It is funny how this week went by so fast. I was thinking about it as the bus rumbled along at speeds just slightly above the speed limit. What a great week. This year was a totally different experience than 2008 for me personally. In 08, I rode on Team 1 and we had a little different mentality about the ride (we rode pretty hard). That said, team 1 was a fantastic group of people and we all got it (we all were there for the same reason). This year I rode with the Yellow team. It was similar in feel but the connection of the team was completely different. This year was a lot more personal. Having a person on the team who is currently doing treatment really took it to another level for me personally and I think the team felt the same way. I think it was made a little harder by the fact that I see the same thing at home on a weekly basis with Susan.  

So, now it is time to get back to work, back to reality, and back to the shop to unload the bus and the trailer. I must say that I am truly thankful for all for all of the riders, the support personal, the sponsors and the personal supporters that helped  put together this ride. The ride was safe, the riders all rode well and we all completed this year’s challenge. It was a fantastic week!  I am excited about the prospect of 2010!

JOEY

This morning we all participated in the 5k walk/run. It was a great walk and awesome to see all of the P3 folks in the bright yellow shirts. RunIn provided those shirts and boy did we stand out. It was awesome and lots of people commented on them throughout the morning.

I am not sure if I will get another opportunity to blog (I plan on trying when I get home), but I think i am most thankful that we had a great ride. We have a great group this year and I think it shows in the positive attitude and tremendous spirit that they have all brought to this event. The ride was safe. The weather was not the best but it was not bad. This is after all a challenge. With every challenge there must be a point where things get tough. We all had those points and we all made it through like champions. Cancer patients live a daily challenge. We simply have had a 5 day challenge. I like to remember that when I see my wife and our friends who have battled cancer.

2009 p3 Challenge to Conquer Cancer has been a super event with a super group of people! Thank you all to my personal supporters and all of our event sponsors. Without your support none of us could help in supporting the fight!

JOEY SULLIVAN

We rode the outskirts of Austin and into the town of Bastrop. It was still dark but the rain was starting to ease up so maybe this ride would not be so dreary. We took a stop at a gas station about 22 miles out from our destination. At that moment, we were all completely energized by the sight of Laurens Flanagan getting ready to join us for the final miles of the ride.

I think the whole team has been lucky to have her in the support vehicles for this trip. We all wanted her to ride but having just completed a cycle of chemo the conditions have to be right for her to ride. She has been a personal warrior to our team and an incredibly positive influence as to why we all ride.

The final few miles were a little crazy. Ted had a flat. Arthur changed his wheel and got him rolling quickly. We rolled into the suburbs and the hills started to get a little steeper. With about 2 miles to go Laurens flatted. Once we got her rolling again I think we were all ready to roll out last few miles and start the celebration. It was awesome to see all of the teams waiting for us at the hotel! Greenville SC to Austin Tx. That is one long ride! But it is not about the ride.  This is a challenge. It is about the fight and teams  and why we all ride. Those last few miles completely eliminated those dreary thoughts early in the morning when it was cold and rainy (did I mention the sun came out about the time we finished!).

Tommorow, we roll into downtown Austin as one big team. All of the riders will be there and some of the support people will ride. I am very blessed to be surrounded by a tremendous team this year. Ron and Jennifer Jerina are the central force behind this ride to Austin. They allowed me to ride with this wonderful group of friends. Ted and Ann, Beth, Robin, Laurens, Ron and Jennifer truly made a super team to be a part of this year’s ride. I am not sure how so many completely different people spent 5 days in a car together and do it with nearly constant humor, support and never once did they threaten to throw me out of the car.  This year has been a completely different experience for me from the last. I can honestly say that I think people get it this year even more than the last.

I am looking forward to tommorow. I get see my wife Susan ( a warrior)! She will hopefully be at the hotel when we arrive. She is why I ride and truly an incredible survivor. This weekend has yet to begin but it will be a super weekend.

Thank you to all of my supporters for this trip. This has been a fantastic ride. More challenging, new people but all focusing on the same goal. This has been a fantastic finish into Austin, I am tired, sleepy and rambling on and on.

Joey Sullivan

I started with a cycling friend name Jackie Whitted. He left to early with pancreatic cancer. He was the biggest George Hincapie fan I have ever seen! He was a rider just like us and would probably be there if he could to support this ride today. I went through my family list (Harrington’s, Sullivan’s, cousin’s. aunt’s, uncles, grandparents…..). I put some unusual names out there like the people of Bogalusa LA that have dealt with a blight of cancer due to environmental issues. Paul Newman and musicians. I left my personal reason for the end (and most importantly as it is Susan my wife but I always think of our 5 year old son as he too is part of this battle!). In what seemed like just a little while we were through with nearly 3 hours of our ride, just saying names and making our pulls in the paceline. Quite amazing and truly surreal.

