good morning guys it's officer Ben uh
it's about 4 30 in the morning on August
5th 2023. I am getting ready to go ride
my pelotonia ride today I'm riding 101
miles for pelotonia I want to stop in
real quick and just uh say thank you to
everybody who has helped support me
through this this journey I guess you
could say and that's but more
specifically has helped me raise money
so I can go out and do this ride uh you
guys helped me raise over 3 400 for
pelotonia this is absolutely amazing and
the majority of that money was raised in
the first three days after signing up
for it
you guys are freaking incredible you're
amazing I never thought in a million
years that we've raised that much money
that quickly for pelotonia I want to let
you know that I have been training so
the 101 miles should come fairly easy
for me I'm I can't even begin to tell
you how much I'm looking forward to it
and uh it's really hard for me to put
into words uh how grateful I am that you
guys came through and did this for me uh
giving me the opportunity to go out and
ride with the group of people that I'm
riding with today I've been told that
there's going to be 12 000 Riders at the
start of today's race
and that's a combination of people that
are writing uh the first 25 miles some
people riding 50 miles and then those
then there are those of us that are
doing the full 100 and
um because you guys raised so much money
for me I am actually signed up for the
two day ride which is 100 today 87 miles
tomorrow
um I don't want to get too caught up in
the details but
my dog's barking back there uh he
doesn't like getting up at 4 30 in the
morning he doesn't like the raccoons but
uh yeah I I'm riding 101 miles for
pelotonia today tomorrow just because of
logistics because I live an hour and
away like an hour and a half away from
the start line I'm not going to be
riding the 87 miles home tomorrow but I
am going to get up and do another ride
tomorrow morning I'll be riding at the
same time as all the pelotonian writers
I just won't be riding with them but
I'll be riding with them in solidarity
and also kind of as a as a gesture to
you guys because you raised this much
money I think that I have a
responsibility to go out on both days so
over the next two days I'll be riding
somewhere
uh in the neighborhood of 160 170 miles
again I just want to stop in real quick
say thank you so much this is a
tremendous honor for me to be able to go
out and ride
um this this pelotonia thing is uh it's
a very big deal uh especially for the
people who have had cancer are and
survived as well as people who have lost
loved ones to cancer because
100 of the proceeds from the donations
and everything that you gave goes to
funny cancer research I I went to the
opening ceremonies last night and it had
a tremendous impact on me just to see
how many people are involved in this and
how appreciative they are that the
Riders are out there doing it raising
this money so it's made an impact on me
and
I just wanted to take a minute to thank
you guys for giving me this opportunity
to go out and ride on your behalf and uh
I don't know
show the world what our supporters are
all about so I guess uh one last thing
is I am writing with a group of people
it's the First Responders Community uh
if you want to go to uh their Facebook
page like the Facebook page we weren't
as organized this year as we'd like to
be but going forward we're going to try
to bring some more organization more
fundraising and stuff like that to bring
more attention to the cause
you can also if you want to track my
progress today there is a pelotonia
Tracker app that you can download and
you can type in my name officer Ben and
it should show you where I'm at on the
road just so that you can see that I'm
actually going to complete the 100 miles
today
and you can see kind of where I am and
how long it's taken me all that stuff it
should be fun again the main purpose I'm
coming on today is just say thank you
for giving me the opportunity to go out
and do this thank you for the financial
assistance uh it's been an actual
absolutely incredible journey I
appreciate I can't say it enough thank
you very much I will I'll talk to you
guys all later