Karen and I rode the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Historic New Bern Bicycle Tour on Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12 to raise money for the MS Society and to support our friends and the thousands of folks in Eastern North Carolina who have Multiple Sclerosis. This is the “ride report” that I sent out to my donors but I wanted to share it here, too. This is a special event for me and I always encourage my friends to join us. Yes, you could do this, too. More info at the bottom of the post. Thanks to my friends who helped me raise $1500 for the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!
Karen and I rode the Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Historic New Bern Bicycle Tour on Saturday, September 11 and Sunday, September 12 to raise money for the MS Society and to support our friends and the thousands of folks in Eastern North Carolina who have Multiple Sclerosis. This is the “ride report” that I sent out to my donors but I wanted to share it here, too. This is a special event for me and I always encourage my friends to join us. Yes, you could do this, too. More info at the bottom of the post. Thanks to my friends who helped me raise $1500 for the Eastern North Carolina Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society!
This year a record number of cyclists gathered at the waterfront in New Bern. There were over 2300 of us at the 8:00 AM start on Saturday. You can see a small portion of the group in the photo. 
The New Bern Tour has been attracting more riders since they’ve added several new route options which make this fund raising event more accessible to folks who aren’t accustomed to riding long distances. In addition to a short fun ride for children there are the 30, 50, 75, and 100 mile routes. On Saturday we chose the 100 mile route. Well, we actually had agreed to do the 75 mile but at the lunch stop which was around mile fifty the 100 mile route branched off and Karen said she wanted to do that. I guess I could have stuck to the original plan – I have to admit my butt was hurting a bit and the thought of going another 50 was not cheering me up very much but I decided to go along and I’m glad I did. We have both been so busy this year we had not had time to adequately prepare for this event and were only riding about 25 miles a week. But it’s flat down there and much easier than riding in our area so the miles seem much less. We rode most of the last 50 miles ourselves Saturday seeing very few other riders as most of the people doing the 100 were well ahead of us. It was the perfect day – cool, no wind, partly sunny – and the route was through beautiful countryside. Our ride time was about 6.5 hours though we stopped at most of the wonderful rest stops provided by volunteer organizations about every 15 miles or so well stocked with food and drink. There was even a great band at the lunch time stop. So it was fairly late in the afternoon when we arrived back in New Bern and after showers we were treated to a dinner and more music at the convention center. A lot of folks camp at the waterfront park but we usually treat ourselves to a motel room. You may remember I camped in the rain in a very leaky tent at the MS ride I did last year out of Greensboro. I was not a happy camper then. But we got a good night’s sleep in New Bern on Saturday.
Sunday morning I woke up early to pouring rain. The parking lot of the motel was flooded. But the rain stopped during breakfast and we headed down to the waterfront park for the start. Not quite as many riders Sunday but still a huge gathering. We were treated to a flawlessly played version of the National Anthem by North Carolina Symphony trumpeter Don Eagle who was also doing the ride. While Saturday’s route took us on a large loop North and Northwest of New Bern, Sunday we rode East to the town of Oriental which gave us many scenic waterfront views. It sprinkled rain a few times but mostly we stayed dry. Because of the weather some of the routes were closed so we were on the 75 mile route which somehow became 80 miles. We spent most of the ride to Oriental riding in pace lines with a fairly large group and it went very fast. Unfortunately the trip back to New Bern was on heavily trafficked roads and the last 30 miles we were riding into a stiff headwind. We clung to the back of a small group of strong riders but it was still quite a struggle. At one point I was riding a few inches off the back of Karen’s wheel and got distracted and next thing I knew I was about 30 feet back and losing ground fast. The wind just sucked me off the back of the group. It took about 10 minutes of really hard work to catch up again.
Coming into the finish line at the waterfront park was very satisfying and there are children there handing medals to you when you cross the line. Here’s me crossing the line, medal in hand. There are a lot of folks there to welcome you back. Other riders who have already come in, folks from the community who’ve come to watch, and the volunteers – many of them people who have MS themselves. They know we’re doing this for them and they sure don’t hold back on showing their appreciation. So this is a good thing. I get to do something I enjoy – riding my bike in the countryside. And it’s good for my health since it’s the only decent exercise that I get. I get to put some time into helping with a good cause – one that has helped several friends of mine live longer, more productive lives than they would have been able to without the research and services that the MS Society has provided. And most importantly, you have been a great help with your donations. I got cheered across the finish line on Sunday but you are the real champion here. I can’t thank you enough and just know that there are thousands of folks just here in Eastern North Carolina who thank you. Almost every one of my donors has someone close to them who is living with MS or has lost someone dear to them to the disease. I know this is a very personal cause for all of you.There’s one more benefit to me doing this ride each year. I’m sure you know how hard it is for two working people to find time to share things they enjoy. Karen started doing this ride the year before I did – I hadn’t really been riding much at all but she was riding regularly with friends. After her first MS ride in New Bern she said “you could do this!” I was skeptical both about my ability to do it physically but also I had never done any kind of fund raising before. “No one’s going to donate anything for me to ride” I told her. “And I can’t ride 30 miles, not to mention 75 or 100!” Well, I was wrong about both things – and I’m glad I was wrong! So thanks to my sweetie for getting me into this. One of the photographers on the route snapped this picture of us riding together on Saturday.
And thank you all again for your generous help,
Robbie Link
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