lotoja: cycling 332 km for charity
So, here’s my effort at a public, Jeremy Freese-like commitment to do something. I signed up. I’ll be riding in one of the longest, single-day cycling races (206 miles, 332 km): LOTOJA. As the name implies, the race goes from for Logan, UT to Jackson Hole, WY.
As if the distance isn’t enough, the race features some 10,000 vertical feet of climbing (see chart below — well, at least miles 60-75 will be fun).
It’s all for a great cause — I’ll be raising money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Here’s my fund raising page (I’ll spice it up a bit more later).
I’ll try to provide whatever organizations-related insights might come to mind through the training process and of course from the race itself.
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I’m guessing that this comment will commit me to making a donation. But isn’t there an interesting point here about presentation of data: the elevation “map” (!) here stretches the vertical axis by (according to a quick calculation) about 10000%. I guess that’s good news for the time between feed 1 and feed 2, but what information does the chart actually present for us? What territory does it actually map?
Thomas Basbøll
April 21, 2009 at 10:11 am
Here is another example of why Teppo is my hero.
brayden
April 21, 2009 at 2:09 pm
I need to come up with some kind of “dollars for comments”-campaign or something to raise this money…
Thomas and Brayden: you owe me 1 dollar each. Good. Now I only have 798 dollars to go.
(On your question, Thomas — I think the presentation of data is extremely hard. I know people point to the Rosling presentation as the model — but, come on, that is very rare and most data presentation, including mine, is the same ol’.)
tf
April 21, 2009 at 2:25 pm
I actually took the map into pain and tried to make a more “realistic” one by compressing it vertically. It’s basically impossible; you just get a little, essentially flat, somewhat squiggly line. So I guess the map is informative in the sense of telling us where on the route the climbing will get done. 797 to go!
Thomas Basbøll
April 21, 2009 at 3:21 pm
into painT (!). But that will, yes, be a painful “stretch” (of road). Hah!. 796.
Thomas Basbøll
April 21, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Thomas: So, I am counting on you for 3 dollars. Donation is easy — again, all the donations go to cancer research at one of the foremost cancer centers in the world — just go to my donation site and contribute with VISA, MC or whatever.
tf
April 21, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I’ll donate. It’s exactly 3 years after my father died from cancer, I really like cycling (I wish I could participate myself), and I like reading this blog. So despite being a poor student I’ll make the effort (Does 3 causes, means 3$?)
The only problem is technical – your donation system wouldn’t allow me to enter my billing address which is in Israel.
Amit Gal
April 21, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Maybe I just don’t like it being called a “map”. There will always be some degree of distortion in a projection but this is outrageous. Still, again, it is clear from the graph that you’ll be going up hill almost the whole way. So, yes, you deserve my 3, now 4, dollars. Am I the only one who can afford to participate in this comment field?
Thomas Basbøll
April 21, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Amit: Sorry to hear about your father. The cause here, indeed, is a great one.
Let me look into the details and I’ll email you.
tf
April 21, 2009 at 6:58 pm
[...] a comment » Thanks to colleagues, friends and (many) orgtheory readers and lurkers for contributing to my cancer fundraising efforts! To meet my goal, I only need to raise $50 more —- the fundraising website can be found [...]
cancer fundraising: thanks! « orgtheory.net
July 30, 2009 at 6:41 pm