Challenge to Conquer Cancer - Cycling Relay to Austin, TX » Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog Challenge to Conquer Cancer - Cycling Relay to Austin, TX Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:16:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 New Year! http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/new-year/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/new-year/#comments Mon, 10 Oct 2011 21:14:47 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/new-year/ It is hard to say what we did “today” because today started sooooo long ago! We discovered that the team that we were to take over from was ahead of where we thought we would transition. Had to wake up everyone quickly and get them moving so we could leave earlier that we had planned. We left the hotel by 1:40 and had an hour drive to come in behind the other team…go ahead and find a spot for all to pull over and our team to saddle up. The Livelong Team started at 3:07 this morning and rode until 6:00ish. Since the other teams had gotten us ahead by a good bit….our team actually hit the first of the so called “big climbs”. It always is amazing for me to watch my team in my rear view mirror and see how they gel and work together. I say it every year—-it takes a team to get thru cancer and it takes a team to get thru this ride! Since it was dark the only thing I could really see were feet pumping on the pedals and the reflective vests and reflective strips on their helmets glowing in the dark as they followed my car with the bus headlights behind them. We all kept each other safe—-from cars, bumps in the road…as well as the HUGE deer that ran RIGHT in front of my car! I missed him by inches. DAWN—you are always worried about the deer and one almost took me out this year and I am not in your car????? Anyway, I am always touched by the people we encounter and their reactions. The sweet man that worked at the Comfort Inn in Blue Ridge, GA had breakfast all ready for us at 1:30 this morning! He got very teary eyed when we asked if we could put a magnet on our car for anyone for him. He told us a sweet story of his friend that passed away from cancer and cried as we drove away to continue our mission. Today as we checked in to the Jamison Inn in Columbia, TN, the young manager told us about her Aunt’s death from cancer as we put her magnet on the car as well. A lady in the hallway spoke to us and was a 3 time breast cancer survivor so her magnet is now on the car, etc. People honk as they pass us on the roads. We are getting the message out there!!!! My “family” is growing as I have new teammates this year and continue to love my old teammates. I feel so blessed to be a part of this whole thing. And I am so thankful to be ABLE to be a part of this whole thing. Because I Can……and so many cannot. I miss my family, and my friends that weren’t able to come this year. But know that I am in the right place….

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/new-year/feed/ 1 How Could I NOT go? http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go-2/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go-2/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:17:19 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go-2/ This will be my third year. I had hoped to “ride” this year…but life gets in the way alot of times. So I will go as a Team manager—Team “Mom” again. I have been going at SUCH a frenzied pace since June. I really don’t know if I have been at home for more than a whole week at a time since. I REALLY do not have the time to go this year……but how can I not go??? Cancer has touched my family profoundly from my Mom, to my sister, to my sis in law, to me. I just had a discussion with my niece—she is only 36 yr old and is considering having a profilactic (spelling?) mastectomy to prevent the same fate as all of us??!!! How can I not go to Austin??? We have to keep raising the funds to help fight this disease. Our convoy riding down the roads to Texas day and night certainly will help raise awareness…even if it helps one person! I am tired from traveling and emotionally tired as of late. My hope is that while driving for 6 hours at 15 miles an hour with my team of cyclists….I will have the time to take a deep breath….settle down…..calm down…..and realize again WHY we do this ride! I will think of friends and family that have battled it…I will think of their family members and mine that have “Loved Them Thru It” as Martina’s song talks about. I am sure i will shed many tears but my heart will refill with hope. We ride for so many! October 9, 2011

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go-2/feed/ 5 How Could I NOT go? http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go/#comments Sun, 09 Oct 2011 14:13:43 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2011/10/how-could-i-not-go/feed/ 0 Happy to be here! http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2010/10/happy-to-be-here/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2010/10/happy-to-be-here/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:09:35 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/?p=943 HELLO TO THIRD FLOOR at the CANCER CENTER!!!!  We are doing this ride for so many people….and YOU are included!!!  I have been in the treatment center like you are and look where I am now!  So I hope you get to “ring that bell” very soon!

I was a support driver for this ride last year for very different reasons.  I had finished most of my surgeries and treatment….I was still in the wig….I needed to be involved to help me get past all of it!!  THIS year…..I wasn’t going to come.  My husband had opened his agency and things are still tight.  Taking the time off and doing the fund raising is tough.  But when he said we were going to go, I realized how much going meant to me!  If we, as cancer patients, get complacent about raising money—how can we expect others to?  So here I am helping to drive and take care of the Polka Dot team once again.

As we prepared to leave on Sunday tensions were high.  Some of our team had not even met each other before we all piled into our 12 passenger van.  The “unknown” was a little stressful for all of us.  The second day as they started riding, there were some rough spots….they couldn’t get settled in a pace line….so many were giving orders….personalities had to find their place…and they all had to learn to work together.  By the third ride all had been worked out, they rode seemlessly as a team and at the end the emotions ran high.  Being a driver, and watching all of this from either behind from the bus, or in front via the rear view mirror is amazing!  I would love to be able to hear all the conversations the riders have on the road, but the walkie talkies are not for that purpose!  I am just grateful to be able to soak it all in and realize that all of these dynamics ARE part of the “challenge”.  

