JDRF My Ride 2020

It was a warm and foggy morning. Fantastic for a late September day. Thanks to Steven, Rob, Jarrett, Mike B, and Deb from my PMC rides for supporting my JDRF ride and coming out to keep me company.

This was scheduled to be my second JDRF ride. My son was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes two years ago. He was tired, had a weird appetite, was drinking a lot of water and growing taller, but not putting on weight. Sounded like a teenager. Then he started losing weight. He was feeling crummy. We thought he might have strep. The doctor came in with a grave look on his face and told us that the Children’s Hospital emergency room was waiting for us and we should go there immediately. He thought it was Type 1 Diabetes. It was.

That day we entered a whole new world. We were very overwhelmed. But JDRF was there to support us. I wanted to give back. I ride bikes. JDRF has a bike fundraiser. Obviously, I was going to ride my bike and raise money.

Since I was riding to fight Type ONE Diabetes, I thought it appropriate to ride a bike with ONE gear. Ms. Celeste had some new wheels after Mr. Sava introduced me to Cisco at N+1 Cyclery. They were shinier and perhaps faster. She certainly looked just a bit sexier.

Into the fog we went. Cranberries as far as the eye could see. Which was not far, because of said fog. Lots and lots of cranberry bogs. A few fields were flooded for harvesting and that classic cranberry field look.

The roads were great and the route was great. Thanks to the CRW for mapping this out.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4121241825

Deb, Rob and Steven turned to the right for a metric, leaving Jarrett, Mike and I to head south to Mattapoisset. We found a great general store, but it was out of donuts and iced coffee. It turns out the woman ringing us up is an old friend of Mrs. Starr. Jarrett has some stories for Monday in the office. Although we had no donuts, we did have a great view of Mattapoisett Harbor for snacks.

At mile 80 we went past Country Whip ice cream in Acushnet. I thought better of that and turned us around for treats. We each chose some delicious soft serve to power us for the remaining 20 miles.

Unfortunately, we came back to the start with different mileage. Jarrett and I had both ticked over to triple digits, but Mike was short. Of course he took a few laps around the school to tick past that 100 mile mark.