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The Rice Thresher
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by Elizabeth Decker Thresher staff Two Rice students biked out of the Astro Arena yesterday morning at 5 a.m., expecting to be in Dallas, 325 miles away, by Sunday. Lovett College senior Ann Blaine and Will Rice College senior Erik Garza are participating in the third annual Texas AIDSRide, a benefit to support AIDS research and treatment in Texas. Each rider must raise $2,300 to participate in the event. To meet this goal, Blaine and Garza have each done extensive fund-raising since the summer. They have approached family, friends, local businesses and their college cabinets. Garza also spoke to Rice alumni and the Will Rice masters. In addition, students have been able to donate tetra points from their meal plan directly to Blaine by filling out a form at their residential colleges. Both see the ride as an opportunity to support AIDS research and to help those with AIDS now and those who will get the disease in the future. Blaine said she is looking forward to seeing the excitement of the other riders and to helping to raise money for charities. "There's no other feeling in the world than doing something that you love and helping those around you at the same time," Garza said. Both Garza and Blaine have biked for their respective colleges' Beer-Bike teams. Garza discovered the sport as a freshman and has been biking both with Will Rice's Beer-Bike team and on his own ever since then. He quickly discovered his love for longer distances, and this led him to train for and participate in last spring's MS 150, a 182-mile ride from Houston to Austin to support research for multiple sclerosis. That race "made me hungry to do more and more and more," he said. Blaine began cycling her sophomore year with the Lovett Beer-Bike team and has continued biking for Lovett and also on her own. She also participated in Nebraska's MS 150 ride this summer. The AIDSRide is significantly longer than the MS 150, and the two have spent the summer training, riding anywhere from 80 to 120 miles each week. Training has been for difficult for both, especially trying to schedule biking time around school and other commitments. Blaine has also had to work around her 30-hour-a-week job to train for the event. Neither biker knew that the other was training for the AIDSRide until less than a month ago. Since then, Blaine and Garza have trained together and plan to ride side-by-side the whole way. Garza said they are well-matched for speed; if anything, he may be slower. "Don't tell her that, but I think she's actually a little better than me at distance," Garza said. Both Blaine and Garza are still fund-raising, and they are each about $500 short of the amount needed. Students can donate tetra points at residential colleges. Checks for Blaine, made out to "Tanqueray Texas AIDSRide 3," can be mailed to her by campus mail to Lovett College with "Rider No. 619" written on the memo line. Checks can be sent to Garza at Will Rice College with "Rider No. 593" written on the memo line.
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