Bike ride to raise funds for cancer research
August 11, 2009
By Administrator
“I’m a pretty big supporter and advocate of the Chris Elliott Fund and cycling,” Marty O’Connor, of Sammamish, said. “This event brings those two together.”
The Chris Elliott Fund Summer Bike Ride, sponsored by the Chris Elliott Fund for glioblastoma brain cancer research is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 23 at Sunny Hills Elementary.
For the past two years, the ride had been known as the Teresa LeDeux-Peterson Bike Ride.
In addition to the new name, there have been some other changes to the bike ride.
The biggest one is an additional course.
“We’re trying to attract people who aren’t dedicated bike riders,” Owen Walsworth, chair of the event, said. “We want to give people who want to help out their community, but aren’t necessarily the semi-pro riders, a chance to participate and have an enjoyable ride.”
There will be three courses to choose from.
The first course is designed to be a family friendly eight-mile ride around Beaver Lake. The next level course is about 20 miles long and will run to Fall City and back.
“We’ve been calling it the Weekend Warrior course,” Walsworth said. “For old guys like me who love to ride but don’t want to kill ourselves in the process.”
The final course option is a 75-mile course that, like all the courses starts at Sunny Hills Elementary School before following the Fall City route and continuing onto Woodinville before returning to Sunny Hills via West Lake Sammamish Parkway.
There will be rest stops with water and snacks throughout the ride and at the finish area.
Their goal for this year is to have 100 participants.
“If we meet that we’ll be very happy,” Walsworth said.
“We have room to grow and we’d love to grow the ride,” Dellann Elliott, executive director of the Chris Elliott Fund, said. In the previous year she said they had about 50 participants.
“We’ve added a course to encourage families to do the ride together,” Elliott said. Riding the courses is not the only way to benefit the Chris Elliott Fund.
“We also encourage donations of $50,” Walsworth said. “For those who want to help but can’t do the ride.”
O’Connor participated in the bike ride for the last two years and will be participating again this year.
He rode the longest course in the previous years and will be riding the longest course this year as well.
“It’s a challenging route for an accomplished rider, but all the routes are wonderful,” O’Connor said. “The medium route and short route are tailored to people who want to participate and want to have fun but aren’t up to the challenges of the 75-mile one.”
Chris Loeliger, of Sammamish, participated in the bike ride last year and will be participating again this year.
Last year Loeliger rode the longest course but will be riding the medium one this year. He is looking forward to the new course.
“Last year was challenging and I think this year will be equally challenging,” Loeliger said. “Anytime I can ride a bike and have fun with friends is a great time.”
According to Elliott, the focus of the ride is to raise money and have fun.
“We want to stress that it’s a ride not a race,” Elliott said.
“We want to keep the focus on what the ride is about, to raise money for cancer research,” Walsworth said. “If we started timing it or handing out prizes, that idea would get lost.”
Intern Lauren McLaughlin can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 244 or samrev@isspress.com.
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