75 MILES FOR MS

7,000 cyclists, hundreds of volunteers, and 75 miles. All for one cause.

Saturday I had the honor of joining a team for the Bike MS: City to Shore bike ride to support Multiple Sclerosis. Although 2010 is the ride's 30th Anniversary, this was my first year to participate in the event sponsored by the National MS Society.

Although I joined a team through work and don't have any personal ties to MS, the day not only challenged, but encouraged and inspired me. I was nervous about so many things leading up to the race: waking up at 3am, keeping up pace with the team so I didn't get lost, crashing, and of course making the 75-mile ride from Cherry Hill, NJ to Ocean City, NJ.

But at about the 50 mile mark I passed a woman riding using only her hands, cranking the handle bars or her specially-manufactured bike to make the wheels move because MS had taken over the use of her legs. As me and hundreds of other riders passed her, she was inching along at, I assume, about 5mph; but this didn't phase her; by the look on her face, she was determined.

Suddenly all my race-day worries and physical pain seemed so silly. I was now riding for that woman and I would finish for that woman; the disease may have crippled her legs, but she still has her arms, her life and her determination.

Her focus on and celebration of the things she DOES still have rather than dwelling on the things she doesn't stuck with me and pushed me through the last 25 miles. I didn't see her at the finish line or again that day, but I know she finished too. :)