PAA 2013 - Day 2, Santa Cruz to Carmel CA

Today we rode 66 miles with 3000ft of elevation gain on the way from Santa Cruz to Carmel CA. This was dubbed a "recovery" day to yesterday's massive effort and it was a pretty amazing ride as Crystal and I were able to ride next to each other for most of the way. We also got to meet many of the other folks doing the ride, hear their stories, and better connect with new people in the peloton.

We are also thrilled that on this day, we surpassed our $40,000 fundraising goal! This was a huge milestone and something that literally took all of you to help make happen. We are truly grateful for having such a supportive and generous community to help us raise awareness and fund research towards OMS. We have a lot of momentum, and we are now thinking that we could try to push to get to $50,000 by the end of the week. This alone would be enough to fund an OMS research grant so we're hoping to keep the fundraising going and push to this goal.

Tomorrow is going to be the toughest day of the ride...nearly 100 miles of riding and 6000ft elevation gain. if you can and haven't already supported us, please consider making a donation: http://stayclassy.org/teamv

PAA 2013 - Day 1, Palo Alto to Santa Cruz

Day 1 of Pablove Across America started with a ride out dedication to Keira. She has been our inspiration for raising awareness and research dollars for OMS so it was extra special to have her there this morning to be part of it all.



Today's ride wasn't our longest day, but upon arrival in Santa Cruz we realized that it might have been one of the hardest.  In total 75 miles with 5100 feet of elevation. There was a lot of climbing to get over to Hwy 1.  All that hard work was worth it to ride along the coast in the afternoon.  It felt good to be on the bike with Naveen again enjoying the beautiful views on our bikes.

Finally, we would like to say thank you to everyone who has and continues to support us.  We're completely overwhelmed with the generosity we've been receiving as we continue to push forward with our fundraising.  It is amazing to see the dollars add up.

Please continue to share Keira's story as we make our way to LA!

http://www.stayclassy.org/teamv

PAA 2013 - Day 0 - Nervous Energy

We've had a whirlwind end to our training but Crystal and I are now sitting in our hotel room filled with anxiousness about the kick-off of PAA2013 tomorrow morning.  In the past couple of weeks, Akemi, Keira, and Crystal all got sick, Crystal further developed a sinus infection, tried to continue training, I switched jobs at Google, and Keira had her clinic evaluation where her doctors have decided to keep her on steroid pulses for the time being even though we were hoping to be off by now.  Needless to say, it was pretty crazy.

However, as we sit here, having said goodbye to our little girls earlier today (who BTW seem to be just fine with their grandparents), we are truly grateful for everything you have done to help support us through this fundraising effort and those before this.   What you are doing here will have a direct impact on a research grant and hopefully on Keira's OMS some time within her lifetime.  And as Crystal is recovering from her infection and getting ready to ride tomorrow,  we're hoping that we can keep the momentum going into this coming week and surpass our $40K fundraising goal (we're currently at $37K).  First, some quick updates:

• San Jose Mercury News - See this featured story about Keira's battle with OMS published this morning (some pics included below).  
• 50% off DODOcase - iPhone/iPad/Android custom, handcrafted in San Francisco.  Anyone who donates $20 between now and LA will receive 50% off!
• $1000 Anonymous Donor Match - That's right, an anonymous donor approached us and wants to match all donations up to $1000 for this week of the bike ride

For those of you that have already donated, a big thank you.  For those that haven't yet, there's still time this week.  And for anyone who wants to pass on our cause, please do.

Thank you for all you have done, we are truly grateful.

Naveen + Crystal

Three Years Since Diagnosis

Today marks the third anniversary of Keira's neuroblastoma/OMS diagnosis.

This time of year still brings back a roller coaster of emotions and vivid memories of being inpatient at LPCH.  We were scared, probably more scared then we have ever been before.  We did not know what the future had in store for our family, but we knew early on that no matter what the outcome, we had to do more for this orphan disease.

Keira has always been our inspiration.

To see such a little peanut fight so hard to get better and live her life to the fullest extent possible is all we needed to try to do our best to make a difference for all children that are diagnosed with OMS.

Three years later Keira is still on daily medication and a monthly steroid pulse.  She also has friends that most four year olds don't, like her Oncologists, Neurologists, and Therapists (OT, PT, Speech), all of whom she knows by name.  Despite all of this, she is still a happy, energetic four year old.  Her favorite show is My Little Pony and she would wear her Rainbow Dash t-shirt every day if we let her. She loves swimming and playing pretend.  Keira knows all the Lion King songs by heart (as do the rest of us now!) and she is a great big sister to Akemi.  We are so impressed by all that she learns at preschool and enjoy hearing her insights into the world.  Today we had quite the lengthy conversation about how she isn't sure she wants to go to college because she likes living with her family.  She decided that maybe it would be OK to go to college if she could come home at night.  :)

Since October 2010 we've come a long way towards raising awareness and research dollars for OMS. It hasn't been easy but we continue to believe that it is what needs to be done and that in Keira's lifetime she could benefit from the research we fund: http://stayclassy.org/teamv

Keira with her favorite doctor - October 1, 2013