On August 10, 2013, 24 mountain bikers and two runners will be participating in the 2013 Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race and Trail Running race respectively to raise money for FIRST DESCENTS, a Denver-based non-profit organization providing free outdoor adventure therapy for young adults with cancer.

Among the 23 athletes participating in the Leadville race events is professional riders and brothers Campbell and Christian Levy, professional CrossFit athlete Jenny LaBaw and Shane Sigle, a FIRST DESCENTS Lead Staff member who completed the 2013 Elk Mountains Grand Traverse (EMGT)—a grueling ski race in Colorado’s Elk Mountains. Sigle raised $1600 for FIRST DESCENTS at his 2013 EMGT race.

Brent Goldstein, another team member who is participating in the race for the eighth time in a row, has raised more than $60,000 every year for the organization during the Leadville 100. “The Leadville 100 is known as torture, grueling, heartbreaking, tear-inducing, insane, etc.,” says Goldstein about the upcoming August 10th event. “However, our day of agony in the high mountains of Colorado is child’s play compared to the days, weeks, months and often years that cancer survivors must endure. We ride in their honor.”

FIRST DESCENTS hopes to raise more than $100,000 from Leadville this year. “Leadville has proved to be a successful event for us,” says FIRST DESCENTS founder and CEO Brad Ludden. “The Leadville team, which originally sparked the idea of creating Team FIRST DESCENTS, shows an incredible amount of passion and support for what we’re doing.”

Another FIRST DESCENTS team member, Derek Murrow, echoes this sentiment: “The Leadville 100 is hard, fighting and recovery cancer is unimaginably harder,” he says. “We raise money and ride hard for the cancer survivors that FIRST DESCENTS seeks to support.”

Image courtesy First Descents