Utah Cyclocross-Cross Out Cancer

This weekend is the 2nd annual Utah Cyclocross-Cross Out Cancer event.  The Utah Cyclocross series (UTCX) is a 12 race series that is hugely popular in Northern Utah.  Last year, the promoters decided to dedicate one of the races as a fundraiser for Livestrong Foundation.  It was incredibly successful and they have committed to the Cross Out Cancer event again this year in hopes to raise money for Huntsman Cancer Foundation in addition to Livestrong.


The day is packed full of fun with something for everyone.  There is a 5k trail run in the morning and a fun ride later in the day.  Between these two charity events will be cyclocross racing.  In cyclocross racing, racers ride basically a road bike with a little beefier tire.  They race around a relatively short circuit and have to get off their bike and run over barriers. 

It is incredibly spectator friendly and rowdy spectators and heckling of the racers is actually encouraged!  The beefier tire is necessary because racing is mostly on dirt in the Fall when it is typically cold, rainy, or snowy.  

This weekend is looking to be beautiful though.  There will also be a silent auction all day long where you can bid on fantastic schwag.  Proceeds go to Huntsman Cancer Foundation and Livestrong Foundation.  


Here is basic information for the event:
Where: Wheeler Farm
When:  October 18, 2011
Schedule:
7:15  Registration opens
8:00  Start of 5k trail run
9:00  Silent Auction Opens for Bids
9:10 Course open for pre-ride
9:30 Racing begins (I'm going off at 11:15)
1:25 Fun ride
3:00 Silent Auction Bidding Closes


If you cant make the event, you can still participate by donating!  I have set up a page for donations.  Of course, every small amount is truly appreciated.  I recently saw a statistic where it was projected that a total of 1,596,670 new cancer cases and 571,950 deaths from cancer will occur in the United States in 2011 alone! (CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians Volume 61, Issue 4, pages 212–236, July/August 2011)  Clearly cancer affects many and continued research is imperative.


If you would like to donate, click here.  Donations can be made through the middle of December.  100% of the donations will go directly to research.  

There is pink everywhere

It is hard to go anywhere this month without noticing the pink.  I don't know when pink started to symbolize breast cancer or when breast cancer started having its very own month, but I notice now.  Although pink is not my absolute favorite color, never has been, I truly appreciate the recognition the color brings to a disease that affects 1 in 8 women.

Early detection directly correlates with survival, so in honor of breast cancer awareness month, I ask that everyone do a self breast exam.

Although self breast exams are controversial because research does not show an increase in survival by women who routinely do breast self-exams, I stand here to say, the cancer I had would have been discovered at a much later stage had I not done a self breast exam.  Staging does affect survival, and although I realize there are no guarantees, I feel very fortunate that I found this lump at a fairly early stage and followed up on it. Otherwise, it likely would not have been discovered until I started doing routine mammograms at age 40.  Even then, it may not have shown up on mammogram.  

As I've mentioned before, mammograms are not always effective for young women.  Young women tend to have dense breast tissue that shows up as white on a mammogram.  Cancer also shows up as white.  My entire mammogram was white because of my dense breast tissue so any cancer that was there could not be seen.  The density of my breast tissue may or may not have changed in the next 5 years and this is one of the reasons that mammograms are not recommended routinely until age 40 (or 50 depending on the source).  Regardless, in 5-years time my cancer would have most likely been more progressed.

Okay, I digressed, but hopefully emphasized my point, just do a self breast exam........

and on a lighter note, my hair is growing in really thick.  I have always had incredibly think hair; too thick in my opinion, and it looks like post-chemo that has not changed.  So far it is a bit darker than it was before, but perhaps that is because it hasn't had a chance to get bleached by the sun.  I'm not one to take lots of photos of myself, but when they include Dizzy I'm game.  We took these this morning.

Dizzy on the deck looking for treats in my hand

Dizzy in the backyard looking for treats in my hand

Dizzy being cute hoping to get more treats

Dizzy showing that he is done taking photos

As you can see in the photos, it is a beautiful October day in Utah.  We're off to ride mountain bikes.  I hope everyone is enjoying the great weekend.  After a self breast exam.

A really cool thing.......

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a really, really cool thing.

The Utah State Championship Series (USCS) is a new 4-race mountain bike series in Utah.  The promoters, whom I know well, are all really great guys and decided long before the first race of the series that they wanted to give back to the community. So it was decided that $5 from each entry fee along with money made from an opportunity raffle and Silver Bean coffee sales would be donated to Huntsman Cancer Foundation.  Coincidentally my husband is one of the aforementioned 'great guys' and even more coincidentally it was decided that the money be donated to Huntsman Cancer Foundation before I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

So, for the first time ever, I stepped into Huntsman Cancer Institute not as a patient, but as part of a really great group of people donating $5000 to cancer research.  There was a giant check and everything.

(Note:  I have more hair than 33% of the people in this photo:)

Even cooler was how genuinely excited the Huntsman Cancer Foundation event planners were about the $5000 donation.  $5000 is a lot of money, but compared to the millions that Huntsman donates, it is pocket change.  Regardless, the sincere appreciation made it seem like a million was donated.   We were also reassured that 100% of the $5000 would be used for cancer research.

I hope that the USCS continues to grow and is able to increase the donation next year.  This year a brick on the 'path of hope' will mark the USCS donation.  Maybe in a few years it will be a hospital wing.  Better yet, bikes for the fitness center.

6 Hours of Frog Hollow

6 Hours of Frog Hollow was my first 'official' mountain bike race since being diagnosed with breast cancer in January.  Although to many it may be just another race, to me it was much more.  This race marked the end of my breast cancer treatment and the beginning of many epic things to come.

