I have a hard time believing it myself. My training is complete. I got my bike tuned up. Everything is in working order. The biggest change I made to my bike, however, is the tires. I switched from steel-belted, knooby, heavy mountain bike tires to smaller, smoother, kevlar-reinforced lightweight road tires. The difference is nothing short of amazing. I get about another 5 miles per hour out of the new tires. I never imagined that something so simple could have such a large impact.

Anyway, in addition to the Heartland AIDSRide, there are three other AIDSRides this year. So far, the Ride from Raleigh, NC to Washington, DC has been completed. Here is [link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38145-2001Jun23.html|a story] about the Washington ride from the Washington Post.

With training officially completed (my bike will start its journey to Minneapolis tomorrow when I drop it off with the shipping service), all that's left is to pack for six days of camping.

Thank you all for the support you have shown over the past six months since I announced my intention to do the ride. A special thank you to SpiceWare for his generous contribution, and also to Meerkat who is donating some Australian pesos to a local AIDS charity down under :). If others from this group have donated (either to me or to other riders you might know), I thank you as well. I wish I could name you too, but the Ride Office is just a bit behind in reporting our pledges, so your donations haven't yet shown up on my pledge reports. At this point, I have reached my fundraising goal -- but that doesn't mean that I have to stop fundraising! If any of you still wish to contribute, it is not too late. Please contact me for further information. Even if it's "only" $10 or $20, that's ten or twenty bucks more than I raised before -- and all of it will go to the beneficiaries!

Hope for good weather for me next week!