Adventures For the Cure | Blog/News

Labels: diabetes, speaking

• Website is created for Adventures for the Cure: The Doc at www.adventuresforthecuremovie.com.
• Kris' Kayak Adventure Campaign nets $965 (led by Kristopher Auer) for AFC's Extreme Weekend (children with diabetes camp) and World Bicycle Relief.
  
• Luke's Bike Campaign raises more than $2,000 (led by Bike Doctor Linthicum and Brown Cycles) for bicycle built for special needs child.

• Luke rides on his maiden voyage on special bicycle.
• Lots and lots of base miles and training in preparation for record-setting push at the 2009 Race Across America (RAAM) in June. Did we mention it's still cold outside?
  

• Princeton Sports presents Adam Driscoll and Pat Blair with Cannondale road and time trial bicycles for the 2009 Race Across America (RAAM).
  

• AFC holds 1st (Annual) AFC Sugar Hill Cross-Country Mountain Bike (XC MTB) Race; raises more than $3,000 for diabetes programs.
  
• 2^nd Annual UMBC Cycle-o-Thon (led by Adam Driscoll, Alex Driscoll and Pat Blair and fellow UMBC cyclists) raise funds for Extreme Weekend and Kupenda for the Children.
• AFC has over 20 riders compete in Baker's Dozen 13-hour Mountain Bike Race.
  

• AFC holds 1st (Annual) Black-and-White Night for fundraising ($6,700+) and fun-raising.
• AFC holds 1st Extreme Weekend for Children with Diabetes Camp and it becomes an instant success with campers.
  
• AFC is one of the top 5 fundraising teams for the 2009 Maryland Tour de Cure supporting the American Diabetes Association; raising more than $8,000.
• Adam Driscoll wins 1st place (Road Cat. 3/4) at Sunday's Bound Brook Criterium at the Tour of Somerville.

• AFC's Adam Driscoll and Patrick Blair (and support crew!) compete and win the 2-man division of the 3,021-mile transcontinental event at the 2009 Race Across America (RAAM), The World's Toughest Bike Race. Raise over $30,000 for Extreme Weekend and Kupenda for the Children.
• AFC goes Web 2.0 - uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Picasa, Flickr and other 25 social media sites to get connect with our fans, donors and supporters. David Harrity is expected to announce his entire takeover of the Internet. ;-)
  
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• Adam and Pat sleep for 30-days straight after RAAM (haha, that's meant to be a joke).
• Greg Young competes in Swimming For Water Campaign and AFC releases more than $10,000 to Kupenda for the Children and Blood:Water Mission.
• Adam Driscoll and Tracy Kessler are married on July 12th.
• AFC joins GoodSearch and GoodShop that allows supporters to search and shop over the Internet while supporting our causes.
• Phelps Luck swim team campaigns for AFC with swim-a-thon to raise funds for Extreme Weekend for children with diabetes.
  

• Nate and Sarah Mudd get married and perform outstanding gesture to support AFC.
• Mark Pare (AFC racing team) conquers the famous (and ultra-tough) Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hill Climb; raises more than $450.
  

• Matt Gilman - Blind Time Trials Rider - joins the AFC Team; Matt was blinded by Type 1 diabetes but that doesn't stop him from performing incredible observed bike trial rides.
• Laura Matt and David Harrity become newest members of the AFC Board of Directors.
• AFC wins big at the Sugar Free Miles 5k (supporting diabetes causes). Top 2 overall (Adam Driscoll, Pat Blair), 2nd female (Tracy Kessler Driscoll) and age-group winner (Jennifer Blandford).
  
• CYCLOCROSS!!! AFC team members like to get muddy and so begins the cyclocross season with events from the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Bicycle Racing Association (MABRA) and Mid-Atlantic Cross (MAC) series.
  
