If you’re awake at 8 a.m. this Saturday, make a wish  or say a prayer or sing a chant for good weather. Above all, give a cheer for two Philadelphia greenies, Kristin Sullivan and Dan Garofalo, who will be joining about 178 other cyclists and pedaling out of Central Park as part of a climate change conference on wheels.

Bound for the Capitol in Washington, D.C., by Sept. 20, they hope to bring attention to climate change and raise money for three nonprofits. And meet with legislators. “It makes an impression to pedal 300 miles to meet your senator,” the ride sponsors note.

Sullivan is is Mayor Nutter’s point person on solar energy development in Philadelphia. This ride will be small potatoes for her. She’s a regular of triathlons. Plus, from June 2004 to June 2005 — a year minus ten days — she biked just over 14,000 miles from Alaska to Argentina, as a personal environmental campaign to get people to lessen their impact on the environment. She called it the Earth Cycle Campaign. She gave speeches along the way and, incredibly, saw only a few days of rain.

Garofalo, an architect, is Penn’s sustainability coordinator. Part of the reason he’s doing this trip, he said, is that he just spent about two years coming up with the university’s climate action plan, which was released last week. “I knew I really wanted to get away from the office and my cell phone,” he said. “I thought it would be a great opportunity to clear my head and raise money.”

The three nonprofits are Focus the Nation, an Oregon group that encourages young people to engage with lawmakers and business leaders to encourage a clean energy future; the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, a group that supports the growth of a national network of trails and paths; and Clean Air-Cool Planet, which brings practical climate change solutions to  companies, campuses and communities.

Both Sullivan and Garofalo bike to work every day — he on a 1987 Schwinn that is evidently showing its age. (Unlike Dan, himself, we presume.) For this, he bought a newer, snazzier bike.

Both were in the Peace Corps — he in Malawi, she in Honduras, although hardly at the same time, they joke. Later, Garofalo took a leave to work on post-tsunami construction in Sri Lanka in 2005.

Sullivan’s and Garofalo’s team fund-raising goal was $6,000. So far, they’ve exceeded it by $250, and the gig’s not up yet.

The riders will have a support crew carrying all their camping equipment. (So, yes, good weather is even more of a plus.) They’re headed for Princeton the first night, Valley Forge the second. Each evening, while they tend no doubt their aching muscles, they’ll get to listen to and hobnob with expert speakers, such as NASA’s chief climatologist, James Hansen.

In case three days of cycling is getting to the riders, on the third night, at Holtwood, Pa., they’ll hear from Roz Savage, the first woman to ROW across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. (If I ever cross the pond, I’ll sail, thanks.) And Colin Beavan, the author and documentary star now better-known by his superhero moniker, No Impact Man.

Visit Sullivan's and Garofalo's team page here. And the website for the ride is here.