So why are we doing this you ask...

If you haven't had a chance to visit one of our personal sites or our team site yet, then you may not have had a chance to read about what would possibly possess Stacy and I to sign up for such a massive hike as a way to raise money for finding a cure for cancer.

The truth is, I wasn't even going to go to the sign up meeting on such an early Saturday morning last week. It wasn't because it was early on my day off, or because I thought it was a crazy thing to get myself into. We had actually been talking about raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for quite a while in memory of our friend Danny. I wasn't going to go to the meeting with Stacy because I wasn't sure if my knee would be able to handle the training. I had just had my second surgery on my right knee on December 16th, 2010, and I am still in physical therapy to rehab it. The 1st surgery was for a torn ACL which they had to reconstruct about 2 years ago. The most recent surgery was to fix a torn meniscus, fraying new ACL, arthritis patchwork, and tighten my fibular collateral ligament. You get to know knee parts pretty well after a few injuries. What that left me with was about 45% of my original meniscus (the cushion between your knee joints), some muscle atrophy and a map of new and old scars on my knee!

All this made me a bit nervous to attempt such a physical challenge. For some reason, I spontaneously decided to go with her to the meeting. During the meeting, I was trying to decide if it was a good idea or not to attempt this hike, but like all of the wise decisions I have ever made in my life, I guess I just told myself; "What the heck, Why not?" ...don't answer that! I couldn't let Stacy do it without me because it was both of our idea, plus I am the one who got her into hiking last year. She came with me on a couple of my training hikes while I was getting ready for my Yosemite to Mammoth backpacking trip. At least this time I won't have a 50 lb. pack weighing me down!

So as far as my training goes, it pretty much consists of upper body weightlifting, some ab-work, and physical therapy. I am hoping I will be able to join my training team soon on some hikes, but even though I am walking pretty well, I am only about 3 weeks off the crutches and still healing and trying to build back the atrophied muscles in my leg. I am dreading the day that I will tell my Dr. and physical therapist what I have gotten myself into. I'm not going to let a little boo-boo hold me back when I have the chance to help cure cancer!!! (YES, I said boo-boo...WHAT?!)

Most of us have been affected in some way by someone close to us being diagnosed with some form of cancer. My decision to complete this crazy event and raise money for cancer research was simple. I have the physical ability to go to one of the most beautiful places on the planet and see one of the most spectacular views imaginable from the top of Half Dome in Yosemite, CA! It is a place you can only visit by hiking to the top. I am fortunate to have this physical ability. I have always wanted to get to the top of Half Dome, but now I can do it to raise money to find a cure for cancer. I want to take advantage of my abilities and my love of the outdoors because I have a choice in life of whether to do this or not (bad knee or not). This choice has been taken from a lot of people who have been diagnosed with different forms of cancer. I am doing this to raise money for them so that someday THERE WILL BE A 100% CURE RATE OF ALL FORMS OF CANCER!!! Thank you for helping us give them back the ability to have the choice visit places like Half Dome by donating to our team! With it, you are helping save lives through the funding of research to help find a cure!

Thank You for your generous donations!

Phil Bacigalupi

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ocie/Yosemit110/TeamLostDogs