Hey everyone. Well, I made it. I can't quite believe it, actually, but I'm here. I rolled into my hometown at around 2:30pm on Thursday, September 6th 2007, after 32 riding days out of 37 total days; 2,658.82 miles (83.09 miles per day); approximately 200 hours of ride time (~6 hours per day); approximately 13.3 avg mph; over 100,000 vertical feet of climbing. And boy, are my legs tired. I mean, really, really tired.
I'm going to get all this photo and video stuff sorted out eventually, but for now I'd just like to thank a few people. Thanks, firstly, to everyone in Telluride who helped to send me out in style and with such a strong feeling of support behind me, particularly: My roommate, Kiley; Andy Bagnall; Stacy, Rose, and Bridgette; and Andrew Wynne. Thanks also to my sister, Eve, for hounding media outlets across the country to get me coverage and for never once ending a voicemail message before getting cut off by the time limit. Thanks of course to my parents, for losing lots of sleep over this but never once telling me not to do it. Thanks to Alex for driving out to New Jersey (which he hates) just to pick up my trailer on the last night so that I could make the last leg unencumbered. Thanks to all those people -- some I've talked about here, many I haven't -- who went out of their way to make me feel welcome in their state, city, or town, I really couldn't have made it without you all. Finally, a thousand thanks to everyone that donated to the Lance Armstrong Foundation in support of this crazy adventure. I swear to you that every last dollar helped push me a little further towards my goal and prevented me from ever considering giving up. The ride being finished does not, of course, mean it's too late to donate. My page at the LAF isn't going anywhere and you can always help the cause.
Naturally, there are more people I need to include in these thank yous, but I'm so tired I just can't remember who I've forgotten. I'm sure it'll come to me soon though. Okay, I'm going back to bed now, more later.
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4 comments:
Congrats Matt. Saw some pictures your mom posted for those of us at The Mantel. Glad to know you made it through to the end unlike someone else we know....but I digress.
Congrats again and job well done! I hope your recovery goes smoothly.
You're welcome, Matt. I was just glad you let me try and do something, however minor. I'm totally amazed by you, what you did, and what you can do!
But you do need to call your cell service provider and ask them why they have a, like, 20 second time limit for voicemails. It's totally inconvenient!
It was good to see you this weekend, and I was sorry to have to leave so quickly... call me when you're done with 'Deathly Hallows' and tell me how you liked it.
Now go eat something!
He's been eating pretty well. I've been pumping the proteins in, and we're doing duck tomorrow night.
What an amazing, inspiring feat! And thanks to you, Eve, for getting the media ball rolling and being so supportive all along.
And thanks to Layne and Meghan, my dear online friends, for taking the virtual to the real world, in such a warm, important way.
Congratulations on finishing! I knew you could do it. I hope it was an amazing growing experience. And I wish you the best of luck.
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