The LaCrosse, Wisconsin JDRF Ride to Cure is finished. Perfect weather, a minimal amount of drama, lots of enjoyable co-riders, great scenery, and over $1 million raised (so far) for T1D (Type 1 Diabetes) research to find a cure. But more of all of that in a moment. First a little context for this part of the USA.
LaCrosse is a college town and probably has more taverns per capita than any town that I’ve ever seen. The geography and architecture gives it a distinct ‘farther west’ feel. The Mississippi river runs through town and, surprisingly, it isn’t that impressive. However, the river valley is. There are periodic limestone bluffs on both sides and it reminds me of certain sections of the Columbia River gorge in Oregon.
We had a tune-up ride on Friday which took us to a bluff to the East of town. It was a good 2 mile climb to the outlook with great views of the valley including the town, neighboring farms, and the Mississippi. The 35 MPH coast back to town was great.
For the actual ride, we started at 7AM in a cold fog and crossed the nearby bridge over to Minnesota. The fog was thick enough to give distances hard to judge and a feel like a light rain. After we headed south for our rendezvous with Iowa, the sun had burned off the last of the mist and we headed south for 40 miles along the river. I had expected commercial barge traffic on the Mississippi, but never saw any. However, there were lots of house boats, cabin cruisers and fishermen. At the 40 mile mark there was a 20 mile loop up on the bluff. The climb to the top of the bluff made me question the necessity and wisdom of doing this loop; but what partly kept me going was the anticipation of another one of those fast long descents. That was not to be. Instead it was a 15 mile tour of Iowa’s beautiful farmland (predominately corn) with lots of ups and downs and then we were back along the river heading north to the finish.
For me, miles 60 to 85 were the most challenging. A sore knee and leg cramps became more than a distraction as I worked hard to draft behind a fast pack of weirdly cheery Wisconsin riders. A big dose of ibuprofen, electrolytes, and food at mile 85 pulled me out of my funk. The last 12 miles I rode with a guy from the Twin Cities whose son was diagnosed with T1D a little more than a year ago at age 8. The dad had told me his son’s diagnosis and the transition to managing the disease had been really difficult. But the resources that JDRF provided had been so over-whelmingly positive that the dad bought a bike and did a JDRF ride a month after the diagnosis. When we approached the finish, his son ran out of the spectators group and followed his dad down the to actual finish, yelling in excitement - visibly proud of his dad’s accomplishment and more importantly, visibly well adjusted to his new circumstances of living with diabetes. That’s why I do this ride. The JDRF is such a powerful organization in all aspects of T1Ds - helping individual families work through emotional and medical issues at diagnosis to providing the necessary funding for research on treatments, cures, and ultimately the prevention of T1D.
If you joined me on this ride with your support, THANK YOU very much!
If you want to join in and contribute to the JDRF, here is the link to JDRF's fundraising page:
Thanks everyone!
100 miles later, this felt REALLY good.
Thank you for your Support!
