Just over 1 year ago I got on a bike in Apalachicola, Florida, and started riding toward the Goat at the Naval Academy in Annapolis with an amazing class of 1975. It started the year prior at the Emily Whitehead Believe Ball, when Carl June mentioned the ride, and I immediately said I’m in. Both my wife and Carl thought I perhaps had too much wine that night, and that my commitment was less than serious. I am so grateful I was there for that journey. Gulf to Goat was not a fitness project for me. It was a long road with a purpose. We were riding for the Emily Whitehead Foundation — for kids and families who need treatments that are less toxic and more targeted — and I was riding in remembrance of our daughter, Arianna “Cupcake” Ganjei. She had more life and love in her than most of us manage in a lifetime, and she was absolutely with me on that journey. A ride could never replace what is gone, but the open road, at times feeling a bit endless is a great experience for extraction of your grit and tenacity. It also opened up a way for me to keep moving with my pain (physical and emotional), and to start talking about our story (it was one of my first times speaking about Cupcake publicly) and facilitated action toward helping other families and children. The crew raised well over $100,000 for EWF, and more than $150,000 across the ride’s charities. What has stayed with me just as much is the company: veterans, classmates, strangers who became a peloton, and a finish that was not about a personal time. It was about arriving together at a place that already meant something. I have spent the year since then building a stealth biotechnology company that will bridge the translation gap in drug development in a revolutionary way, building my racing track record with podium and championship wins, and developing automation solutions for an industry that has been in uncharted waters, much like this group was as we biked through towns and highways on the way “home”. The miles from the Gulf to the Goat are still what I can come back to when I need to remember why the work we do is often well worth the discomfort. I hope to do another ride like this in 2027 or 2028. Not a copy of the last one for its own sake — another long effort, with a crew, for a cause that is bigger than the bike. If you were part of Gulf to Goat, thank you, truly, for embracing a new friend and brother who now truly understands the great reward of pushing yourself beyond your limits for a cause. If you supported it, thank you for helping make a difference. If you want to be part of the next one, keep a little room on the calendar as we will ride again. For Cupcake. For the kids. For the road.