We have some on our team that were together last year and then we have new “blood”.  It has been awesome to get to know each and every one!!!  Each and everyone brings something to the team, to this experience, and to my life.  It takes all kinds of people to accomplish this goal to ride to Austin.  It takes the “A” personalities, the leaders, the worker bees, the nurturing ones, the detailed ones, and cheerleaders.  I find that I am the most happy being the cheerleader.  I want everyone to be happy, and for everyone to get along….and I so love seeing them conquer their goal—whatever that may be!  I love the emotion of it all.  The tears flow so easily and it reveals such honesty.  You REALLY get to see the inside of someones heart and soul.  While hard at times to know why the tears fall, it is cathartic as well.

This “challenge” is not unlike going thru the cancer journey.  You are stressed at the unknown, you go head spinning into the research and treatments, and then you put your faith and your heart into your “team” to make it through the physical, mental and emotional ups and downs…..to come out on the other side a changed person.

I am loving every second of being on this trip.  I hope to continue to be involved in it, and other things like this to find ways to raise money and spirits to fight cancer.  I am a changed person, inside and out!  You spend alot of years trying to find your passion…..maybe I have found mine?

Smiles

Love, Super Sally  or “safe sally” as my team has named me!

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2010/10/happy-to-be-here/feed/ 9 The wierdo in the pink cape http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-wierdo-in-the-pink-cape/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-wierdo-in-the-pink-cape/#comments Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:54:44 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-wierdo-in-the-pink-cape/ Well, the reason for wearing the Pink SuperHero cape the whole week was because we ALL are Heroes for Hope as it says on the back…..but it took on many meanings during the trip!

As I read Dustin’s statement that he is not only a cancer survivor but a CANCER FIGHTER I could not stop crying……I just LOVE that! So we all are now cancer fighters since we took this journey to hopefully save people from this dreaded disease!!!! So I will look into getting EVERYONE capes for next year! :)

The cape got many comments during the LAF run and ride over the weekend! Many people asked me why I was wearing it which gave me time to tell them what the Challenge to Conquer Cancer was all about which was GREAT! Other people would run or ride by me (notice that I was getting passed ALOT!) and say…”Love the cape”, or “great cape”! On the ride I answered that with “I had hoped it would give me super hero powers but it wasn’t working that day!” But their fun comments spurned me on!

On Saturday I did the 5K…thinking I would walk/run it since I haven’t been able to train much in the last couple of months. But I hooked up with Kim and Chasse and they kept me going! I ended up hand in hand with Chasse, who I so love and admire, sprinting and laughing crossing the finish line! A very special moment for me!

On Sunday I decided to shoot for the 45 mile ride. The longest ride I have ever done was only 31….but the 10 and 20 mile seemed too short so I wanted to do the 45. Well….at the second sag stop, which came AFTER the turn off to the 20 miler, I realized that I bit off more than I could chew. My lungs were burning and huffing/puffing, my legs were already feeling like jelly……maybe trying 45 only 2 months after the hysterectomy was too ambitious. I was very upset and considered asking a sag van to carry me back to the 20 mile turn, or ahead to the sag stop closest to the finish so I could ride across the finish line (cheater!)……I really wanted to quit and I was about to cry and throw in the towel. Chasse and Jessica urged me to get food to feel better. Just then I got a text on my cell phone and looked down to read that a man, whose name was on an “In Honor Of” magnet on our van had died that morning. Another person lost to cancer. I really wanted to kick something, punch something….but instead I decided to get my butt back on the bike and finish the 45 miles even if it killed me. I’ve never met the man that died but I rode for Woody Koonce and so many others. I finished with the help of Annette (who had only ridden 20 something miles before this!) and the last 5 miles with Will Flanagan pulling me! But I finished.

I am home now, back with my husband Kevin, who let me go on this journey and who was my ROCK thru everything I’ve been thru in the past year….double mastectomy, reconstruction, chemo, total hysterectomy…etc etc. Cancer sucks and we have to continue to do all that we can to help each other and others get thru it.

To my polka dot team and the P3C3 TEAM, I send huge hugs, tears of admiration and love and hope…….and I hope that the vulnerability that so many of us discovered along the way stays open so that we all can help anyone heal, learn, love………thanks for such an inspiring trip!

