I Will Not Die

 Email this article to a friend

Several people have asked me for more details about the bike tour and the training I’m doing for it. Here’s an update:

As far as training goes, I’m still riding almost daily, and I’m focusing on weightlifting. For some reason, not that it’s helpful at all, my bench press has been skyrocketing. I guess if I get tired in Idaho, I can reach down and use my arms. I don’t plan on really working on my endurance until I get a road bike. I’m looking to get a Jamis Aurora. Not too cheap, but I keep reading these awful horror stories about brake cables snapping and many other things on less expensive bikes. Can you imagine walking down the other side of the Rockies? I guess I could also thumb it.

As to the charity, I’m still waiting on precise confirmation, but I believe it’s imminent. I’m very excited to be able to help them. I should have more on this in the coming days. Other than all of that, my focus has been almost entirely on continuing to promote the event. I’d like to have thousands of people involved before I even leave. I have just fifty days.

Other people have asked how they can help. I need lots to make this successful, so if you’re willing, here’s how you can help:

I don’t have any plans on asking individuals to contribute to me, personally. That’s for the charity. But I still need equipment, food, shelter (possibly, I may camp it) and I’ll need to leave my wife enough money for our basic bills while I’m gone. Otherwise she will likely kill me. No, actually she’ll torture me, then kill me. To solve these issues, I’ve been looking for sponsors. If I cannot locate any, I may sell advertising space on this site through the event. The prospect of the event being entirely live should be enticing. There will be a small player at the top left showing a live video feed straight from the bike. I may also use GPS. It’ll be pretty cool. Here’s how you can help promote this, non-monetarily:

Help promote the YouTube video

The YouTube video has been successful because a lot of people have told me that it was inspiring. It should be inspiring, because I hope lots of people will be inspired by what I’m doing. The best possible scenario for the video would be if it hit the front page of YouTube. I’m not holding my breath, but it’s been viewed a couple of hundred times already and is currently being viewed at least once every few minutes (thanks to Shaun for embedding it). YouTube videos get promoted primarily in three ways (in case you didn’t already know): views, ratings, comments. If you’ve already seen it, you can go to the YouTube page where it’s at and rate it with the stars or leave a comment about it. Or both

Tell your friends

This could be the most important way you can help. Tell your friends, family and coworkers. I think they would like to be involved in witnessing a great human triumph for a good cause. Hell, maybe I’ll fall off my bike or get attacked by wolves. Live They should at least come for that. If they think charitable acts are gushy or something, tell them to come at least so they can watch me sweat for forty or fifty days. And if you’re from another country, I encourage you to tell your friends too. You never know, if this is really successful, I might do the next one in your neck of the woods. Ways you can tell your friends could include starting an e-mail chain, or if you use MySpace or Facebook, you could say something there too, not to mention all the social bookmarking venues like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit and others.

Know a blogger? Are you one?

If you frequent other blogs, you can suggest to its author that they run an article on the event. Also, I’d love to do some interviews with them. I’ve gotten some great mentions through several blogs now (like Hayden’s). You can tell them that I’d be more than glad to do a write up about their site in return. Do you own a bog? Interview me

Show your support

Lastly, you can show your support in several ways. You can be active on this site by leaving comments. Your activity will inspire others to participate as well. Also, you’ve probably noticed the poll at the top. In case you thought so, no, it’s not for my ego. It’s so I can demonstrate a fixed number to potential sponsors who might help me. You can help get this off the ground and make this event successful simply by voting in the poll. Ultimately, I can use it by showing someone, “I have xxx number of people who will definitely be following the tour.” Having a real statistic will go a long way for potential sponsors.

Lastly, if you have suggestions about other ways I can promote this, let me hear them! I’m trying what I know, and I definitely don’t know everything. Don’t make me go beg John Chow (he has a really big heart, so I might go beg anyways)

If you enjoyed this, you can join the rss feed and stay updated on new material. If you don't know what rss feeds are, this article explains them.

Dereck :: Jul.08.2008 :: CUBE :: 3 Comments »

Trackback this post | Feed on Comments to this post