Connor's Journey

I cant wait to go to the Amgen Tour of California! I will be in the peloton follow vehicle which will be amazing! I might get to meet Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer which would be a dream come true. Tomorrow  night me and my dad will even get to go to the VIP dinner, how cool is that? In the follow vehicle we don’t stop for 4 hours, I’m super nervous I’m gonna have to pee. Seriously I’m 12 how the heck am I gonna hold it for 4 hours? Don’t get me wrong I’m excited to be in the car I’m just really nervous.  I’m still trying to figure out what I’m gonna say if I meet Lance? He is such a hero. Well I have to hit the sack I have an early morning, oh but before I do I need to send out a quick shout to Katherine Doolittle and my friends at GSDS for helping set up this dream come true. I love you!

P.S. My cousin Trenton is really sick right now and I just want to tell him “I hope you get better soon I miss hangin out with you.” (he is super cool)

The Spaghetti Feed

Everybody getting ready for the ride. Notice all the Red and Black? Thanks Team Rev.

I had a great weekend it was so much fun! There were so many people at the “Are you tougher than a 6th grader?” ride and it was such a blast. I couldn’t believe all the Team Rev. riders that came out to support me.The first rest stop was at mile 26 and it was sponsored by Starbucks and two guy’s named Rob & Tim. I ate cookies and Gatorade which was so perfect for how I felt. My teamate Elliot is a coffee freak and all he could talk about was how Starbucks has these individual coffee packets? My second rest stop was at mile 41 and it was sponsored by Chief Haverty, he had Oreo cookies! Another great treat that was perfect and I really enjoyed. I felt very strong the whole 67 miles. It was a normal training ride for me so I kind of felt bad for everybody else.  At the end of the ride we had a wonderful lunch with all the riders it was really good (especially after the hill climbs). My Mom said she cried when it hit her how my crazy dream of riding my bike across America and raising a $100,000.00 was actually coming together.

That night was the Spaghetti feed put on by the Folsom Police Officers association.  It was wonderful,  the food was great,and the band was awesome (who doesn’t like the beatles?). I ate so much! The whole next day I kept thinking about how good the meatballs were. I saw so many old and new friends there.  Then my Mom told my story, and I cried. I don’t want people to think I cried because I was sad but because it’s just so emotional for me. I’m really glad I have gone through everything this past 2 years because I wouldn’t be doing Race Across America if I hadn’t. Ok so maybe I’d be doing some other crazy thing but it definetely wouldn’t have as much meaning as this year has.  It was all made clear to me today when I found out an old football friend of mine lost his Dad to a heart attack during the Spaghetti feed on Saturday, it just made me remember “Life is Short enjoy the ride”.

This weekend is two BIG events. Please come to one or both whichever sounds best to you. I am having my metric century bike ride with a couple hundred close biking friends saturday morning and then I’m going to gorge myself on spaghetti and tap my toes to a Beatles tribute band on saturday night with possibly 500 close friends.

Please come and say Hi to me if you follow my blog I’d like to get the chance to meet you. See you then!

Oh and if you have any questions about events go to www.teamdonatelife.com

This last week was Training camp. The word that comes to mind  to describe the three-day camp is OUCH! Wednesday night one of my teammates came to stay at our house his name is Geoff, I quickly clicked with him and we spent hours and hours talking bikes. I have pretty much worn out every body else with my bike talk so it was really nice to have a new victim to torment with my nonstop bike talk.  Thursday started early I was up at 5:30 am. Then we rode our bikes for the next 5 hours through wind, rain, hail, and snow. It was by far the hardest bike ride I have ever done. Friday was a blast, we met this super cool guy named Mike Brown and he spent the day helping our team train and become better racer’s.  We also learned about nutrition, I’m glad my parents paid attention because I felt like the lady teaching us was speaking a whole other language? We broke up in teams and did a 71 mile race simulation. I partnered with a guy named Charlie. Charlie is also very cool, he is a total racer and knows a lot about bike racing. He did not go easy on me and I had to complete my pulls. I felt very proud of myself. My moms friend Diane was my crew person and she takes really good care of me in fact she is almost exactly like my Mom when it comes to safety. Saturday we did time trials. Last time I did a time trial I beat my Mom by 1 second, so she really had it out for me this time. My Mom kept telling me she was going to vindicate her name and beat me this time. Well it doesn’t really matter who one but I will tell you she has gotten ALOT faster? Then we finished up the day with a 40 miler around town. Saturday night we had a dinner at the Weckworths house. It was so fun but I was so pooped. All in all training camp made me super excited for RAAM. I realized I actually am pretty strong and that I am gonna do great in the race! Oh and did I tell you my teacher Mrs. Silva was so cool helping through the training camp? Her car broke down and she had to switch vehicles and catch up to her riders and she did great too. I was really happy to be surrounded by so many nice people in my life. I can’t even describe how excited I am for RAAM. I know I keep saying that but I seriously am.

Did any of you read the article in the Sacramento Bee? It was so cool. They ran a story about me and my journey to RAAM on Sunday. I was surprised at how much it made me reflect back on this year. I sometimes forget about how crazy hard it’s been. I have to send a shout out to my real best friend Rileigh though. I was accidently misquoted in saying Elliot was my best friend and I honestly do really like hanging out with Elliott a lot but Rileigh has been my best friend for as long as I can remember and no one will ever take her place, mostly because she could tell you waaayyyy to many embarrassing things about me:)

You can read the article at: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/05/02/2716377/folsom-12-year-old-with-liver.html

Guess who got a new bike? Me, because there are so many super nice people in this world.  Illene and Elliot Block are so nice because they helped me get it! Kinetic cycles is wonderful because they are so kind  and helped me with everything too, then specialized helped by giving Illene and Kinetics a good deal.  The Blocks, Kinetics, and Specialized are so nice because they took time out of their busy day to help me. I mean I seriously LOVE my old bike but I guess I needed a lighter, bike that had better components for my Race Across America.  I’m so happy I can’t even tell you. I had no idea what a huge difference it would make to have such a nice bike. This week is Team Donate Lifes training camp and I can hardly wait to tear it up with my teammates. Thanks for the help guys!

Every year around Easter my family and all of my Mom’s best friends and their families go up to Penryn for a big huge Easter Egg hunt. There are always good and bad surprises for us to find. This year I found both the Golden egg and the Silver egg! This is huge! There are around 300 to 400 eggs to find and about 15 to 20 kids from 5 to 18 years old. The silver and gold egg are crazy hard to find, like seriously they have at times been shoved deep into gofer holes? What kind of family has their kids reach into small dark holes looking for Easter eggs? This year I was extra lucky and found both eggs. No one has ever found both eggs in one hunt. Anyways my Mom gave my big sister Savannah a special egg because Savannah was pouting about not getting any special eggs. My Moms idea of special is a little warped…it was an egg with a field mouse in it! Alive! Dont worry the mouse was fine we let him run back into the field. Do I have a weird family or what? Oh and I got $30.00 from my eggs.

My Aunt Marnie sent me a new jersey. It’s really cool. It’s from Wells Fargo. I always have a hard time finding cycling gear that fits my small but muscular frame:) but the new jersey fits perfect! Thanks Marnie, Kent, Ryan,and Evan. I’ll be wearing it in your honor.

Live TV, I have been afraid of it for as long as I started this whole Team Donate Life journey. The thought of being interviewed on live TV seriously freaks me out. Which is why my Mom waited until last night to tell me we would be on Channel 10 this morning. I agreed in the beginning of this journey to do as much media as I need to. My Mom told me the riding wouldn’t be the hard part for (not entirely true) me but the media stuff would be the hard part because I’m so shy. She asked if I was willing to step outside my comfort zone and do it. I figured I would somehow get used to it and to be honest it hasn’t been that bad so far, but today….Wow I was seriously freaking out! I’m so glad I did it though. It was so awesome to see the behind the set stuff while they filmed. Everybody was so nice to me too.  My whole class watched from school, actually my whole school watched it! When I got back to school everybody was really nice and supportive.  If you want to check it out here is the link.

www.news10.net/video/default.aspx?bctid=76733044001