It’s been a tough couple of months. I agreed to do a second publication awhile back — this one an online educational pub that highlights the successes of the Ohio STEM Learning Network. The added workload has kept me pinned to my desk most of the time.

Somehow, in the midst of all the clutter that’s my life, I found time to train for, and ride in, Pelotonia 2010. That’s the fundraiser started last year to benefit the James Cancer Hospital and the Solove Research Institute, both here in Columbus.

The cool thing about this bike ride is that 100 percent of every penny raised goes to research into fighting — and, ultimately curing — cancer.

I wrote about this event in April, when Sherri and I made the commitment to raise $1,000 each for the privilege of riding 43 miles through the country with, what turned out to be, 4,200 of our closest friends. It may sound trite, but I do consider them friends now, though I met few of them.

We are friends because we’ve all lost someone to cancer, stood by as someone fought with cancer, or fought cancer ourselves and lived to ride again.

Since April, both of us have found time to put in the miles needed to ride further than we’d ever ridden before. It was a little easier for me, I think. I’ve been a runner all my life, and even been on the bike off and on for the last two years. Sherri had done little riding before this year, and that makes her effort even more impressive. She finished that 43 miles in good shape, even getting up and down the hills that begin to pop up about 10 miles from Amanda, our destination this year. Riding her brand new Giant Avail, she came to the finish, looked around for me, and catching my eye gave a great big smile. I smiled too.

The organizers expect to raise $8 million this year for the James. Maybe our effort, and those of others who rode — some who made our effort look puny by riding 100 and 180 miles — will make a difference. The fact is, I have never done anything that makes me feel as good as this event does.

Even now, three days later, I can’t stop thinking about that day on the bike. The people who lined up along country roads and in little towns, ringing cow bells and holding signs thanking us.

I am forever grateful to Sherri for urging me to participate. To my family, friends and congregation, who put me well over my goal and have pledged to keep those dollars coming in.

I’m thankful for American Electric Power Company, for whom Sherri works and who welcomed me in as part of their Peloton.

And I’m thankful for Michelle Kazlausky, who lost her life when a pickup truck went through a police stop, striking her on the road to Athens. Her commitment both to the cancer patients to whom she attended as a medical technician at University Hospitals East and to raising money to help them in their fight will live on, as public donations continue to pour into her account posthumously.

Next year, I’m going to ride to Athens. The hills we encountered in Fairfield County just short of this year’s finish, pale in comparison. But I will be ready.

And I’m no longer afraid of the financial commitment. I’ve learned that cancer touches us all, making it easy to ask for money — and even easier to give.

If you’re reading this and are just now learning about Pelotonia, know that it’s not too late. It’s never too late.

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