Latest / Ask The Experts / Badger Challenge Preview with Victoria Rausch, organizer and athlete

Transcript

Badger Challenge Preview with Victoria Rausch, organizer and athlete · Ask The Experts

• 0:08
  P thirty seven, thirteen ten Wiba Madison in the Morning, joined in studio
• 0:14
  this morning by Victoria Rolse. She is with the Badge Your Challenge. Victoria,
• 0:18
  how are you doing today? I'm doing WELLI sean, good morning,
• 0:20
  Thanks for having me here. Great to see you. Great to have you
• 0:22
  in studio and we were just talking before we came on the air this morning.
• 0:27
  In two weeks, two weeks out from the Badger Challenge, which will
• 0:31
  be taking place the twenty fourth, that's the Sunday the twenty fourth and chance
• 0:37
  to run, walk bike great event. Still are you do you guys still
• 0:41
  need volunteers. Is that still an area that you're looking for folks. I
• 0:44
  want to help out a little bit here and there. Yes, absolutely.
• 0:46
  Our event is it could not happen without our volunteers. They are critical to
• 0:50
  what happens. So we will take volunteers up until the day of the event
• 0:53
  if they want to come help us. Oh, that's fantastic. More information
• 0:56
  at Badger Challenge dot org. That's Badger Challenge or let's walk through kind of
• 1:02
  Sunday and a little bit about what goes on some of the preparation that's going
• 1:04
  to take place between now and then and then kind of day of what's what's
• 1:07
  the event like and how does that all kind of come together? Yeah?
• 1:11
  Absolutely, Like you said, this is a walk, run, ride event,
• 1:15
  so we've got a little bit of everything for everybody. The day starts
• 1:18
  off at seven am with our hundred mile bikers, so we got people out
• 1:22
  there kind of doing their their century for the day in the name of cancer.
• 1:25
  Eight am we's got our half marathon, so if you're a runner and
• 1:29
  you're looking for a half marathon and some beautiful fall weather, it's great opportunity
• 1:33
  for you. And then we'd have a hundred k at nine am, fifty
• 1:36
  k at ten am, twenty five k at eleven am, so plenty of
• 1:40
  bike options there. And then at twelve o'clock we have our five k bikers
• 1:44
  take off. That's a super family friendly event. It's on a closed course
• 1:47
  over at American Family, so we see a lot of young kids and their
• 1:49
  families out doing that. And then twelve thirty we have our five k walk
• 1:53
  and run and again another super family friendly event for everyone. That should be
• 1:57
  a lot of fun. You mentioned one hundred mile bike route. How does
• 2:00
  that who figures out? Because it's a big. It's a giant loop,
• 2:02
  right, it's a how do you guys, this is again this is a
• 2:06
  guy who knows nothing about it. How do you figure out like where this
• 2:09
  is going to go and how do you get to that one hundred miles?
• 2:14
  Because obviously I'm going to guess as cyclists are gonna want a little bit of
• 2:16
  a challenge, but also it's interesting scenery. Now you can't go wrong in
• 2:20
  this area. But that's got to be a factor, and it isn't it?
• 2:23
  Absolutely yeah. I mean it takes a lot of well being a cyclist
• 2:25
  helps well our staff members. We like to ride, so we go out
• 2:29
  and ride some of the courses, but taking just into consideration the surrounding communities,
• 2:34
  like you said, a little getting a little bit of a challenge,
• 2:36
  getting a nice view. So the hundred mile bike ride really kind of goes
• 2:38
  out on the east side of Madison, over by like Cottish Grove, Deerfield,
• 2:43
  Marshal all through that area. And honestly, it's a we couldn't do
• 2:47
  it without the help of the communities that we go through too. They're all
• 2:50
  super grateful and supportive of the event, whether that's providing police force at busy
• 2:54
  intersections, just the community coming out and spectating and cheering and just have a
• 3:00
  great day for all of our participants. The other end is kind of a
• 3:01
  nice casual family stroll if folks want to do that. So when everybody kind
• 3:06
  of gets back together, what goes on there, Yeah, so we have
• 3:09
  a big post event celebration afterwards for everybody once they get back in. So
• 3:14
  our half marathoners are typically kind of the first people strolling back into the event
• 3:16
  sited American Family Insurance, so they'll have a catered breakfast that they can have
• 3:21
  after their meal with their family if their family wants to join them. And
• 3:24
  then as the rest of the writers and participants come in later in the day,
• 3:27
  we've got a catered lunch for them, provided by the UW Union actually,
• 3:31
  so we'll have the catered meal for them, a free Capital Brewery beer
• 3:37
  if they're twenty one or older. We've got some pepsi products as well,
• 3:40
  And it's really kind of a time to just come together and an honor and
• 3:45
  celebrate and remember cancer patients and their families, survivors and those that we've lost.
• 3:52
  The atmosphere is really just it's really quite amazing to be there there.
• 3:55
  There's a lot of fun and happy moments, but it's also really emotional to
• 4:00
  kind of remember why we're here, why we're doing this, and being able
• 4:03
  to come together to raise money for cancer research. So great way to just
• 4:09
  kind of do that and still have some fun. We've got a kid zone,
• 4:12
  so kids come out and you know, do smarts and crafts. We've
• 4:15
  got bounce houses. The UW Badger's men's hockey team is there so people can
• 4:18
  shoot around with them. It's pretty fun and Bucky always makes an appearance too.
• 4:23
  Talking this morning with Victoria Ralshi is with the Badger Challenge online Badger Challenge
• 4:28
  dot org. That's Badger Challenge dot org. Still get registered more information as
• 4:32
  well online Badger Challenge dot org. And obviously you mentioned a little bit about
• 4:38
  the cause there is. This is not just a fun day, but there
• 4:41
  is there is a fundraising aspect to this. We've got an amazing facility here
• 4:46
  in the areaw Carbone Cancer Center. Let's talk a little bit about that center.
• 4:49
  And I think too also ask you how did you get involved with this
• 4:54
  as well. Yeah, so my husband is actually a cancer survivor, so
• 4:58
  this has a deep personal connection for me and Like I mentioned, I'm also
• 5:02
  an avid cyclist and durance event person, So being able to do something I'm
• 5:08
  super passionate about while at having such a deep meaning to me is really important.
• 5:13
  My husband was diagnosed when he was in college and went through treatment and
• 5:16
  has been in remission for going on thirteen years now at this point, so
• 5:21
  we're the lucky ones I get to celebrate that, and we know how hard
• 5:26
  that process is and what that feels like to go through. So being able
• 5:29
  to work on something to turn more patients into survivors is extremely rewarding for me
• 5:33
  to be able to do that. It's a pretty amazing day and a pretty
• 5:38
  amazing set up again, and we talk about not only the joy but also
• 5:42
  the fundraising and memory, remembering those who unfortunately weren't aren't able to participate for
• 5:46
  a number of reasons, those who have been lost other things. And we
• 5:49
  talk about cancer research UW University of Wisconsin, the Carbone Cancer Center, and
• 5:55
  we've had a chance to talk with folks and folks who don't know. You've
• 5:59
  brought in an umber of guests, including some of the doctors, Doctor Ari
• 6:01
  and others have come in and talked with us over the years you've been in
• 6:06
  for all of those and just kind of helping out and coordinating all of that
• 6:10
  stuff. It's really the Carbone Cancer Center and that research is really groundbreaking stuff
• 6:17
  and it's really a huge asset to the area, isn't it. Yeah.
• 6:20
  Absolutely, And all of our participant raised funds from this event go directly to
• 6:25
  cancer research right here in our community, which is really amazing, And honestly,
• 6:29
  that's a huge part thanks to our sponsors too, because our sponsors that
• 6:32
  we have helped put on the money that puts the event on, so that
• 6:36
  way all of participant funds one hundred percent can go directly to cancer research.
• 6:41
  And some of those big sponsors to help with that, our American Family Insurance
• 6:44
  obviously they host us on their site and they're incredibly generous florist City Flowers,
• 6:48
  They are huge part UW Health and Carbone obviously huge contributors as well, and
• 6:54
  the Balance and Belief Foundation. Because of all of them and our other sponsors,
• 6:57
  we're able to put one hundred percent of those participant raised funds directly to
• 7:01
  cancer research. It's fantastic opportunity this morning. Learn more also if you want
• 7:05
  to participate, other information as well about the Badger Challenge all online. Badger
• 7:10
  Challenge dot org. That's Badger Challenge dot org. And we're just two weeks
• 7:15
  away. I'm going to be taking place Sunday, September twenty fourth. All
• 7:17
  the details up on the website Badger Challenge dot org. Victoria, it's always
• 7:21
  great seeing you, Always great chatting with you real quick before we wrap up,
• 7:25
  you had mentioned a little off topic topic, but also along these same
• 7:29
  lines iron Man over the weekend. Now, when as as somebody that's involved
• 7:32
  with organizing and events like that, are you taking notes when you're watching that
• 7:36
  stuff? I mean to say, yeah, absolutely. I mean from a
• 7:40
  participant perspective, every time you participate in an event like that, you kind
• 7:44
  of think about the experience and what that's like and how you can take that
• 7:46
  back and put it into the Badger Challenge. And I think we definitely take
• 7:49
  a little bit of the aspects of the Ironman quality type event and try to
• 7:53
  put that forward to Badge your challenge. Absolutely fantastic stuff from Victoria or else
• 7:57
  with the Badger Challenge online. Badger Challenge dot org. That's Badger Challenge dot
• 8:01
  org. Victoria. It's always great hanging out with you enjoy this beautiful day.
• 8:05
  Thanks on YouTube. More next year at thirteen ten, Wiba