Catching up with Team PH – September Update
As the autumn leaves set afire many colors to the trees, we reflect on what an incredible summer this has been. August was a huge month for our team, from participating in the inaugural Unity Miles event at the Walking PHor a Cure, the launch of PHA’s Race of our Lives Campaign, and – last but not least – officially registering for the Race Across America 2014. You can read more about these events in our previous post here. But now for Catching up with Team PH – September Update.
Shenandoah 100 – known for climbing
After the race
September was a great month on the bike for Team PH members. The month started with our teammate Ryanne, racing the Shenandoah 100 backcountry mountain bike race on September 1st. Joined by her husband, Jeremy, Team Palermo conquered over 12,000 feet of climbing to finish the race in just over 11 hours. Backcountry mountain bike racing is extremely challenging, and is a whole body (gets a total workout) experience. We are so proud of Ryanne and Team Palermo for their success in this ultra mountain bike race.
Meanwhile, Stacie and Greta have been training and tearing it up in Cyclocross races (super fun Fall races that are 45-50 minutes in length on a course on mud, grass, and obstacles where riders even dismount their bikes to hop over barriers before getting back on and pedaling like mad).
Team members also have been logging miles by working the bike into the work commute.
The team logged most our our miles to finish up the National Bike Challenge in super fashion. Having logged miles all summer, Team PHenomenal Hope ended up in 2nd place among Pittsburgh teams with 1-10 riders, and in 17th place out of 87 teams overall.
Finally, the month ended with PG representing Team PHenomenal Hope and getting a taste of RAAM-style ultra endurance racing in the Ohio RAAM Cycling Challenge 200-mile race. You can check out her event recap here.
Kate, Greta and Stacie with Nugo Teammates at Nittany Cx
As far as news off the bike… After finishing up an exciting September, we were carried into the beginning of October excited to participate in the Pittsburgh Foundation’s Day of Giving. On this day all money donated to charities would be partially matched by Foundation funds, so team members donated and recruited family and friends to help spread the word. A total of $6,400,000 was donated on the Day of giving to all participating charities, which will be patched with a pro-rated share of $750,000 for a total of $7,150,000. At the time of this writing we do not know the total amount donated to our team, but from the feedback in words of encouragement and emails we already know that it was a success. We are grateful to all who participated and supported our team on October 3rd.
We have also been joined by new sponsors, and will be announcing these new sponsors soon.
Finally, if you want a team uniform, please look for our jerseys going on sale through Primal for a limited time in the next week. More information to come.
