Hey, want to bicycle 300 miles with me? - by Jamie

It was sometime in early February, and Amy and I were sitting in our living room. Our 2-year-old son, Ray, was playing on the floor. I was reading a chapter from George R. R. Martin's  "A Storm of Swords." Amy was surfing the web on our laptop. Then Amy asks me, "want to do Climate Ride with me?" And that's how it all began.

I already knew what Climate Ride was. I had read some about it on the internet, and had even considered the possibility of doing it. But then I saw how soon it was, and thought about my dislike of doing fundraising, and I dismissed it as a non-starter. Amy, it seems, was more optimistic. Or perhaps just more crazy.

When she asked me to do it, I think my first response was to look at her in shock. My second response was to tell her why it seemed like an impossible challenge to me. Be ready to ride sixty miles a day in a little more than 3 months? Raise $2400 each in a little less than 3 months? My third response was to look at the excitement clear in her face and think to myself, "I can't say 'no' to that." Fifteen minutes later I found myself saying, "ok. Let's do it." And right then and there, Amy signed us up.

The next day, I started reading tips on how to fundraise and train for the ride. I laid out a training schedule in a spreadsheet. I brainstormed ideas for fundraising. And I started hitting up my friends on Facebook for donations. I think Amy was a bit shocked at how quickly I went from "are you sure this is a good idea?" to "let's make this happen." I shrugged and said, "I'm all in now. If we're gonna do this thing, I want to make sure we can really do this thing."

About a month later, here we are. We're each at over 20% of our fundraising goals (actually, Amy's doing better than I am with 26% compared to my 20%). We bought Amy a new bike and a trailer to pull Ray in while we train. We've been doing regular cardio and strength training, and have started the actual bike rides now that the weather is warmer. We have a hotel reserved in Manhattan for the night before the ride. And now we have a blog.

So follow along with us as we continue to train for our big adventure. If you have a few bucks to spare, consider donating to our fundraising efforts (every bit helps, and no donation is too small). And when we actually do the ride, check in for our daily updates from the road.

My name is Jamie Britt, and I'm going to go from couch potato to Climate Rider. Let's do some good.