Last year was the first year. Amazing ride but we were all trying something new and had no expectations. This year is way different. Different people, new course, new people we meet on the road that look at us funny and many that are bewildered by the meaning behind this ride until they look at the magnets and realize that they too are surrounded by Cancer. I think this year has been taken to a new level. For this team, it is not about pace, it is not about hurrying to the next point and not about how great we are climbing. It is simply about the cause.

We wrapped up our dedication portion with the group riding side by side as we named our warriors and our current survivors on the ride. I am not sure I personally considered how hard it must be to be in the support vehicles listening over the radios as the names were being called out for hours. It could have well gone on all day and night from Greenville to Austin. It was quite amazing to the see the light on the back of Scott Schuey’s bike as it rode on the support van in front of us for nearly the whole night. That red light was a constant reminder to all of us of why we ride and a person on the list that was there with us that night.

I am leaving to get some dinner, and go to bed early as we have a 3:30 wake up call to get us going to meet our 6 am transition. It should be our last ride of the process of going to Austin. Friday morning the team will ride as one into downtown Austin and enjoy the fruits of our labor. The sleep should come easily enough as we all are tired and are over 24 hours without sleep. I apologize for my rambling but it is hard to put all of these thoughts together in one page.

Austin, here we come! Thank you to all of our supporters, friends and families who understand why we ride! 

Joey Sullivan

Team Yellow

So enough complaining! We are just a few days away. I have yet to pack my bags but I will hopefully have all of the maps completed tonight (yes I am the idiot who gently persuaded Ron into a route change! Blame me!). The bus should be ready to roll today (fresh from being serviced by a Childers Automotive, Steve Childers is a survivor! So he will have a magnet on our van). The vans and the trailer should be good to go on Friday and I think I am nearly complete with raising my money (Woohoo!).

Last year I posted a picture in the bus of my wife Susan and our son Trey. I wrote across the picture “Why I ride”. I will post the same picture this year but plan to add a few more. I plan to include one of Jackie Whitted. Jackie was a rider and he is smiling down on us today proud that we are doing this ride! If other riders want to include a photo in the bus, let me know. I will be happy to bring the materials to hang these pics.

I think the most important thing is not the ride. It is the people who are affected or will be affected by cancer. My personal reasons are close but we all have been affected by Cancer in some way or another. At 3am when I am going into the bus to get a cup of coffee and say I want to go to sleep (It happened last year), I will probably look up at that photo, get my cup of coffee and tell myself that I came on this trip to ride in support of this cause and finding a cure. Then I will get back on the bike and remind myself why I ride!

I think it is important to think of those people next week as we ride. We have all been affected by Cancer. I must thank all of those who have supported this cause! Without our donors and our supporters we would not be able to do this ride and provide a little help in this huge fight. Once again, this isn’t about how great of shape we are in (and I am not in shape, my team will thank me for that (or vice versa at some point). It is about the cause and those who are fighting and those who fought.

Thank you all of my (our supporters). Thank you Susan and Trey (why I ride!) !

JOEY SULLIVAN

More updates to come!

Livestrong! Booyahh!

So we settle into a nice easy tempo of about 20-22 mph, just cruising, the roads are nice and flat and everything seems A Okay. At our first turn onto highway 96 everything changes. We immediately see the team 5 girls getting a massage at the side of the road (old gas station) and realize that we have a stiff crosswind. This road continues for almost 35 miles. So I did what any overbearing (non-designated) team leader would do, I taught the boys how to ride an echelon (I wish I had photos, i am the proud father of a team that can now ride a true side to side echelon!). This kept our team up in the 20′s and the 20 mph crosswind really was not fun (nor was the highway that stayed busy with logging traffic, though the log trucks did come by offering a little wind relief).

