Three groups riding with motivation

If you are going to bike across the country, at some point you are going to have to ride through the Midwest.

When you get there, it’s not the physical challenge that gets you, it’s the emptiness. Nothing for as far as you can see in any direction.

“It’s definitely not the Oregon Coast, and it’s nice to have something to keep you going,” said Abraham Clark of Milwaukee, who rode through Washington with friends as part of an 8,800-mile, 145-day loop around the United States. “That’s where having a cause comes in.”

Even if you aren’t pedaling across America, every fitness challenge worth doing has a Midwest. A stretch where you are sure you can’t go any more and you just want to quit.

“But if you have something you believe in, it gets you through those times when it just isn’t fun,” said Clark, whose team is raising money to build wells in developing countries.

Recently I talked to three groups of cyclists who found something bigger than themselves to keep them going.

THE MOTIVATORS

On Aug. 5, the Mortimer family of Gig Harbor rolled up to the shore of the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville, Fla., and dipped their front tires into the surf. On April 25 they’d dipped their rear tires into the Pacific Ocean near Los Angeles.

In between, they pedaled 4,800 miles across the southern United States, spreading a message of hope and courage.

Bob Mortimer orchestrated the family trip as a way to share the story about how his faith enabled him to overcome an accident that resulted in the amputation of his left arm and both legs.

Mortimer cranked out the miles with one arm while his wife, Darla; 18-year-old son, Grant; and 13-year-old daughter, Chanel, pedaled along with him.

Darla described the ride as “muggy and buggy” but said there were significantly fewer troubling moments than their 2008 ride across the northern United States. On the previous trip, a buggy accident in Indiana’s Amish country left Darla with a broken kneecap.

This time, Darla said, the scariest incident was encountering a tarantula in Texas.

The team will spend more than a month driving back to Gig Harbor because they have dozens of speaking engagements along the way. This weekend they are speaking in Pennsylvania Amish country.

THE ADVOCATE

Pacific Lutheran University senior Alyssa Henry was pretty nervous when she landed a summer internship with New England Climate Summer.

The 21-year-old environmental studies major had been on a bike only twice since she was 12 and the internship would require her to bike more than 700 miles around Massachusetts during a sweltering summer.

Henry’s passion for encouraging people to wean themselves off fossil fuels helped her overcome those nerves. She bought a bike, shipped it east and she was off.

Since June 5, Henry and four other women formed one of six teams that pedaled from community to community, encouraging people to cut back on their consumption of fossil fuels. She pedaled as many as 50 miles a day, splitting time with teammates pulling one of two 75-pound trailers.

“It was very difficult,” said Henry, a graduate of Kent-Meridian High School. “Some days were over 100 degrees.”

Adding to the challenge, each rider had just $5 per day for food. This, she said, was a constant reminder that steps need to be taken to make organic foods affordable for more people. Henry said the team made its own bread to save money.

Her team visited seven communities, spending about a week in each place.

“I think we were extremely well-received,” Henry said. “People honked and waved at us and I’ve received messages from people saying that we’ve inspired them. That means a lot.”

One of her favorite stops: Appearing at a festival where the Indigo Girls were performing. They were invited backstage to meet the musicians.

“They told us how important our message was and they were impressed by what we were doing,” Henry said. “That was extremely inspiring.”

THE WATER BOYS (AND GIRL)

Team H2O spent this week pedaling across Washington – from Kelso north to Monroe then east to Spokane, where they are speaking this morning to promote their cause: Living Water.

Living Water is a faith-based organization that drills wells in developing countries where people are dying from contaminated drinking water.

“And we also tell people about Jesus and the living water he came to teach about,” said Joel Farris, who is making the ride with his wife, Jillian. “And we talk about him as a well driller because he made it possible for people to know God.”

Team H2O left Austin, Texas, on June 20 and plans to return home Nov. 20 after making an 8,800-mile loop (one mile for every 100,000 people drinking unsafe water) around the country. So far, the five riders, ranging in age from 23 to 27, have pedaled more than 3,000 miles and are right on schedule.

The team hopes to raise at least $176,000 ($20 per mile) through its website, h2oride.org. Living Water’s average cost for a new well is $5,000, said team member Abraham Clark.

Eric Breckinridge, Troves Gilbert, Clark and the Farrises rolled through Olympia and Tacoma in their yellow and blue jerseys this week, staying with hosts families and churches along the way. Olympia’s Hidden Creek Community Church hosted their South Sound stay.

At each stop, the riders and their support team have given presentations on why they are undertaking this challenge.

“Here in the states you are not going to see people walking three miles to get water from a creek where animals drink and poo,” Breckinridge said. “I feel like we need to do something big to say ‘Hey, this is a big issue.’

“We are saying, ‘If you think this bicycle ride we are doing is difficult, just think, some people don’t do hard things because they can. They do them because they have to.”

Craig Hill’s fitness column runs Sundays. Submit questions and comments via craig.hill@thenewstribune.com, facebook.com/adventureguys or twitter.com/adventureguys.

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