So far so good...

Well, it's been a busy five days and I'm finally able to give an update.
I've been able to ride with some amazing challenged athletes.
I pulled an active duty Iraq veteran the first day. He's now pulling me.

A short synopsis (I'll try and keep updating it as I get more computer access):
Day 1 SF to Santa Cruz 86 miles: Police escort out of San Francisco was way cool. It was awesome seeing Mom, Dad, Paula and Alex in Santa Cruz!
Day 2 Santa Cruz to Big Sur 86 miles: Foggy mornings through the lettuce fields. I dropped my H20 Bottle early and went back to get it and found myself lone wolfing it. I caught up to an older rider and rode with him until the SAG where we caught up with some other radio riders. The fried artichokes were way cool. Monterey is beautiful.
Day 3 Big Sur to Pismo Beach 114 miles: Wow a long day. Big Sur is stunning and hilly! Got some rain on the last leg. 4 of us radio guys got to share a cabin (picture GIFT house with one bathroom) at Big Sur which was fun.
Day 4 Pismo to Santa Barbara 119 miles: Got the hills out of the way early, so the second half was down hill. Much easier than Day 3. The weather is always great in socal.
Day 5 Santa Barbara to Marina Del Rey 86 miles: Beautiful day and 86 miles seems like childs play compared to 100+.

Ride Schedule

Friday 10/16

1:10pm Arrive SFO: Mom's picking me up. Dad arrives at SFO an hour later.

Check in: Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf-Presidio Ballroom

4:00pm Rider reception, registration, bike check, meet & greet

5:00-6:00pm Ride orientation presentation

6:00pm Program concludes, riders on own

Saturday 10/17

Location: Hyatt at Fisherman’s Wharf

6:00-7:00am Breakfast-Presidio Ballroom

7:15am Pre-ride Ceremony on Taylor Street (adjacent to hotel)

7:30am Ride out of San Francisco with police escorts

San Francisco to Santa Cruz: 86 miles (Description)

Day Two: Sunday, October 18, 2009
Santa Cruz to Big Sur: 86 miles (Description)

Day Three: Monday, October 19, 2009
Big Sur to Pismo Beach: 114 miles (Description)

Day Four: Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Pismo Beach to Santa Barbara: 119 miles (Description)

Day Five: Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Santa Barbara to Marina del Rey: 89 miles (Description)

Day Six: Thursday, October 22, 2009
Marina del Rey to Newport Beach: 53 miles (Description)

Day Seven: Friday, October 23, 2009

12:30 pm (approx) QMDC riders regroup in La Jolla (location tba)

1:00pm QMDC riders arrive at La Jolla Shores-Kellogg Park-Families
and Supporters are welcome and encouraged! Refreshments
served. There will be a challenged athlete meet and greet
event as well. (This is also final Luggage pick up and you will
need to provide your own transportation from this point)

Adam Beck wins the Scott & BR Cycling Challenge!
The top 7 finalists get to go on the ride as Team 1090 raises over $60,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
Pictured here in the XX1090 Studio, Radio Host Scott Kaplan, me, Alex Hamlow, Mike Henderson (last years winner and Team 1090 coach), Adam Beck, Joy Muehlenbein, Brian Brillow, Joe Weickgenant, Radio Host and Charger Great Billy Ray Smith, Jr.

Tune in for the winner tomorrow at 630am

Tune into XX1090 tomorrow at 645am to find out who wins the Scott & BR Qualcomm Million Dollar Challenge entry (Joy, Adam, or Alex). They've invited the top 7 finialists in studio, so I'll be there to find out who wins. It's been amazing summer. I've met a lot of good friends. I've learned a lot about cycling. The ride starts a week from Saturday in San Francisco.

I'd like to give a big thank you to Brian Sorokin who signed over some of his fundraising over to Team 1090 to wrap up a 7th spot. As rider number 7 this means a lot to me.

2 weeks until the ride

I can't believe it is only two weeks until we start riding south from San Francisco to San Diego. The Scott & BR Cycling team is still in fundraising mode to get as many of us on the ride as possible as the 7th place finisher in the radio contest I'm on a bit of a bubble, but I still have a week to pull in funds. Don't worry, I'll figure out a way to get it done. My teammates are looking out for me and I really appreciate it.

Adam arranged a booth at the Scripps Ranch Farmers Market on Saturday and we'll be there selling Opportunity Drawing Tickets for an awesome Island BBQ donated by FrameMAX and some cookies baked by my Team Scott & BR Cycling team trophy wife Paula. If you cannot make it to the farmers market, just shoot Adam an email an email (abeck@framemax.com) and pay for your ticket on Adam's fundraising page.

To date the Scott & BR Cycling Team has raised over $46,000 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation!

Above is a picture of Paula and me on our way to Timbo & Jen's Vintage Vegas party last Saturday. Paula won 3rd place in the Poker Tournament! Way to go!

If you'd like to make a donation to CAF on behalf of my ride: http://mdc2009.kintera.org/markvd

Joy's Brew Bash a big success/Better Links

I went to Joy's fundraising event last night. It looked like was a tremendous success. She worked really hard and it was so much fun. The night ended with the auctioning of single men and women for dates on Harbor Cruises, Theater, Zoo, etc. It was quite entertaining. One women fetched $300!





I sent out a recent email where I painstakenly put links to lots of sites. Of course I did this in Microsoft Office Word 2007 and when a pasted it into Windows mail, all the links were broken, so here is a quick link recap:





1) XX1090 Scott & BR Cycling Challenge
2) http://markvdteam1090.blogspot.com/

3) Qualcomm Million Dollar Challenge

4) Challenged Athletes Foundation

5) Operation Rebound

6) My fundraising Page: http://mdc2009.kintera.org/markvd

7) Joy's Brew Bash at LJ Brew House: http://tinyurl.com/brewbash

8) Poker Ride

9) Opportunity Drawing for an amazing Island BBQ.

10) Rubios flyer



Tomorrow we ride 80 miles out to Fallbrook and back.

A Quick Qualcomm Million Dollar Challenge Update

It's been a couple of weeks since I've "blogged".

I'm still continuing my rides for the QMDC.

I've done a Century up to Laguna and Back and a ride from El Cajon, out past Sycuan Casino and to Jamul. I'm still riding to places that I've never been before. I barely blink at the milage now.

Alex “the boy” started playing Soccer Saturday mornings, and I’ve been fortunate to be assistant coach on his B6U team “The Green Flames”.

This summer has been amazing. It has been a pleasure and an honor to represent Team 1090. I'm fortunate to meet many new people and friends and I can’t wait to do the ride with them down the coast next month. Mike Henderson and the rest of the ride leaders are great. I’ve learned so much about cycling this summer.

Some great happenings presented by my Team 1090 teammates:

I hope to see you all at Joy's big fundraising event at the LJ Brew House (Friday, September 25, 2009)

http://tinyurl.com/brewbash

Adam has a Poker Ride Saturday, September 26, 2009 and has an Opportunity Drawing for an amazing Island BBQ.

If you print this flyer and present it at select Rubio’s Restaurant locations Saturday, September 26, 2009, 20% of your purchase will go to CAF.

I’m amazed and so grateful at your generosity. Together, we’ve raised over $4585 for the Challenged Athletes Foundation! My fundraising continues to reach my $10K goal by the QMDC deadline next week. If you would still like to contribute, here’s the link: http://mdc2009.kintera.org/markvd

Finally, I need to thank my wife Paula for her encouragement and support for me. Without it, I could never have made it to the #7 spot. I love you always.