Martha Depp (left) and me
Somewhere between my obsession with biking and absolute fear of cancer, I decided to make a change. Four years ago, I discovered LIVESTRONG Challenge series, a Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) series which includes fundraising and cycling in the name of cancer awareness. I completed my first LIVESTRONG Challenge event in 2009, and I’ve been an annual LIVESTRONG Challenge participant and fundraising enthusiast since. Fundraising, cycling and generating cancer awareness has enabled me to combine all of my passions while sharing hope with the cancer community.
My Dedication:
I ride for Martha – a family friend who taught me and SO many others about living, dying, and unconditional faith. Martha battled ovarian cancer and my hope is that through my support with the LAF, no woman will ever have to suffer they way she did.
I sincerely promise you, if you take the time to read Martha’s blog (or even some of it) ajourneytothedoor.blogspot.com – your life will truly be changed. It is because of her unconditional faith that her experience with cancer impacted and still impacts so many people.
On Biking:
I’ve been riding bikes since I stole my sister’s Strawberry Shortcake bike and ripped the training wheels off. I quickly became addicted to the freedom and challenges that cycling gave me, and I’ve been peddling as long as I can remember. My first bike was a GT Tequesta, and although I mostly rode it in the dirt, I also threw slicks on it and rode it 450 miles from DC to North Carolina twice when I was in high school. The Tequesta stayed with me throughout college, and made its way with me to Boulder, CO but I sold it before I moved to Los Angeles, a decision that I frequently regret (I just have this feeling it’d be great wall art).
Today, I understand the difference between road bikes and mountain bikes and really enjoy both. I’m the proud owner of a Lynskey R230 road bike, and in the mountains I stick to 29ers – a Lynskey singlespeed and a Niner EMD 1×9. It’s quite true that I’m usually only doing two things: working or biking.
Professional Life:
It’s no joke that when I was a little girl, I wanted to be Oprah, a news anchor or a video editor. I went to Emerson College in Boston, MA and studied TV/Video and minored in Broadcast Journalism, which is where I had my first exposure to web development. After graduation, I started my professional career in broadcast TV, while my personal hobby remained in web development and marketing. Though I continued to work in TV for the first 4 years out of college, I finally combined by hobby and my profession and made a career change.
I now work for a small marketing company in Los Angeles where I mainly focus on marketing automation, CRM, lead generation and systems architecture. I’ll spare you anymore buzz words – just check out the company blog evidencebasedmarketing.net.
Personal Life:
If you’ve read this much, you’ve probably learned that I’m a geek at heart that loves bikes. Here’s a few of my other loves: God, my husband, my niece and nephews, chocolate chip cookies, and being outside.