We all knew the forcast called for evening rains so at the refill stop (gasfor bus) we decided to push on and get through the rain (or at least get ahead so the next team would be able to enjoy their rain ride). This was where the madness starts because the first half was actually very serene compared to what was coming. The road began to get a few little climbs and the team starting riding a fast paceline with 27+ mph tempo. This was starting to hurt my legs but it felt kind of good. We then took a turn off of 96 and passed through a town and then began the last 45 miles of the ride. THis is where the madness officially began because the team had 2 hours to go and we decided to push on to highway 59 a little more than 13 miles beyond the official transition. Our ride was highlighted by a construction stop of about 10 minutes which stiffened up the legs and was promptly followed by a downpour of rain as we began moving again (still pushing hard though). With one hour to go tempo was in the 24+ range with some strong rollers and sporadic heavy showers, this just seemed to egg on everyone as the tempo kept increasing. At the 15 to go mark, we were about 30 minutes out from transition, I am guessing the team rode 13.5 of those miles in 30 minutes and the hills kept getting steaper. Rob topped one climb and just looked over and said, “I’m done” though he kept pulling through without any issues (I have said that several times in this ride so far, so I know how he feels!).  We finally rolled into the town of Shepard TX and teams 2 and 3 were there to meet us. It is a cool feeling to have that many people waiting for the transition.

A few tidbits: The support crew kept me in stitches today. Keith has quite a sense of humor as does Johnny Boy who actually claims he saw the elusive teradactyl today (actually it was huge bird, I mean huge).  Jonathon kept up his video work and is starting to put together Jonathan’s road kill diaries for a future viewing. His latest Youtube video should be up soon, and you will nice that I (Joey) seem to take advantage of making faces at the camera every chance I get. This latest video shows the who deal, it is cool! We did get our first official armadillo sighting today.  The support people rock, without these guys we would be in trouble. Thomas, John, Keith, Reuben, David, Arthur (who is currently annoyed with me because I keep breaking wheels, only 2 today though), Rene and her crew (who absolutely made my day with stretches and working that gunk out of my legs, I needed that and it would be an issue without you and your crew!). The bus crew has kept me in stitches on the radio, those guys seem to have fun with our team (probably with all of the teams but I think roadkill watch has kept them laughing with us).

This has been a fantastic ride so far, and today we make it to Austin, still a few more rides to finish out the week but all is great! I must thank everyone for their well wishes and support. This is about awareness, raising money for those we love and want to get healthy and it is about Living Strong!

Team 1 has had a fantastic ride, an oddball mix of people (5 totally different riders, 2 main support people, Thanks guys) and the coolest attitude I have ever seen in a group tagged together to ride. Everyone has stepped up to the plate and kept it going strong. Thanks guys! 

Booyahh Livestrong!

A few corrections, on my last blog I used the term MS, it stands for Mississippi. I hope it did not get miscommunicated, if so I am sorry. Also, I must say once again, that the support teams have been fantastic. This is definitely a team effort and the riders have a hard job but the support people have an even tougher job. I am not sure I could go on the bus for a 24 hour shift or longer as in the case of Arthur who seems attached to the bench seats in the back.

I keep seeing a few of the magnets on the back of our team van. There are several but one in particular seems to keep me motivated. It is for a 1.5 year old child dealing with cancer. I also see a few magnets for Susan. These are easy reasons to support the cause. I watch Susan live with it daily, so I keep the mindset that there will be a cure for cancer.

Keep the emails coming and for tonight, booyahh.

Livestrong!

We started a bit slow. The gals from team 5 looked beat. They rode awesome! That midnight to 6 drag is rough and they have some tales to tell. The only hard part for me was that they (and all others back to team 2) told me that the roads were nice and flat. After our first 6 hour run (mid to 6 on Monday AM) we were looking for some flat land because we needed it. So, we go about 10 miles that are nice and flat and then the rollers began. They were not bad but just enough to start the pain cycle in the legs at every hilltop. The rest of day stayed this way so we did what team #1 does, we hit it hard and furious. Our average while riding was about 21 miles per hour. We jammed through several sections at 24+ mile an hour speeds and even had the line running at 28+ several times. I don’t ride this hard during race season (maybe this will be my lesson about getting in shape!). It was a fantastic effort on the part of the team. Everyone made their pull and the momentum just kept on rolling. It was Booyahh!

Booyahh! I began this chant after the guys would make a strong pull. It came to mind when Matt was mimicking Bobby Bouchet from the Waterboy! Booyahh just came to mind. Now, a few little mindless thoughts from Joey. Today, the 3 theme kept coming at me. We had some technical issues this morning with the radios so I put on a radio and now we have the ability to talk to the bus. THis is good and bad becuase everytime I asked for mileage to the next turn I got the response of 3 miles. Yeah, i know it should have lost it’s humor but we all still laugh about. There are 3 guys on our team with specialized bikes. We have crossed into 3 states (GA, AL and LA, possibly MS but I was too sleepy to remember this morning).

