Obliteride, a cycling event created to raise funds for Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center. I rode for the first time last year. It was an extremely powerful experience and has contributed to my continued healing process from the loss of my birth-mother, Judith Anderson Roth, to cancer when I was just ten years old.

Greg Roth holds up photo of late mother Judy Roth at Finish of Fred Hutch Obliteride 2017 (Photo: Mocha Charlie)
I have worked hard in the last two years to get physically, mentally, and spiritually fit so that I could be strong for myself and use the gifts that my creator, who I chose to call God, has blessed me with. I can’t keep it if I don’t give it away.
Cancer impacts all of us – Directly or indirectly. Sometimes it is easy to feel helpless. I have felt that way most of my life until I decided to do something about it. There are thousands upon thousands just like us who have suffered deep loss and are taking up the fight to ultimately defeat cancer. Perhaps one day there may be a cure and families will not be torn apart by this insidious disease but until then, we ride.
What makes this year a little extra special is that myself and SMI (Seattle Music Insider) senior partner and filmmaker, Jason Tang, are documenting the stories of Obliteride cyclists, cycling culture and most important, the reasons we ride (for mothers, fathers, children, and friends like Lois Levin, (an early contributor to SMI, was recently diagnosed), mother Amy Ferguson, who have battled or are currently battling cancer, as well as featuring in greater detail, two current fighters and mothers Jenny George and Ashley Berg.
Their stories and struggles will be depicted in the film “#WeRideWhy.” This will truly be a community project. Our friend, Andrew Joslyn is #WeRideWhy’s music director, Seattle rapper/musician Wanz (recently diagnosed with cancer) is narrating, and local band The Gods Themselves played a benefit show at Metier Racing and Coffee (Roth also rides for their club).
With the event is coming up this weekend, Team #WeRideWhy – zulily is in the final stretch for our fundraising push to raise $10,000 for Fred Hutch by Obliteride Weekend. Our team’s page states:
Our team committing to ride Obliteride this August because we believe research is the fastest path to curing cancer and we also believe the team at Fred Hutch can get us there.
Sadly, half of all men and one third of all women in the U.S. will get cancer in their lifetime.
Fred Hutch is learning more about cancer prevention, diagnostics and treatment and Obliteride can help us get to cures faster.
More than 300 labs and projects are working hard to save the lives of people all over the world by conducting innovative, high-impact cancer research.
Please join us in this effort to put cancer in its place, behind us.
Please Ride with us, donate to our team, and tell others about Obliteride.
The team roster includes: Myself (zulily / Metier) Marshall Fong (zulily), Mats Mayrberg (Metier), Marshall Miller (zulily), Stephen Fisher, John Delgado (Metier), Dan DeYoung (zulily / Metier), Chris Wilson (Metier), Maria Dellett, Michal Crkon (zulily / Metier), Martin Turek (Monton), and Lindsay Bert (zulily).
We are trained up. We have our custom kits courtesy of Monton (check out the above photo)! We are driving donations and we are planning on filming the start, finish, and celebration for the movie. It is hard to believe after all of the hard work, the day is arriving soon. I will be blogging almost every day to keep you all up to date. To those of you that have already donated, thank you so much for all of your love and support of our project to help #CureCancerFaster! We are ALL IN!
We put together the 3rd teaser trailer called “100 Miles” for our forthcoming film, #WeRideWhy, to be released in late spring of 2018. Enjoy!
#WRW TRAILER 3: “100 Miles”
The team would like to thank their sponsors: Metier, Gregg’s Cycle, Cascade Bicycle Club, Specialized, Seattle Secret Shows, Melodic Caring Project, and zulily.
We re proud to stand with our founder in support of finding a cure for cancer. If you feel the same way, please donate and help Team #WeRideWhy – Zulily meet our goal. Click the button below to access the donation page: