Death Race For Life Project Sponsored By Long Trail Brewing: First Dollars Raised

Project Summary

I am dedicating February through July 2010 to my passion for endurance sports and an effort to help the Lance Armstrong Foundation fight cancer. Between March and June I will undertake a bicycle racing tour of multi-day stage races in the western United States. I’ll be racing in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and California. I’ll spend the winter training in Colorado and New Mexico. My tour will serve as conditioning for a final test – the Death Race. On June 24 I will join 99 other selected athletes in Pittsfield, Vermont for the 2010 Death Race.

The Death Race, loosely defined as an “adventure race” is a 24-hour slog that blurs the line between challenge and absurdity. The race consists of an unknown number of tasks spread out over a mountainous course with an unspecified finish line. The route and sampling of mental and physical challenges are also unknown. Previous races have included wood chopping, swimming, running, cycling, mud crawls, memorization tasks, fire building, weight caries, waterfall climbing, and more. The race boasts a 10% finishing rate. The international field of contestants includes ex-special forces, ultra-marathoners, Iron Men, and athletes from other disciplines. You can see the New York Times video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rtMFKpOYqo

My tour will benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation by raising money through direct donations and pledged donations per mile that I ride during the tour. In this blog you can find more information about the tour, my training, my connection to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, donations, and my motivation for starting this project.

Thanks for visiting the blog and supporting my project!

Cully Cavness

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

First Dollars Raised

The Lance Armstrong Foundation accepted my application to become an official grassroots fundraiser today. They gave me a personal page on their website: www.livestrong.org/grassroots2010/cullycavness_deathrace. You can click the link to donate directly to LAF.

Within hours of my website’s completion, Ilhan Kim donated $250! Ilhan is one of my closest friends. I met him at Middlebury during a Student Investment Committee club meeting – Ilhan asked me to come to a party in his recently constructed igloo. I was skeptical at first, but Ilhan’s igloo claims were immediately substantiated. I slid down an ice chute into a cavern filled with people in down jackets (above). The igloo was tall enough to stand in and included lights and speakers built into the ice.

People thought Ilhan was nuts when he started building the igloo with just a bowl after a massive snowstorm on Valentine’s Day. Nobody thought he could or would succeed. He stuck with it and ended up with something that defined a semester of college for many of his friends. That’s the spirit I’m trying to emulate with this project, my tour, and the Death Race.

Ilhan and I have since shared adventures around the United States and in the United Kingdom. I’ve posted a few photos to give thanks to my first donor and a close friend. Thanks Ilhan!