Sally

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-wierdo-in-the-pink-cape/feed/ 1 The Pink Cape http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-pink-cape/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-pink-cape/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:27:17 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-pink-cape/ The pink superhero cape has been in 7 states since Sunday….today reaching Austin will make 8. I think people have misunderstood the reason I am wearing the cape. It is not to draw attention to myself as a survivor, it in part is to raise awareness for breast cancer BUT it MAINLY is because of what is says on the back……it says “HEROES FOR HOPE”…..that is what this ride is about! We are bringing hope for those that have suffered, are suffering, and will suffer! If anyone should be wearing super hero capes it is the riders! But then we thought that if they wore capes they may get stuck in the back wheels and they’d strangle..which would NOT be a good thing. JD said that if they were riding fast enough, the cape would be flowing behind and would not present a problem……that spoken from the guy we are calling SuperMan due to his red shoe covers and red vest he unzipped that looked like a cape flapping behind as he rode yesterday!
RIDE ON HEROES!!!!
sally

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/the-pink-cape/feed/ 5 Team http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/team/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/team/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:45:53 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/team/ As I ride in front of my team of riders it makes me cry. I witness ALOT in the rear view mirror as I watch to make sure I am just ahead of them to keep them safe from cars that are passing. A few thoughts……

As we passed thru the dark, wet, fog in the freezing cold on Monday I saw it…..”come on…I will pull you….you stay on my wheel and I will get you there…..don’t give in let me help you….I will come back for you and keep you going…..don’t go to far ahead of us……we will pull you back into the pocket to keep you safe…..if you are shivering we will get your warm….” T-E-A-M……I have been shown over and over in the past 2 days what that REALLY means! It touches my heart. It makes me realize that it may take a village to raise a child as they say……but it takes a TEAM to get to get thru 20 degree weather and up huge mountains……it takes a team to get you to Austin, TX ….it takes a TEAM to get you thru Cancer. So far so WONDERFUL!

Being a support person is WORK, but it is a labor of love for the riders that punish their bodies to raise money for this cause! I feel so so lucky to be here!
Nite!

sally
Polka Dots

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/team/feed/ 2 we are staying strong by Jeni http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/we-are-staying-strong-by-jeni/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/we-are-staying-strong-by-jeni/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:26:40 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/?p=416 Well the polka dot team is resting tonight. It has been a long cold day but we are ready for a warm great ride tomorrow. Looks like it will be close to 70 when the polka dot team rides out.
I cant tell you how much I love doing this ride. This is such an amazing experience. I love coming in to transition and finding out how the other team faired. And they are always so happy to either see us or maybe just happy to be off the bike. I will take the one that sounds best… happy to see us. Then as we come in the other team is cheering and doing the same thing for us. LOVE to hear those HOLLAS!
To keep the team spirit alive the Polka Dot Team has been polka dottaying the cars…. Polka dot here…Polka dot there…. Polka dot you every where!!! We have managed to get the Yellow team, the Massage crew, and Green team. You never know what kinda of polka dot you will get… So far the Yellow has recieved ribbons on the door….Massage crew…. you must take care of them they got a ribbon and polka dot cookies…. the Green team got dotted with stickers on their cute faces and hmmmm do i smell another dottay brewing??? who will we strike next… Stay tuned and we will keep you posted.
Getting back to the business… Riding… Being strong… Honoring….Remembering…. the cold air we went throught today, I was kindly reminded that it is nothing like a day of chemo. So Off we ride into the the high noon sun (dont worry mom I will be covered up well) to the break of dawn we come…. 6 pm we stop. Or goal will be to make it to 100 miles to try to make up the distance we lost today. Hey teams… have you hugged your drivers lately? what about those fellas in the bus behind you… dont just show them your tail. Give em a hug. they need it.
Love to all…. BE SAFE…. remember….we are all in this together. XXxxOOoo Jeni Shu, polka dottay!

]]> http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/we-are-staying-strong-by-jeni/feed/ 7 Can’t wait! http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/cant-wait/ http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/2009/10/cant-wait/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:58:32 +0000 Sally Dunn http://www.mc2construction.com/p3c3blog/blog/?p=260 I was showing my son my teams maps this morning.  I told him that on Fri we would all officially ride into down town Austin and I all of the sudden got choked up!?  I asked that he keep up with us on the blogs/maps and send me messages.  I don’t think he can realize what this trip means to me….to all of us.

While I am support this year, I WILL RIDE NEXT YEAR!  This year I hope to take good care of my Polka Dot team…making sure to have them at transitions on time, and keep them happy while in the van (I’ll try not to sing too much!), etc etc.

I had a tough time deciding on what to have added to my arm warmers.  I could’ve put  Jane Pate on my arm warmers…but people wouldn’t quite get that….so I simply put   “My MoM”, “My Sis”, “My Sis in Law”……I think people will then understand how cancer has affected my life.  Simply put…I am going on this trip  for them, and for me….for the breasts, lymph nodes, ovaries that have been lost in my family alone!

I cry when I think of leaving Sunday!  Thank you to all that have donated and I hope everyone will send messages along the way.  If the blogs affect you even half as much as they affected me last year….we will see YOU next year as support or as a rider!!!!!

With dedication,

sally dunn

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