and you can all rush to sponsor me now 😉 I received an email early in the week stating that priority entries are now available, targeted at last years entrants. Once again, they’re capped at 10,000 riders, and the online entry states that a condition of entry is that you commit to fundraising $250, which is bound to spark a… Read more →
He’s reached his MS Gong Ride fund-raising target. I’m still lagging, but I set myself a higher target. If fund-raising were a competition, I guess I just lost 🙂 I better pull my finger out and bug people about sponsorship if I want to match his achievement – if there’s anyone out there reading this who hasn’t donated, please send… Read more →
with spoils of war … to be precise, $30. That’s a long way for such a small amount. Still, it’s a personal achievement to ride there and back. I left Hazelbrook at about 7:30 – I would have gone earlier but Pete wanted to see me off. It took just about an hour and fifteen minutes to get off the… Read more →
he was waiting for food at Glenbrook. Since then, he has done battle with the perils of heat, traffic works (and traffic), and hills. As people would know, the road from Glenbrook to Hazelbrook is almost all up-hill. It’s also obvious that the heat of the day is roughly from 12 to 2. I really suffered over the section from… Read more →
I left an hour later than I should have – on the road by about 7:30. If the hottest time of the day is midday, I reached my goal of getting to the mountains before then. It took about 30 minutes to crawl up the hill, but I just put my head down and kept turning the pedals. The section… Read more →
Actually, not quite and there’ll only be one on the bike, but I sent out a sponsorship reminder the other day saying that I’d ride anywhere to collect sponsorship money for the ‘Gong Ride. The boss took me up on that, so now I’m riding out to Hazelbrook on the 24th, staying overnight and riding back the next day. Hopefully… Read more →
for your generous donation to our Team. It’d be nice to thank you personally, but you didn’t leave any details so this’ll have to do in its place.
I received the MS Society’s sponsorship pack for the Gong Ride, yesterday. Instead of having to chase them up, like I did last year, it was delivered fairly promptly this time. So… people who want to deal in cash, or who are in the neighbourhood, can now give me money knowing I’m officially a fundraiser for the MS Society and… Read more →
and Team Rose is back in business. I received a priority entry email for team captains and past participants – Danya, I hope you saw one as well – here‘s the details on the web, about the event. I have no illusions about being a major fund-raiser, but I’ve set a team target of $600 and a personal target of… Read more →
We have now officially raised in excess of one million dollars more than last year’s fundraising total for this event with our 2009 total now sitting at $3,132,780!! This is the most amount ever fundraised in MS Events history! More than half of that excess was raied by the top 100 fundraisers – $539,077 in total – which is a very good… Read more →
The MS Society sent out a newsletter, which basically stated that they wanted to announce the total fundraising as a Christmas present, so I finalised the cash donation situation yesterday and banked the money today. I ended up raising $520 ($165 cash), which makes this the best fund-raising Gong Ride so far (if I recall correctly) – both personally and… Read more →
Danya and I rode around the eastern suburbs today, as another training exercise for the ‘Gong, which is in two weeks time. It was going to be a straightforward loop out to Watson’s Bay, down to La Perouse and back to Marrickville. Unfortunately, Danya got a flat on the climb from Watson’s Bay, and we ended up with a more… Read more →
The MS Society announced that they’re open for business on the ‘Gong for 2009. This year, there are some changes in the way it’s run – 10,000 places and participants have to pledge to try and raise $200 each. They obviously felt that last year’s melee was, well…, a melee and they should therefore take mild steps to try and… Read more →
The ‘Gong Ride was held last Sunday. It was a full-on day with an amazing turnout. Danya and I turned up to the start about half an hour early, hoping to get away before the scheduled 7:30 start-time we’d been allocated; we were shambling along with the mob towards the start banner for almost the entire half-hour. Looking at the… Read more →
I didn’t see anything about this on the news tonight, but I guess that the current Great Depression will keep minds elsewhere in general. Of more pressing concern to me is that fact that all trains are out between Sutherland and Wollongong. Perhaps some bozo did something to cause the train derailment, but it’s more likely that this is due… Read more →
It’s almost that time of year again. On November 2, I’m riding the ‘Gong Ride. It’s the usual 90km option, stopping for lunch in the Royal National Park. My youngest brother, Danya, is also riding and it’s his first ride of such a length; previously he’s only done rides of about 20km, if I recall correctly. Once again, I have… Read more →
The amount raised was $334. Thank you again to all who contributed, personally and on behalf of the MS Society.
I have the final tally – it’s $373.50. Thanks to workmates, friends, family and all others who sponsored me. An especially warm thank-you to the top sponsors: Des and Deb; Deborah Niski; my brother James; and Bobbie, who deserves extra praise for collecting money while I was actually on the ride.