• Adam Driscoll crushes the competition and wins the Cat B (Cat. 2/3/4) event at Charm City Cyclocross in Baltimore, Md.; moves up to Elite Men's (Cat. 1/2/3) races after that.
  

• Annapolis Area Christian School students (led by Roberto Irias) raise more than $5,000 with AFC Bike-a-thon for Kenyan youth suffering from skin cancer due to albinism; funds go to support surgery and medical treatments.
• "AFC Headquarters" gets much needed "woman's touch" with fresh coats of paint. (Why is this significant you ask? You have to seen the "before" and "after" shots of the townhouse to truly know why.) ;-)
  
• University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) Magazine spotlights Adventures for the Cure and its causes.
• By now, AFC members have easily ridden over 5,000 miles of early morning rides as part of TheMorningRide.com (TMR). Debate rages on whether that exceeds the amount of emails flying around the TMR's Google Group. ;-)
  
• Team Adventures for the Cure racers (Bill Vickers and Mike Berry) win the EDGE 6-Hour Adventure Race.
• Adam Driscoll competes in first UCI-level race at Granogue Cross; some say it was a bit muddy (that's the understatement of the century, check out this video!)
• Numerous AFC team members compete in the Baltimore Marathon (running), Seagull Century Ride (cycling), Little River 24-hour Challenge (mountain biking), and Iron Cross (cyclocross)
  
• Jose Cepeda captured 1st place in his age group (and 6th overall) wearing his Adventures for the Cure skinsuit at the 2009 Bassman Duathlon (3.1 mile run, 58 mile bike, 13.1 mile run) held in Bass River, New Jersey. Columbia-Md.-based Allyson Tufano garnered 2nd place female overall (and 4th overall).
• Kristen Hughes Wimmer wins the solo female division in the 9 Hours of Endurance Duathlon (trail running and mountain biking relay) event at the EX2 Day of Endurance.
  
• Laura Matt and Erin Wells win the Duo Female Division of the 6 Hours of Mountain Biking event at EX2 Day of Endurance.
• Tracy Kessler capturing first overall female with a time of 22:51. And, Jen Blandford 3rd overall female with a time of 23:30 at the Harvest Harrier 5K Trail Run
  

• By now, AFC team members have likely had over 1,000 gallons of CeraSport - our favorite performance-enhancing energy/re-hydration drink.
  
• AFC supports the annual World Diabetes Day on November 14th.
• Keith Rohr captures career first win (and 2nd win and ...) in cyclocross.
  
• AFC captures 5th place overall in team standings for the 2009 MABRA Cyclocross Series Championship. Incredible support throughout season from family and friends, thanks!
  
• AFC wins "Suitcase full of Sausage" at the Tacchino Ciclocross race (yeah, we're still trying to figure that one out. ;-)
  
• Adam Driscoll wins the 2009 Maryland State Cyclocross Championship (Elite Men).
  
• Keith Rohr wins the 2009 MABRA Cyclocross Series Championship (Master's Cat. 3/4).
• Steve Klose wins the 2009 Maryland State Cyclocross Championship (Master's Cat. 3/4).
• Avy Rohr wins the 2009 MABRA Cyclocross Series Championship, Race Championship and Maryland State Championship (Junior Women U16).
• AFC begins the Christmas for Kupenda Campaign to raise funds for children with disabilities.
  

• Conducted "Living with Diabetes" education session with staff at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service.
• Adam Driscoll is upgraded to Category 1 Cyclocross by USA Cycling.
• Patrick Blair is upgraded to Category 2 Cyclocross by USA Cycling.
• Andrey Doroshenko is upgraded to Category 3 Cyclocross by USA Cycling.
• AFC documentary film is shown as pre-quel to the DC Bicycle Film Festival.
  
• GovLoop members and its AwesomeGov Fund supporters vote AFC as top charity and award more than $1,780.
• AFC supporters raise more than $3,500 in our Christmas for Kupenda Campaign.
  

Labels: 2009 raam, adventure racing, Adventures For The Cure, cancer, children, cycling, cyclocross, diabetes, disabilities, fundraising, mountain biking, social-media, speaking, swimming

Labels: Adventures For The Cure, adventuresforthecure, diabetes, Extreme Weekend

07.06.2009 - Osage Beach, Mo. / Halethorpe, Md. - While completing the 2009 Race Across America, the Adventures For The Cure team received a fun suprise while riding near Osage Beach, Missouri located between Camdenton (Time Station 31) and Jefferson City (Time Station 32 and Missori's capital city).

Unbeknowst to the team, David Harrity along with about 30-50 viewers were watching online via the Ustream.TV based webcam live feed that supplied an audio and video stream as the riders and crew made the 3,021 mile journey. Harrity said, "I was watching the video and faintly heard the radio station's call sign announced so I thought this could be cool way to give a pick-me-up to the team. So, I opened up another webpage, searched online for the station and when I found it, I called the station and told them the story of Adventures For The Cure". The crew and riders continued on not knowing what was to come next. Harrity added, "Once I got through, I became more worried that they were going to turn down the volume or turn off the radio; but luckily it all worked out."

Adam Driscoll and Patrick Blair wanted to ride their bicycles across the nation in record time. The college friends from Maryland competed in the two-man division of Race Across America to raise money for children with diabetes.

Driscoll says he and Blair started their own non-profit group to raise money through running and cycling events.

"Let's try to do what we love to do, which is biking and running, to help other people. So we said, 'well, let's bike from our house in Baltimore to Ocean City, Maryland and back.' We did that in two days, it was 320 miles, and we ended up raising $8,000. We met so many incredible people, so many crazy things happened from it, so we said that each summer we want to try to do some adventure to help other people," Driscoll explained.

The Adventures for the Cure riders rode 6,500 miles in 2006 and made an award winning documentary of the journey. In 2008, a four man team rode the 3,000-mile Race Across America. This year, Driscoll and Blair won the two-man division.

For Adam Driscoll, the rides against diabetes are personal; Driscoll is a Type 1 diabetic and wears a blood sugar monitor on the bike.

"...which actually measures my sugar continuously, and then I have an insulin pump, so continuously I always have insulin in, and continuously I can always tell what my sugar is. The technology really helps out with that," Driscoll said.

Adventures for the Cure won several fans in Osage Beach as their support vehicle rolled through town blasting "Ride Like the Wind" by Christopher Cross on 93.5 Rocks. A friend called our station to request the song.

Driscoll was on the bike when listeners in Osage Beach on Highway 54 started honking and waving.

"I didn't know what was going on at first, and then they told me as soon as I stopped riding. I was like, 'Oh! Thats so cool!' because I'm like, 'why is everyone beeping at me?' they were all waving and friendly and stuff and I'm like, 'this is awesome,'" Driscoll laughed.

The motivational song from 1980 pushed Driscoll and Blair through the lake area and on to their home state of Maryland, and the finish line in first place.

Adventures for the Cure will also donate some of the money they raised in RAAM to a home for disabled children in Kenya.

Labels: 2009 raam, adventuresforthecure, cycling, diabetes, KRMS, kupenda, Missouri, nonprofit, raam

The winning 2-man team of Adventures For The Cure riders and crew poise on the podium of Race Across America. From left to right: Crewmembers Dave O’Brien, Stacey Rohr, Greg Saylor, Ryan King (not pictured), Greg Fabella and Mike Caputi with riders Adam Driscoll and Patrick Blair. (Photo by David Harrity)

Despite this challenge and others, the Adventures For The Cure riders still captured first place in the 2-man team division at the 2009 Race Across America on Saturday. Adventures For The Cure (AFC) completed the 3,021 mile (4,861 km) trek from Oceanside, Calif., to Annapolis, Md., in 7 days, 1 hour and 38 minutes, bettering its nearest competitor, E-HUB Team, by more than 7 hours and averaging 17.82 mph, which was faster than half of the twelve 4-man teams.

