Gettin' By with a Little Help from my Friends (and Brother)

When it rains it pours and so it happened that three people, Chris, Ann & Mark, offered to accompany me on my Saturday ride. My friend Chris (who did some training rides with me in April & May, and used to ride to the Dairy Queen with me back in the day) thought it was going to be a short ride, and it wasn't. Ann, my friend from Madison (who is much more athletic than I) was in town with her bike and thought the ride would start "later" at 7 a.m., but instead the start time was bumped to 6 a.m. And Mark (my non-licensed practicing Chiropractor brother) had his knees adjusted at chiropractic school the day before and just wanted to see if he could ride any distance (his knees were wrecked by endless riding a decade ago). What a joyous surprise to have a posse to go on the journey!

Everyone was dressed in some form of wicking material, myself included, as Mark had bought a pumpkin orange riding shirt for me at REI the day before. Thus my risk of being shot by hunters decreased immensely, and ability to be seen from great distances increased immensely.

The route we took was almost the same one I rode last week that goes by all of the major bodies of water in the Minneapolis city limits. There was an additional four miles added as we started from my house this time around, making our journey 39.9 miles (but we're calling it 40)...and we all lived to tell. When we could, we rode two-by-two as conversing was easier that way, and conversation on a long bike ride makes it seem much shorter. That is why the originally planned short ride of 20 miles just kept going to 40 as everyone seemed so invigorated and hadn't run out of things to talk about. As I was leading the gang along the route Chris said the song "Leader of the Pack" kept coming to her mind. I am thankful it was not "Baby Got Back."  Three out of four of us were wearing bandannas so it was decided that we should form our own gang, tough asses that we were. No official name was decided upon but I am partial to the Lactic Acid Gang. Feel the burn. Put that on some wicking biking shirts!

We did ride by a Dairy Queen by Minnehaha Falls but it was only 8:30 a.m. at that point and it wouldn't be opened for another couple hours. Ann was disappointed as it is never too early for a little ice cream treat. (I'm with you, Ann!)

How wonderful to have such supportive friends and family to go along on this JDRF journey! The La Crosse Ride is 41 days away and many people have donated money and time to help me meet this challenge and raise money to help find the cure for type one diabetes. I am at 71% of my fund raising goal and would appreciate more help spreading the word about the opportunity to contribute. Please direct folks to http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/gjengdahl to make an online contribution. Repost the link to your Facebook page or Twitter feed please. 


Ann headed back to Madison and we probably won't be able to ride together again before the August 13th La Crosse Ride. The Saturday ride was the longest one she has ever been on, and she did great! Mark and Chris live much closer and may be willing to try another ride at some point (cross fingers here). After so much solitary training it was really fabulous to have people so willing to ride. They all still scratch their heads at me for doing this but are very encouraging.


See the sweaty Lactic Acid Gang below: