PAA 2012 - Day 0

The week has finally come!  It's so hard to believe that we put this ride on our calendar at the beginning of the summer and all that has happened this year since then.  Both ups and downs, but we as a family have a lot to be thankful for given where we are now.  And somewhere in it all, I managed to get some training rides in and am (hopefully) ready.

Keira and Akemi gave me a gift of encouragement before I took off yesterday so that I remember to always keep the pace up...those were Keira's actual words by the way when Crystal asked her what she wanted to tell Daddy.

I took the red-eye into Boston last night and it was a cold and rainy morning when I landed.  Not the best weather to step into when you're getting ready to be on a bike in 24hours, but we'll make the most of it (at least it's not snow).   I spent the day camped out at Google Cambridge, finished off some work and then met up with the Pablove crew and fellow riders for a group dinner.

Everyone here is riding because their life has been somehow affected by cancer.  Their kids got cancer, their niece or nephew got cancer, some are fighting it now, some have fought it successfully and are in remission, and some lost their fight.  Listening to everyone's story definitely brought back a lot of memories of Keira's diagnosis nearly 2 years ago, but more importantly it reminded me of the power of action and what we've done since then.  In that short time, our friends, family and community have taken what happened and poured out so much love and support that we are all now looking forward, not behind us.  In that short time, we helped bring together doctors and scientists for 3 days in Oxford England to build support for researching OMS.  And now, we have raised nearly $18K the ultimate goal of funding a $50K research grant for OMS.  And while it doesn't seem like much money overall, I can tell you that the awareness and momentum that we have built over the past 2 years is phenomenal given how rare this disease is.

For those of you that have supported us in any way through our journey, whether it's helping adjust your schedules so we can take Keira to her appointments, spending time with Keira on long treatment days, whether it's the words and notes of encouragement, or whether you've made a donation to OMS, we SINCERELY THANK YOU -- We are making an impact.

And if you haven't donated already, you can still do so at http://stayclassy.org/naveen 
(and I know that some of you have said that you've had issues donating.  If you thought you made a donation and didn't receive an email titled "Donation Receipt", your donation didn't go through, so please try again or let us know).

And finally, I want to thank Crystal for all her love and support throughout this year.   Crystal has spent almost every weekend for the past 2+ months holding down the fort with the kiddos while I put in the training miles.  She has supported me and the family so that we can make a difference for OMS -- BEST WIFE EVER :)