Strange sightings today. Of course roadkill, we actually were looking for specific things we have not seen yet, not much luck (no armadillos yet) and not teradactyls but we did see a sasquatch sign as we rode throught the sasquatch national forest. I saw a roadsign that said “slow” 20mph” then looked down and realized we were rolling at 28 mph. It was cool! There was a wheelchair sign on a road, and when I looked up there was a guy in the middle of the road doing doughnuts in his electric wheelchair. It was kind of odd, he gave us a big MS hello and we just rolled on by. The roads varied from great to bairly tarmac. My rear wheel broke near the end of the day after one of these roads, I think the hub blew a bearing because it was making a nasty sound. Stll rolled but nasty noises!

We ended in Bogalusa LA> The people were incredibly friendly. A local came up to talk with us and then called the newspaper. I got interviewed and more people kept coming by to see what these weirdo bikers were doing. Her name was Pumpkin. She introduced herself to Rob and he replied ” I’m patch” so I am going to start calling him patch. She did not get the humor but she was incredibly nice and friendly. we met a lady named Deloris Hopkins at the pizza hut. She told us about the town history (lots of cancer due to chemical plants) and was incredibly nice. This was a great town with great people.

I must give a loud booyah to Keith, Arthur, Thomas and John. They were the support today. They are great, and still have a lot of humor even with little sleep! The support van was also there at the end of the day. Rene totally took care of my aches and pains, Matt also as he hogged the table saying he is injured! In fact, she took care of the whole crew. It was fantastic and her helpers are also great. Janet Rigdon helped on my legs which are feeling the pain of a few days of riding. 

Jonathon moment of the day: Rob asked the waitress if they were going to put cheese pizza on the buffet, Jonathon says ” If you want cheese pizza, take the pepperoni off” It was a Jonathan moment, hilarious as usual. We have a great group of guys, a lot of cut-ups and a lot of fun. By the way, jonathan just posted a video of the ride today on youtube. I am probably making faces at the camera as that is what I have made a habit of doing the past few days.

Long post, long day, great effort, lots of positive energy, lots of leg pain, but once again a great day!

Livestron! Booyahh!

Rob called his firend Mark Harris who is a contemporary recording artist and he took us to a late lunch. It was at this restaurant called Wintzell’s. It is a local seafood franchise that is fantastic. Mark introduced us to the owner who was great to talk with about our cause, and he is a big supporter of St Judes children’s hospital. He even gave us all T-shirts for visiting his restaurant. It was awesome! Mark Harris just performed at Fall for greenville just over a week ago.  It has been really cool to meet these people that support our ride.  I have been amazed by the hospitality that people have shown us on this trip.  

Tommorow morning we will be rolling out of the hotel at 4:30 to catch team 5. They reminded us today that it is mullet Monday!

It sounds like we are progressing fairly close to schedule. If it is off then only by a few miles and most likely is related to traffic down here on the coast. The teams should be out of Mobile AL tommorow and into Mississippi.

Livestrong! 

The details: The midnight shift started a little frantic, we were able to get out on a fairly timely manner and it was cold. It was about 45 degrees and a little cross wind heading out of Woodland GA. We rode down highway 41 for a lot of miles (about 45 or so) and then tuned down a side road to cut over to highway 27. This was the roughest road of the whole trip for us so far. The other roads have been fantastic up until this point. The thing we noticed was the hills started to get longer and steeper. On 27 the hills got steeper and longer and we ran through a series of about 20-25 of these hills, you go up (out of the saddle) and then go down (seems like 1/2 mile to a mile from peak to peak with them getting longer as we started up 27). I asked the driver John how far to the next turn and his reply was about 3 miles. I must have misunderstood him because it was close to 30 mile before this road ended. We pulled into a gas station and found out our transition was about 3 miles away. Yeah right, about 6 miles later we finally found them, we transitioned at about 6:35 this morning. 92 miles later!

A few tidbits, our climbing in the last hour was 4900 ft, we never thought we would have this much climbing while heading through lower GA getting ready to cross into AL and then FL. We averaged close to 18 mph for the whole ride (6.5 hours). This part of GA was cold this night, about 45 degrees at the start and it dipped to mid 30′s for most of the night. The night was clear and awesome, stars were out and the moon was bright at the start. Waffle house seems to be the restarant of choice the past 2 days, I love my scattered smothered covered and chunked!

