Month: April 2017

Do It for Doug, Who’s Living with Multiple Sclerosis:  How to Support My MS 150 Ride from Houston to Austin

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 2 Comments

Please click to donate to A Dude Abikes MS 150 page:  http://Main.NationalMSSociety.org/GoTo/ADudeAbikes

We Are the Champions, My Friend

The MS 150 bike ride is here!  It’s April 29-30, 2017, from Houston to Austin, Texas. I On a bike.  Without a motor.  Unless you count my legs.  Which I do.   Anyhoo, it’s first about the fundraising:   last year, 13,000 cyclists inspired donations of over $16 million dollars for research and treatment.  But it also promotes awareness of Multiple Sclerosis.  I first signed up for this ride as a logical next step in my amateur bicycle riding journey, and because a fellow rider Bill offered to donate since he couldn’t ride.  But I wanted to learn more about the cause, so I became connected with a Bike MS Champion.

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Doug, pointing out his  own featured Bike MS Champion bio

The Champions program aims to communicate “why we ride” by highlighting the many different faces of MS and the different ways the National MS Society meets the needs of individuals living with MS through the generous support of Bike MS participants and fundraisers.  So A Dude Abikes was connected with Doug.  Here is the first message he sent me: Continue reading →

Why I’m Biking the MS 150 from Houston to Austin: Multiple Sclerosis Treatment & Research (P.S. SHOW ME THE MONEY!)

~ A Dude Abikes ~ 3 Comments

*** To skip right to my donation page, click on this link:

       http://Main.NationalMSSociety.org/GoTo/ADudeAbikes

Make The Miles Meaningful, Man

Previous readers (but old and new are all welcome) know that in 2016 I biked 5,306 miles, which was nothing short of incredible, especially to me.  That’s because I’m not a young, thin, professional cyclist.  (Or use PED’s [performance enhancing drugs], although I do take my share of vitamins and supplements to get me through the rides.)  But more than a few people say I’ve inspired them.  Like my good buddy from high school Jeff, who’s no slouch and climbs rocks, plus donates money.   There’s a guy on Strava in Florida I’ve never met.  My dear lunkhead brother said he began walking more on account of all my bicycling.  Co-workers, friends, family, and strangers on line in the grocery store have in various ways said my efforts were, well, to paraphrase my fellow Jewish brohim Adam Sandler’s The Hanukah Song — “not too shabby”.  So when I decided to retire from long-distance cycling, especially the charity fundraising rides, I thought I would go back to my car-free life and do more walking, swimming and weight-lifting.  No more 10 hours a week getting my 100 miles. Not having to ask for money.

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New Jersey for the MS 150

But then Bill (there’s always a Bill in these sort of stories, isn’t there?), an inline skate marathoner (!), fellow bike rider and nice guy who helped me get through a tough patch in the Mamma Jamma Breast Cancer Ride in 2015 and then donated to both my AIDS rides, said he couldn’t do the MS 150, but if I did, he would donate.  Then I won the new bike (see my previous blog post), the weather got warmer, I found myself riding more, so I said yes:  I would bike from Houston to Austin April 29th and 30th to inspire people to donate to help sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with treatment and research for a cure.

Continue reading →