The 27-year-old who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 12 said, “Competing in the 2-man [division] was extremely hard. Last year doing 4-man team, it was fun and had lots of time off the bike. This year only having two riders with a very aggressive rider schedule, it limited the amount of sleep time.” We averaged max about 3 hours of sleep per day. Pat really kept our team together that last night in the mountains as I started to fall asleep on the bike and was swerving all over the place. Pat did a huge extra shift so I could get some extra sleep.”

Competing in the Race Across America, which is dubbed as “The World’s Toughest Bike Race” is a test of human endurance, logistics and mental toughness. The team experienced one wrong-turn that may have cost them two hours, suffered five flat tires during the ride, rode through a knee injury, and incurred a 15-minute minor penalty all the while averaging less than 3 hours of sleep each day, consuming over 16,000 calories a day and drinking over 24 packets a day of CeraSport hydration drink to avert cramping; for Driscoll the drink also helps avert insulin spiking that happens with typical sports drinks.

Blair added, “There was no rest, you were always either: biking, eating, or getting ready to bike. We were always at the highest level of alertness with no down time.” Despite these issues, the support provided by the crew, friends and family was always there for the former roommates at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). The team took advantage of a variety of social networking technologies to collaborate with supporters, including providing updates via Twitter “tweets”, Facebook entries, Picasa photo galleries, its website blog, and perhaps the most entertaining technology used was its live streaming videos from a webcam mounted in the follow vehicle, which was described as nothing short of “addicting” and caused several of its fans to lose sleep just like the riders and crew.

Early in the race till about half way sleep was not an issue and the pair felt strong. Driscoll stated, “We felt amazing and had one time station where we hit close to 28 mph!”. Based on the RAAM website, it appears that only team that completed a faster split time between time stations was the record-setting 8-person Team Type 1, who is composed entirely of Type 1 diabetic riders. Type 1 diabetes is a chronic auto-immune disorder that occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to properly control blood sugar levels. Adam is also a member of the Team Type 1 development team and captured that development team’s first victory at the Tour of Somerville’s Manville Madness criterium.


Blair, a Baltimore-area native, said, “Coming home to Annapolis was totally awesome! There were friends and family everywhere! When we were about 15miles out from Mt. Airy friends just started popping up all over the place to cheer us on to the finish! We got a huge second wind and picked up our pace due to all the excitement!”

Ultramarathon cycling is nothing new for this pair who competed in the 2008 RAAM as part of a 4-man team on single-speed, fixed gear bicycles; finishing in fourth place. In 2006, the pair completed a 6,500 mile journey across the United States that was chronicled in the award-winning documentary film, Adventures For The Cure: The Doc.

As a fundraising effort, AFC has a goal of raising at least $50,000 for its Extreme Weekend for Children with Diabetes camp and Kupenda for the Children. As part of its efforts, Princeton Sports donated the time trial and road bikes that AFC rode to victory and have been placed up for auction. During the ride, winning bids were placed on Blair’s 52-cm Cannondale Slice Hi-Mod 3 time-trial bike and Driscoll’s 58-cm Cannondale SIX Carbon 1 road bike; both valued at over $4,000 when sold as new. The other two bikes will soon be auctioned on eBay. Blair added, “All of the proceeds from these auctions go towards our fundraising goals.”

About Adventures For The Cure
Adventures For The Cure (AFC), a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization and USA Cycling club which exists to raise awareness for diabetes, to show those diagnosed with diabetes and their families how leading a healthy and active lifestyle can move you beyond your perceived limits, and to raise funds for diabetes research. The organization also raises awareness and funds for other causes that the board of directors has selected. For more details, visit

Labels: 2009 raam, adventuresforthecure, cycling, diabetes, kupenda, nonprofit, raam