On the lighter side, I have noticed that some of my teammates are quite interesting. Jonathan seems to have a fascination with road kill (as does Matt) and he seems to be keeping a count and list of all he sees on the road. He also has put out some one liners that are hilarious, my favorite so far is ” wow, that Hotel has a drive through window, that’s neat” and my second favorite was while riding at 4 am we passed a house and the front window was open, he said “man that guy really needs to shut his curtains when he gets dressed”. Apparently there was a guy standing in front of the window in his skivies trying to get dressed. okay, i guess you had to be there, it was funny! 

This group has been a lot of fun. We are all tired and only 1 day in, our systems are still trying to acclimate to 30+ hours of no sleep but we have done well and still seem to be on track. This is a great bunch of guys to be riding with at 3 in the morning!

We get back to sunlight hours over the next 2 days, I am looking forward to it. I will post team 1 photos as soon as I can get them downloaded. 

LIvestrong

We will be leaving in another 1.5 hours to catch the bus and sattle up for the next leg, i am dreading riding from 12 am to 6 am but it will be a true adventure and challenge. I am already preparing to tell the team that we will have a WH policy ofmaking a stop for coffee anytime we pass one (WH= Waffle House if you didn’t understand).  Weather tonight is to be in the high 30′s so we will be bundling up and trying to stay warm.

Right now the Red Sox are playing. Go BOSOX! Matt is excited as they have started well but are now in the 3rd inning.

I will quit rambling but taking off from the Hospital this morning was awesome. Lots of excited people and lots of positive energy. We need all we can get. Still a long way to go but the adventure has started and everything is going well.

Livestrong

Susan, sleep well tonight and give Trey a big hug for me in the morning!

Friday, we had a great turnout for setting up the vehicles and the bus. I don’t know who all helped out as many drove to Atlanta and back to pick up vans but there was a nice size group. After the van’s were picked up, we were able to get the roof racks installed and get the decals and magnets placed on the vehicles. The bus was another story. It seems like the bus is an enternal work in progress. We now have a bench seat in place with new coverings (and good storage underneath), and now we have an area designed to hold the water jugs and the coffee pot is to be delivered soon.  The only downspot of the day was the radio died on us so we are now concerned about 1555 miles of no entertainment (unless of course you consider Matt tebetts pranks entertaining, which they definitely will be (watch out team 5!!!). 

Saturday, Big Joe and I had breakfast, Matt Tebbetts joined us at Tommy’s Ham House. Then to the shop to work on the bus and get the radio operational. I must thank Justin (sorry but I don’t know your last name) for helping us get the radio working, it was as simple as resetting the system which is now working without issues. Thankfully, the support crews will be able to rest and relax with music and possibly some good movie entertainment even though their choices will be limited to guy movies that I have packed (hopefully others will pack a movie or 2 to help).  We also got some new lights installed today (Thanks to Tommy Satterfield with that help, amongst all of the other things he has done to help out with the bus). Finally, the support gear has been fully loaded along with a few pictures that I put in to give a suttle reminder as why I am riding.

Saturday night, pack the bags, go out with my wife for dinner and spoke with my little boy who is at the beach. I will be going 12 days without seeing my little boy. Sacrifices for good causes though I think Susan needs us to terrorize her on a regular basis (it’s part of her sanity!).

Tommorow morning, bright and early, I will be at breakfast at 6:15 and ready to pack the bus at 7:30 and riding at 9pm.  I will be trying to post on a daily basis. I think I owe this to everyone who has supported this cause. I believe in it and i watch Susan live it though we all live it with her. IT’s all about attitude!

Livestrong

I am Joey Sullivan. I, like a lot of people involved with this ride, have a personal reason for doing the ride and mine revolves around 2 people (and there are many more but for the ride’s purpose, 2 people).

The first person is Susan, my wife. She was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer a little over 4 years ago. She has been through it all and has come out looking fantastic as always. Even with her second go around of this cancer she has maintained her fantastic attitude and kept an incredibly positive outlook even though her doctors have not been so positive on several occasions.

My second person is our son Trey. He is four years old and was about 8 weeks old when Susan was diagnosed. I truly think this is almost as much about him as it is about Susan. The only mom he knows is incredible, she always has time and steps above and beyond especially in times when she is not feeling well (which as anyone knows, with cancer there are good days and bad days).

With the good and bad, I have learned that dealing with cancer is as much about attitude as it is about anything else that you go through. Susan has shown me this day in and day out. I have no doubts that this is the reason that she will keep fighting and be there for Trey as he grows up.

I attached a photo, it was the first I could find on my computer, but like all of the pictures I keep with them together, they are smiling and everything is fine.  The date stamp is off but that photo is from Disney in June 2008. I will post a few more in the coming time.

Livestrong!