The weekend was full of anticipation, excitement, an epic course, great friends, a silly puppy, joy, giddiness, and much more.......

In summary of the weekend:

My friend Jo and I won the Women's Duo category.  It was awesome, but more importantly we both exceeded our personal lap time goals.  I exceeded my personal lap time goal by 5 minutes, which consequently was the fastest female lap of the day.

I completed 3 laps on the 13 mile course.  My lap times were 1:00:05 (including LeMans start), 1:00:34, and 1:02:49.

Shannon and my good friend Bob were the fastest team of the day.

Black beans, brown rice, and yams mixed with leafy greens make a good vegan pre-race meal.  Even when camping.

I still have not figured out an easy vegan appropriate recovery drink.

Dizzy is going to be a great race puppy.  He hung out at the tent all day and was as excited about rolling in the dirt as I was about racing my bike.

Cancer has changed me.  It has taken things away from me.  It has not taken away my ability to race my bike!

2012.  Game on!

Me and Jo posing after awards

Up Next

Back in, I don't know, May or June, I thought it would be a good idea to race 6 Hours of Frog Hollow.  The Frog Hollow races utilize the epic trails in Hurricane, Utah including the IMBA award winning Gem Trail.  This race course rates very highly on my all-time favorite list.  The trail traverses the Virgin River Gorge making the scenery tough to beat as well.  Since I didn't want to race 6 hours by myself, I asked my friend Jo if she wanted to race it duo with me and she said yes.  Now, my first bike race in 10 months is only a few days out.

Am I nervous?  Maybe a little, but mostly I'm psyched to travel down to Southern Utah, rip the whoop-de-doos on the Gem trail, and hang out with friends for the weekend.

Being a somewhat competitive person, in order to have fun, I'm going to have to go into this race accepting of where I am at, both physically and mentally.  I'm not in bad shape by any means, but I am only 6.5 weeks out from my last surgery and I have done exactly 5 legitimately hard efforts since March.  That said, I will not put any limit on what I believe I can accomplish on the bike in the future.  Next weekend, next year, and beyond........

Even though this weekend will mark my technical 'return' to racing, I am not planning on racing anymore this fall.  Instead, I will continue to allow my body to heal from this year while I work on building back some of the muscle and strength that I lost.  Stay tuned for exciting things to come......

and since I don't have any new photos, I will post some photos from the last time I raced in Frog Hollow.

 Racing down Gem trail in 2010

 Sun rising over the plateaus  

Beautiful sunset in Southern Utah

A beautiful day....

September 17th was a memorial service for my Dad.  It was a beautiful weekend on so many levels and the service was exactly what I wanted/needed.  It started with a dinner Friday night with my siblings, niece/nephews, and my parents closest friends from Chicago.  The actual service was Saturday.  Family and friends shared experiences/memories of Dad and the service culminated with a 30-minute slide show, that my talented sister put together, of over 400 special moments with Dad.  The day was full of laughter and tears; truly a celebration of life.  I spent the rest of the weekend with family.  My niece and nephews were constant entertainment especially when Dizzy joined in on the fun.  I wish my Dad were there......

Family photo

Since then, I have occupied my mind by keeping extremely busy.  I must admit, it has worked quite well.
Now that my post-surgical precautions are basically non-existent, I have started to slowly introduce some weight training to build back some of the muscle I lost.  I have also been riding my bike.......a lot........In fact, last weekend I clocked over 6.5 hours of ride time in 2 days and probably double that in shammy time.  Like I always say, riding is my best therapy, and I have been getting lots of therapy recently!  

Dad

I have had a bit of writer's block lately.  So much has happened over the past few weeks, but I feel like I have done so little.....

On Wednesday August 31, 2011 my Dad passed away.  I miss him.

Growing up, I remember my Dad was always 'young' for his age.  He was an adventurous soul who loved to hike, ride horses, play ice hockey, ski, joke, fish, golf, and throw back a few beers and have a good time.  Some of the crazier things he did were sky dive and go to bull riding camp.  Yes, you read that correctly.  My city slicker dad, who wore a suit to work everyday, went to camp to learn to ride bulls!

A few years ago, we noticed some cognitive changes.  They were subtle at first, but continued to progress.  Suddenly, my 'young' Dad became very old.  After a few incorrect diagnoses, my Dad was finally diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia.  Frontotemporal Dementia is defined as "disease process that results in progressive damage to the anterior temporal and/or frontal lobes of the brain. The hallmark of FTD is a gradual, progressive decline in behavior and/or language that often has a relatively young age at onset (mid-50s to 60s), but has been seen as early as 21 and as late as 80 years. As the disease progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult for people to plan or organize activities, behave appropriately in social or work settings, interact with others, and care for oneself, resulting in increasing dependency".


Even while my Dad's cognitive ability rapidly declined, he still enjoyed physical activity with me and for this reason, we became very close.  One summer, I went up to Park City (where my parents live) and did all of my recovery bike rides with Dad.  The next, when he was no longer able to safely ride a bike, we walked together.

As my Dad continued to decline, one thing remained constant, his clear and unwavering love for me.  I have no doubt that my Dad knew exactly who I was up until the very end.  It made my two hour round-trip commute to visit him incredibly rewarding.

Over the past few years I witnessed my father's cognitive and then physical decline and it is ingrained in my head.  I am trying to remember my 'young' dad; the one who was a giant goofball, loved horses, played ice hockey in his 50s, and climbed Mount Elbert in his 60s.

I wavered back and forth if I should include this post in my 'athlete with breast cancer blog', but the truth is, life doesn't stop when you have breast cancer and athletes do have 'life' besides training, eating healthy, recovering, and competing.

I love you Dad.

A link to my Dad's obituary