January 1, 2002

Well I was not able to keep up this page as much as I would have liked. I did manage to do the El Tour de Tucson and raised $8349.40 (I think, at the end I got a little sloppy in my accounting). It was a great ride and a great time. I hope to do another Team in Training event in the future. In the meantime, I am enjoying riding with the team that is training for the Lake Tahoe ride in early June. Perhaps I will go along on that ride. I have ridden about 2000 miles since getting a new bike in the beginning of March, 2001, most of it training for the Tucson ride.

o My Thank You Letter to my donors
o My Fundraising Letter
o How my fundraising is going
o How my biking is going

I did it! I finished El Tour de Tucson. We started at 7:00 am and 117 miles and 8 hours and 45 minutes later we crossed the finish line. More importantly through your donations I raised more then $8200 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Altogether the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society raised $3.2 million from Team in Training participants in El Tour de Tucson.

Although the course was mostly flat, there were a few good hills, at least I thought so -- for the most part not all that steep but they were long. The last big one about 80 miles into the ride, was the toughest for me, I was not sure that I was going to make it at that point.

There were several times while I was undergoing chemotherapy and particularily during and after my bone marrow transplant that I was not sure I would be able to do many things, including riding my bike. I often think about that when I am riding my bike. Sometimes I tend to focus on the things that I can no longer due, for instance playing rugby. I try to remind myself, how lucky I am to be out there riding. There are too many leukemia survivors who can no longer do that because of the side effects of their disease and treatment. I hope that we can continue finding better less toxic treatments for leukemia and other blood related cancers, and I hope that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society will help by continuing to fund research that will lead to better treatments. I dream that some day others will not have to have bone marrow transplants because we have therapies that are more effective and less toxic.

Participating in the Team in Training was a lot of work -- with Gretchen's help I sent out more then 100 letters but also a lot of fun too. I logged more than 1750 miles training for El Tour, sometimes my son Matt would accompany me. Matt did a 50 mile ride with the team to finish up his Boy Scout cycling merit badge, he also had to do 6 other shorter rides.

Thanks to all of you for helping the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society take another step towards cures for leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

I have finally decided to do something that I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I am participating in the Team in Training program to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. As part of the Team in Training, on November 16, I will be cycling 100 miles in El Tour de Tucson in Arizona.

As you probably know I have a personal interest in leukemia since my own diagnosis with Acute Myeloid Leukemia or AML in March, 1992. In February, 1993 I had a Bone Marrow Transplant and am fortunate in that I have not needed more treatment since recovering from that. In the more then 9 years since my diagnosis there has been significant progress against this disease, the treatments are not quite as toxic and there are more and more long term survivors like myself. Recently a new drug to treat a form of leukemia (chronic myelogenous leukemia or CML) has been discovered that truly appears to be a miracle drug. It is a pill that works for almost everyone and has very few side effects.

The Austin cycle group of the Team in Training is cycling in honor of Eric Larner. Eric is now 10 years old and a 5^th grader here in Austin. He was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia in May, 1993. He is now in remission. His father Scott is also going to be doing his first century in El Tour de Tucson and his mother Lori is running the Disney Marathon for the second time. He has two brothers, Brandon and Daniel.

My personal goal is to raise $5000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society by September 19 to help continue finding treatments and cures for leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Checks (made payable to "The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society") can be mailed to me. If you would like to contribute by credit card (Visa, MasterCard or American Express), please send me an e-mail. Perhaps the best way to handle credit cards, is for me to snail mail you a donation form that you can mail back to me. Please do not e-mail me your credit card number. If you have questions please feel free to call me at (512) 326-4405 or e-mail to flataua@acm.org.

Thanks for your contributions and support.

Art

Donations may be sent to:

Art Flatau
1907 Barton Parkway
Austin, Texas 78704

Fundraising status as of January 1, 2002

Amount Recieved	Matching Gifts	Total	Amount Needed	Goal
$ 7084.40	$ 1265.00	$ 8349.40	$ 3500	$ 5000

At this point (September 3, 2001) things are looking good. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society requires participants in El Tour de Tucson Ride to raise $3500, although my goal is to raise at least $5000.

September 21, 2001

I did not have as much time as I would have liked to ride this week, but I did manage to do 12 miles before work and 10 miles home on Tuesday (September 18) and 17 miles and my usual 6 miles home on Thursday (September 20). This weekend we ride in Gruene

September 12, 2001

I am feeling better and better on my bike. I did almost 20 miles before work on Monday (I would done, 20 or more, but I remembered on the way in that I had an early meeting and did not want to take more time).

September 3, 2001

So far I feel good riding. Over the Labor Day weekend, I did two rides, the first was 24 miles on Sunday (September 2) on my own. On Monday, there was a group ride in Bastrop through the Bastrop State Park and Buescher State Park. This was a 46 mile ride, which is the longest ride I have done ever. Unfortunately the magnet for my bike computer (speedometer) feel off, so I do not have the total miles that I have completed since starting the Team in Training Program (actually I am cheating a bit on the mileage since I am counting since I bought my bike in March). My best guess is that I have ridden about 875 miles.