The effort honors my father Thomas John Smith, a long time cyclist and endurance athlete. Dad battled Metastatic Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer for 11 years and inspired many first time riders, and more experienced riders to pedal a little harder. Please take a moment to read the Our Story section of the web page to learn more about Dad's fight.

Thank you,

-E

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The March To White Lake

Now that spring tune ups are over it's on to White Lake, the biggest spring race around. It's a half Ironman (1.2/56/13.1). Hopefully it will go well. I am feeling stronger than I have in the past three years heading into this race, and I am sure Bobby will once again set a personal best at the distance. Lately his course records have been falling. Yesterday we heard a 6 hour flat announcement from Camp Wilt. For me I am hoping to come in around 5:15. I think it's realistic, but we will see how the next two weeks go.

"It's only a mile anybody can do that..."

-E Click Here for Full Post

Recon

heading to falls lake to check in, ride the course and get in the water.

Carry on,

-E Click Here for Full Post

Temps

How can Finish Strong be saying the water temp is 62 degrees when Jordan is in the 40's and that was taken by the Army Corps of Engineers.

hmm.... Click Here for Full Post

Water

Just got word we are under a frost advisory for the night. So much for the lake getting any warmer...

Cold is merely a state of mind. Click Here for Full Post

Race Week

P-11 is racing this weekend, at Beaverdam Lake. The water will be freezing! Get ready for some great photo's and good stories.

-e Click Here for Full Post

Saddles

Back in the saddle after final four weekend. I don't know if y'all know this, but the Heels are your 2009 National Champions, making UNC the University of National Champions! Go Heels! I had to work late nights/early mornings because of the celebrations. Sunday was my last workout before today. I got back in the pool and then ran a 20 minute 5k after work. Not bad for sleepless nights, poor nutrition, and allergies like you wouldn't believe. This weekend is Easter, I'll be on the road down in SC, and Bobby will be in Western MD. He'll be previewing the Westernport wall, and I'll be running in low country. 10 days till the next race!

Hammer Down,

-E Click Here for Full Post

Thank You!

Saturday was the first race for Project 11, and I wanted to say thank you to Julie, Jo, Ross, and Brooke for coming out early on a cold March morning to cheer us on. Thank you!

The race went really well, and training has already begun for April's Oly. Have been in the pool a bit more, and did a good tempo ride on the bike tonight.

Bobby is running a half marathon this weekend, and is saving his wheels for that effort.

Y'all have a good evening and thanks for donating! Click Here for Full Post

Race Photo's

All of the photos can be found by clicking the photo link to the left. Click Here for Full Post

Why we are racing

It's the Friday before race day, and I am really excited. October was the last time I participated in anything other than a 5k, and it's great to be back in the saddle. I wanted to take a second to remind folks why we are participating in Project 11.

Project 11 is dedicated to raising funds and increasing awareness for the fight against cancer. The effort honors my father Thomas John Smith, a long time cyclist and endurance athlete. Dad battled Metastatic Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer for 11 years and inspired many first time riders, and more experienced riders to pedal a little harder. Please take a moment to read the Our Story section of the web page to learn more about Dad's fight.

Thank you,

-E Click Here for Full Post

Going Bald

I officially go bald a little after 5pm today. Stay tuned for details and pictures.

-E

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Thank You

Thank you to everyone who has joined the Project here on www.project-11.org as well as our facebook group. I really appreciate it.

At this point, we are only about 4 days in, so please keep checking back with us for updates. We have some big plans and high hopes...and we'll try to keep you posted as we make them happen.

On a side note, another goal of this program is to inspire people to participate in organized endurance events. In fact, the Seagull Century is a perfect time for us all to get together and participate as a team. The "race" is on October 10th...if you have a bike, and feel like you are up to the challenge please let us know. Trust me, it is fun. At this point the team is atleast 6 strong, so come on out and join us.

And as always, please consider donating. Every dollar counts. http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2009/11yearsstrong

-JB

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Evening Folks

Evening folks! Just wanted to say hi to a few new followers who signed on over the weekend. Thanks for the support! Please leave us some comments, check out the merchandise section (proceeds go to the cause!), JB's new map of the events, and please donate.

And please post/send the link around to friends and family!

-E

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What we are doing

As many of you know Dad, Tim, Tom, Pup, Mr. Smith, etc...passed away from Cancer in July of 2008. Cycling was a huge influence on his life, and by extension a huge part of our family. In honor of what has become a family heritage we are raising money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation through the grass routes fund raising program, while pedaling, running, and swimming our way through 11 events over the course of the next year.

Please go to http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2009/11yearsstrong to donate on behalf of Project 11.

Sign up to follow the blog, leave a comment or two, and lets see what we can do to help fight cancer.

-Eric

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It Begins

My father fought Cancer (the big C) from March of 1997 until July 2008. In honor of his eleven year battle, my uncle and I will compete in 11 different endurance events in an effort to raise funds for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and encourage others to ride, run, and tri with us. Just like Dad did for us. Our goal, as you may have guessed is to raise $11,000 dollars by the last event in February 2010.

It all started with a bike. Had it not been for Dad's commitment to cycling, the doctors and our family believe the fight would not have lasted as long. The events begin in March and will include duathlons, triathlons, centuries, a double assault on Mount Mitchell, The Savageman for Melanoma Research, and marathons.

We'll use this space to keep folks updated along the way, and look forward to hearing from folks during the process.

More posts to come, as momentum begins to build. More about Dad, more about Cancer, more about the events, more about why...Tonight it simply begins.

Please visit

http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2009/11yearsstrong

to make a donation.
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