Guest writer explains the One Hour Long Cycle fundraiser event

This post was written by a Girevoy Sport athlete with a personal investment in this year's One Hour Long Cycle event's recipient, The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Please click the links and donate what you can. You may give any amount, and may choose to be anonymous if you'd like.

"Hi everyone-

Many of you know that I took up kettlebell sport this year and competed in several competitions.  It’s been a lot of fun and a lot hard work, and I’ve enjoyed the challenges of training.  It has also been fun winning medals and achieving my ranking goals, but so far, it’s been all about me.

                                                                      

This past August, I competed in an event in Berkeley, California, and had the honor to meet, compete and train with the founders and members of the Orange Kettlebell Club (OKC).  These folks are a hard-working bunch who also know how to have a lot of fun.  During my visit with them, I learned about an annual event they do, the One Hour Long Cycle (http://www.onehourlongcycle.com/).  As the name suggests, it’s a one-hour event in which the participants pick up a single kettlebell and perform continuous repetitions of the kettlebell clean and jerk without putting the kettlebell down for the entirety of the hour.  The main location is in Costa Mesa, California, and the event will commence at 11:00 a.m. PDT on Saturday, October 19^th.  There will be satellite locations all over the country and all over the globe, with groups in Japan, Singapore, Canada, Russia and others.  We will all be lifting at the exact same hour. 

The One Hour Long Cycle is not a competition.  It’s a fundraising event (you knew this part was coming, didn’t you?).  This event began in 2010, and every year, the OKC selects a recipient charity for funds raised as part of this event.  Please take a minute and read this page:  http://www.onehourlongcycle.com/event-info/next-event/  to learn about what we are lifting for this year, The V Foundation for Cancer Research (http://www.jimmyv.org/). 

So now it gets personal … when I decided to participate in this event, I wanted to set a goal number of repetitions that I’d like to achieve during that hour on October 19^th.  I thought about how cancer has touched my life.  My father, unfortunately, lost his battle.  I’d like to think that I’ve won mine, but I remain vigilant in the hopes that if it does return, we can catch it early and deal with it.  This summer, a very dear friend’s eldest daughter was diagnosed with Lymphoma.   At the age of 26, she has suddenly found herself in the deep end of the pool, undergoing chemo and facing a tough battle.  In her honor, my goal number is her birthday, June 12^th, so I am shooting for 612 lifts during that hour.

My coach put this event in perspective beautifully:

We are giving only an hour of our lives, albeit an hour that we may have prepared for up to a month to endure, as a gesture of support for people who are living full-time in difficulty.

We’ve all been touched in one way or another. We’ve lost or fought or supported someone.   I would like to humbly ask that if you were thinking about making any charitable donations to a cancer-related organization this year, think about this one.   Consider just a small donation -- $5 or $10.  It all adds up and it all helps.  None of the funds raised are going to support the event – all of it is going directly to The V Foundation.

Here’s where you can donate:  http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/onehourlongcycle/onehourlongcycle2013

Thank you for reading this!"