kentcowgill.org/blog

So it was a little troublesome, but I think it was worth it.

If you look carefully, you'll see (at this point) a single new post from April of 2001 in the archive section, or if you click on "Older Articles" enough times to go back that far.

Just some background for these posts, since I'll be editing them a bit to 1) format them using Text::Textile) syntax, as well as 2) capitalizing words properly⁸. I had just signed up to ride in the 2001 Canada to US AIDS Vaccine ride - 415 miles in 5 days, and was blogging about my training and fundraising. Back then...

1. My wife Lisa was only my girlfriend.
2. My road bike (Univega) was brand new.
3. I was about to be laid off from a startup internet company.
4. Most of the links I've linked to were still active.
5. I had more of my pictures on the site.

In my editing, I will clean up broken links. I'll also try to re-upload all my old pictures to my new photos directory and link to them once I do that. And lastly, I'll remove most of the references to my fundraising activities and pleas for donations, since the ride has been over for almost 6 years. In case you're interested, I raised $7,080 in donations for the cause. I only rode about 245 miles due to overuse injury (RSI) to my achilles tendons. (Note the plural).

Hope you enjoy a little blast from the past. I certainly enjoy the memories.

⁸ I used to refuse to capitalize letters. Partly due to laziness, partly due to an extreme dislike of CamelCased variables, partly due to the fact that humans tend to be able to more easily visually distinguish between different lowercase letters than capital letters (or so I think I read somewhere). Since then, I've decided to drop the convention. I'm not 100% certain why - maybe due to the rest of the world and their treatment of the capitalization of letters :)

As far as my training is going, it's ok, but not quite where I'd like for it to be this close to the ride. I rode 51 miles last saturday with a friend I met through my chiropracter - he saw my fundraising poster in the office and asked if I wanted to go for a ride... and of course I did. We went up to the Chicago Botanical Gardens, which I've done a few times before, but at least this time I had some company. It was good to go with another vaccine rider because he really kept me on my toes - not too many rest stops :) The coolest part about that ride was that we left from our neighborhood - I didn't put my bike on my car to get it to the start of the "trail".

The day after that, I met up with my friend Lisanne and her daughter Evelyn and did pretty much the same path, only fewer miles - we drove our bikes to the trailhead instead of riding through the city like I did the day before. Total of about 34 miles that day. We even saw a family of deer on the way back! Starting out that day was ... interesting ... We parked in a parking lot I'd never been in before and decided to do some off-roading to find the trail. No such luck. After going through wood chips, dirt, mud, and over a few fallen trees, we finally landed about 15 yards from where we went into the woods. Oops :) We rode down the road a bit and found a real entrance to the trail :)

And of course, I've finally made all my travel reservations. I'm leaving for Montreal on the 4th of September, and flying back to Chicago on the 9th. Hopefully I'll be able to ease my sore rear into the airline seat! I've got my hotel room booked at a hotel near the airport, and I've made reservations for shipping my bike separately to Montreal. Now I just need to make sure I have enough gear! Clothing, tent supplies, a waterproof gearbag - you name it, I need it! :)