Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2008 > September > 07 > Entry
Texas 4000 Tribute Gala at the Four Seasons
In the course of an evening out, one fit athlete offered to get me out into the Hill Country on a bicycle, while another tried to lure me onto Lady Bird Lake in a kayak.
Joe Weismantel, Audrey Neville, Sarmed Rashid
Did they think that, just because I walked to their separate fundraising events along a multi-mile stretch of the hike and bike trail, that I could actually join something like the Texas 4000, a cycling road ride from Texas to Alaska to raise money to fight cancer?
Luci Baines Johnson, Nancy Brown
Hardly. Although the promise of adventure is tempting. The course is actually more than 4,500 miles and is billed the longest charity ride in the world. Hey, Alaska is my next intended road-trip frontier, so …
Stella Jang, Dane Edwards
The tribute gala dinner for Texas 4000 at the Four Seasons Hotel resembled any other posh affair at the incessantly busy lakeside retreat. (Spied at a wedding next door: Texas basketball legend Jody Conradt.) Tempting silent auction items were lined up for the cocktail reception, then the revelers took their seats in the ballroom for the hotel’s usual creative banquet fare.
Pratish Kanani, Olege Esenkov, Anju Kanani
We talked a some length with aspiring journalist Dane Edwards, also with Luci Baines Johnson, who sat with event chairwoman Nancy Brown and informed me about attempts to bring the world to the gradually more open-to-the-public LBJ Ranch, including a mass bike ride out there come spring. She’s been riding herself lately, by the way, and looks fit as a country fiddle and not a day over 40.
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By Celeste Diaz
September 7, 2008 11:43 PM | Link to this
A couple I am very close to are both in their 50s, and in the past four years, they began training and running various marathons in Dallas. So, I am used to this sort of situation. Declining offers to run, jog, or walk in intimidating marathons brings such guilt.
It's so admirable to see people so dedicated to either keeping their bodies healthy or supporting a cause, or even both.
Thanks for the reminder that I really should be more involved with these sort of events!