We are a group of friends who are going to run and bicycle from Portland, Oregon, to San Francisco, CA, from June 25 to July 2, 2005. We will cover approximately 750 miles in 8 days, with the runners proceeding in the form of a relay. Each runner will average up to 12 miles each day. We are doing this to raise money for research on a particular form of muscular dystrophy known as myotonic dystrophy, in honor of a friend who suffers from this disease. We hope the research we fund will facilitate efforts to find a cure for this and other forms of muscular dystrophy.

In 2002, a team consisting of many of the same members ran and biked from Tillamook, OR to Boston, MA and raised $185,000, which we donated to researchers at the University of Rochester/Strong Memorial Hospital. The researchers have used this money in an attempt to isolate the root cause of this disease. Initially, researchers believed that myotonic dystrophy resulted from the interaction of many different proteins with muscle RNA, and that attempts to block each of these interactions would prove extremely complex and challenging. We are extremely pleased to report that significant progress has been made, and the research team believes that myotonic dystrophy may be linked to a single protein/RNA interaction, rather than a very complex set of interactions between many proteins and RNA. Consequently, they see a new and more promising, avenue -- screening for compounds that block just a single interaction. From a therapeutic perspective, this development is very encouraging. With your help, we hope to promote this these new screening efforts by undertaking this second relay and fundraising effort. Here is a somewhat more technical summary of the progress to date.