Tour de Pink

Cycling for a Cause

By Leah Etling on May 5, 2017 in People

Two Yardi colleagues on opposite sides of the country are participating in the YSC Tour de Pink cycling stage race this year to raise funds for breast cancer patients. The ride benefits Young Survival Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to providing information, resources and support to young women affected by breast cancer.

Both are part of the Global Solutions Investment Management Team, but are at very different stages in their Yardi journey.

Susan Freehauf is an 18-year employee of Yardi and a Senior Director in Global Solutions. Marlyn (pronounced Marlene) Amoguis is a new Consultant in the same department who has been with Yardi just one month.

Freehauf works remotely from Florida, while Amoguis is based out of the Yardi San Diego office.

Both women have similar stories – they joined Yardi after previously working for a real estate company that was a Yardi client, and each has a strong background in fund/financial accounting, database management and software implementation.

But one thing they didn’t have in common, until recently, was cycling.

Marlyn is an experienced rider, who has been mountain and road cycling for years and participated in last year’s Tour de Pink in California with a group from her San Diego cycling club.

But Susan had never bicycled for fitness until Marlyn told her about the Tour de Pink and what a rewarding and fun experience the ride had been when she took part in 2016. Each rider must raise $2500 for the non-profit in order to participate in the 200 mile ride over three days. Shorter distance options are also offered.

“Last year I did not know what to expect, and I had a very positive experience. Many of my fellow riders were from the health care industry and were very genuine, caring people. There are also many cancer survivors who participate in the ride, and their stories are very emotional,” Marlyn said.

One particular interaction stayed with her and played a role in motivating her to do the ride again.

“On the very last day, we were down to the last ten miles of the ride and I found myself riding next to a survivor who was not sure if she could finish. I stayed with her for the entire time and she was so thankful. Months afterwards she was still thanking me. That was the most fulfilling part to me – to help this woman finish something great.”

Susan and Marlyn are both participating in the 2017 event, but on separate sides of the continent.  Marlyn’s West Coast ride takes place in October.

The West Coast Tour De Pink in October 2017 will go through Santa Barbara,  with one of the over night stays at the Fess Parker Doubletree on the Santa Barbara waterfront.  Anyone interested in participating in this event can find information at west.ysctourdepink.org and should speak to Marlyn if interested in forming a Yardi team.

Susan has already finished her ride, which took place April 20-22 in her home state of Florida.

“It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I really just did this because I heard about the event, I thought it was a good cause, and I wanted to challenge myself,” Susan said.

She took up the sport for the first time to train for the ride and enjoyed long weekend training rides of up to 85 miles. She also raised $3900 for the cause.

While riding 80 miles the first day, she met three cancer survivors and they rode together. They shared inspiring stories of their diagnosis, treatment and survival of the disease at a young age. Whereas she hadn’t felt a personal connection to the cause before, suddenly Susan had friends who had beat breast cancer.

“When I started to get tired, I would look around and realize wow – they beat breast cancer. That is so much more difficult than this ride. So you just keep pedaling,” she said. The second day, on the urging of her new friends, she took on a 100 mile century, even though it was further than she had intended to ride that day.

“I was completely physically depleted,” she said. On day three, stormy weather led to cancellation of further riding, a relief after the unexpected century. But next year, Susan already plans to participate again.

Learn more about the Tour de Pink in this video: