Monday, June 30, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 'M' student stoked for ride of life By ANDY REID the trip, he decided to link it with an Daily SportsEditor organization. He settled with Alli- ance to Save Energy, a non-profit While waiting in line at White organization based in Washington, Market on East William Street, D.C. With donations pouring in Justin Leath could barely contain from family, friends, fellow School his excitement. In two days' time, of Dentistry students and ASE mem- the third-year School of Dentistry bers, the Star to Sun Ride, named student would begin a grueling after the respective newspapers in seven-day, 458-mile bike ride from Windsor and Toronto, was born. Windsor, Ontario to Toronto and "Once I started shopping around back. for a charity, I realized the sincerity But Leath wasn't getting worked of the guy I was talking to at Alli- up about the trip. ance to Save Energy, Chuck Wilson, He pointed to a front-page story who is like the head of the contribu- in The Ann Arbor News about the tion department there," Leath said. growing popularity of public trans- "He inspired me to keep riding and portation because of consistently do it." rising gas prices. "This is what I'm To some contributors, Leath's talking about," Leath said, placing decision to ride in Canada is a per- the newspaper back on the shelf plexing one. Although the money Finding a way to reduce gas pric- raised by the Star to Sun Ride is es and lower atmospheric pollution going to an American organization, produced by car emissions concerns Leath decided to take his bike across Leath, so much so that he dedicated national lines. his bike trip - one that started out But he says that fact shouldn't as something for him to do during deter people from getting involved. a short break he had between Den- "Pollution has no governmentally tistry classes and patient appoint- indicated boundaries," Leath said. ments - to raising awareness and "The course was just the right dis- money for the cause. tance for me. I knew I could com- Leath had not been on a bike in plete it with the limited time I'm over a year before he started train- given, because I'm going to have to ing for this trip. But he hopes that go back to school two days after I his enthusiasm will inspire others finish riding, so hopefully that will . to investigate alternatives to burn- give me time to rest up before I see ing fossil fuels. patients again." "I just want people to get out Armed with a Gary Fisher bike there, walk, cycle, ride, whatever (which can retail at more than you want to do, man," Leath said. $5,000) borrowed from a friend, the "Think about getting a car'that cuts bare essentials and only the clothes down on fuel consumption. That's on his back, Leath set out at 1 a.m. something I'm really passionate Friday. He is currently en route. The about." trip from Windsor to Toronto was Two days after Leath planned originally scheduled to take three School of Dentistry student Justin Leath is currently biking through Canada to raise money for the Alliance to Save Energy. days, but Leath pushed well past his 10- to 12-hour guideline every day and kissed the CN Tower just 36 hours after he started pedaling. Although he planned to be on the road for seven days, the St. Clair Shores native is likely to smash the original plan he had set. Overall, Leath spent 24 of those 36 hours on a bike. In fact, only "tor- rential rains" stopped him on the first night of his voyage. By rushing past the checkpoints he had for himself and biking until midnight on some days, Leath has resorted to "roughing it," on the trip, saying that if it comes down to sleeping under the stars, he'll have no reservations about that. "Just keep going. I think that's exactly what I'm going to do," Leath said. "I'm just going to go. I know my starting point, and I know my ending point, and I'll fill in the lines in between. "I'm just an open spirit. Wher- ever it takes me, it takes me." Leath has even set up a blog about his ride (www.thestarttosun- ride.blogspot.com) that he is updat- ing from his Blackberry during his trip. Information about donating can be found there. Leath is barely even stopping to eat. Munching on bananas, grano- la bars and weight protein, he only stops for solid meals when neces- sary. "The weight protein - I'm just going to throw a scoop in my mouth, drink some water and swallow while I'm in route," Leath said. With more than half of the Star to Sun Ride behind him, Leath isn't worried about actually finish- ing, anymore. His most pressing concern has to do with the iPod he brought along. "My concern is running out of music along the way," Leath said. MEN'S SWIMMING AND DIVING Phelps breaks own record at Olympic trials By RYAN A. PODGES Daily Sports Writer OMAHA - Yesterday was the eve of his 23rd birthday, but Club Wol- verine swimmer Michael Phelps wasn't celebrating During the preliminary races at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, the world's fastest swimmer had been beat in the 400-meter indi- vidual medley, an event in which he holds the world record. "After this morning I was pretty upset," Phelps said. "And I had no idea what to expect tonight." Phelps smashed his own world record by 0.97 seconds, setting the new mark at 4:05.25. Second place finisher Ryan Lochte was never more than 1.5 seconds behind Phelps and pulled within just 0.02 seconds of him with 100 meters remaining. Lochte dropped over three seconds from his own per- sonal best and also beat the world record, but it was not enough to catch Phelps. The 14,000 fans at the Qwest Center were on their feet scream- ing during the race. And after his swim, Phelps couldn't conceal his excitement either, thrashing the water with his fist. "I hear the crowd from the first 50 meters on, and at the first turn, I thought, 'Oh god, don't overdo this. Don't get too excited for the last 350 meters,'" he said. "It gives me an extra boost of energy to get to the wall because usually when they're cheering that loud it means something good is happening." Phelps's coach Bob Bowman, who resigned as Michigan's men's swimming and diving coach in April, knew that having such a close competitor would also help push him to swim faster. He said it was the first time since the 2007 World Championship meet that the field of competition was able to challenge Phelps. "That's what (Michael) does, he rises to the level of the competi- tion," Bowman said. "You have to be pushed to that effort level and pushed into the race the way that you would want to. It's hard to gen- erate that level of excitement when you're swimming by yourself." Phelps wasn't the only Club Wolverine swimmer to draw atten- tion on day one of the U.S. Olym- pic trials. Peter Vanderkaay and Erik Vendt were both part of an exciting finish to the 400-meter freestyle finals. Vanderkaay, Vendt and Larsen Jensen were all within a half second of each other after the final turn. Jensen finished first, and Vanderkaay was second. Vendt touched 0.19 seconds behind Vanderkaay and won't qualify for the Olympics in the event. Vent will have another chance to make the team in the 1,500-meter freestyle later this week. The trials continue through July 6.