The Band is Back Together

After a glorious sendoff from the family and our friends at Nelson-Boyd, several pit stops, and 9 hours of travel, four of us from the North, three of us from the South arrived and our band is back together.  We arrived in Crescent City hungry and thirsty.  We were delighted to find that the number-one rated restaurant in Crescent City is SeaQuake Brewing. This was right up our alley.  We ordered to go and enjoyed tasty meals, including vegan options, and some cold beverages.

Saying goodbye to home-sweet-home for the next ten days!

Our VRBO for the next three nights is amusingly decorated for Halloween. Seriously decorated.  We even had a trick-or-treat bin!

Getting spooky at our VRBO!

The main tasks at hand were to unpack, get our gear set up, get the go-pro figured out, and drink beer. Check, check, check and check.

We leave for Brookings at 8:30 am.  Stay tuned.


Redwood Coast 2020

It’s been just over two years since my last big ride across Washington State. We intended to cross another state this year, Oregon, but 2020 had other plans for us. After lots of scrambling, discussion, and forced pivoting we settled on doing a one-week, 272-mile ride down the Redwood Coast. Let me tell you a little about what we have planned.

The route

Before I get into the logistics, let’s talk about why I do these harebrained rides. There’re three reasons. First, this is what I do.  I love long rides in my wheelchair. Today I completed my 1,362nd consecutive day out riding on trails or roads. I’ve ridden nearly 11,000 miles in my chair over that time.   That’s over 8 miles a day. I also loved bike touring before I became paralyzed, and this is a way I can reconnect with that passion. The second reason why I do this is to advocate for more safe, accessible, connected pathways for people with all abilities. Bicyclists, runners, moms with strollers, dog walkers, and so many others benefit from these connections. My brothers and sisters in wheelchairs can also benefit. Which brings me to my third reason, I want to encourage all people to GET OUTSIDE! We live in a world with so much natural beauty, way too often it's underappreciated and underrepresented. See what wildflowers are blooming, what migrating birds happen to be flying by, or just take a peek at your backyard garden. Find a way to connect with the natural world. It's what helped me find my solace after my injury and in general puts a smile on my face. I encourage others to try it for themselves. More than ever, with this year of lockdowns, there really is healing in the outdoors.

Younger, un-paralyzed me road crewing my first bike tour

With that, let’s talk about this year’s ride. In the summer of 2006, before my injury, I took part in my first ever bike tour with my good friend Josh Blaustein through, where else, the Redwood Coast. I was the road crew, and although I’d been through the area before, was overwhelmed by the beauty that I saw while traveling at a slower pace. This year, while trying to wrap my head around what to do for my annual ride, I decided why not revisit where it all started.

Here’s the plan. We will start the ride on Sunday, October 4th, 7 miles north of the California/Oregon border in Brookings, Oregon. We will travel ~40 miles per day and will hit the finish line in Fort Bragg seven days later on Saturday, October 10th. We have reached out to media outlets along the route to help share our story, will be blogging nightly, and also be in regular contact with our local radio station, KSQM, to let everyone know how it's going. We are also looking into a beacon so you can track our progress on a map.

Follow that sign!

I will have three or four cyclists riding along with me at all times. We will be following the Pacific Coast Bike Route and much of the ride will be along the shoulder of the highway. In a perfect world, I would do this on a long, separated, smooth surfaced bike path but that’s not the reality in our nation. I think it’s important for me to be seen riding my chair along this route. My chair is no wider than most recumbent bicycles and we need to have infrastructure that supports travelers using modes other than just motor vehicles. It’s important to me to demonstrate that folks with disabilities can pursue their passions just like anyone else and creating well-connected infrastructure for cyclists can also benefit the wheelchair community. Stepping down off my soapbox.

Dr. B, Maureen, and Celina. 3/4 of my crew

The cyclists riding along with me will be Jimmy Quenelle, Josh Blaustein, Maureen Foley, and Celina Smith. My mom will be road support and help with the caregiving overnight and we will also bring one extra caregiver, Edwin, to help out with care and driving an extra vehicle. The seven of us will be staying in Air B&Bs wherever possible to minimize COVID risks. Unfortunately, we will not be able to finish each day off at a brewery to celebrate our achievement. But don’t you fear! We will certainly find beer to enjoy at our lodging each night.

The final crewmember, Jimmy

It’s tricky planning how many people you will need for support in an event like this. My safety on the road depends on me being visible. I’ll have my sweet Diestco canopy and flags to try and stand out but it’s essential to always have a couple bikes behind me and in front to alert motorists in places with a narrow shoulder. My crew also helps manage my care throughout the day; be it respiratory challenges, seating issues, keeping me hydrated, or just helping me pee. I’m a high-level quadriplegic and do need assistance. On top of this, they MUST keep my chair road ready. Things happen out on the open road. Caster bearings fail, nuts and bolts rattle loose, batteries need to be charged and changed, and we’ll have to do any repairs right on the side of the road.

Quick repairs on the side of the road

Wheelchair upkeep is only one of our challenges, but a big one. My chair is five years old. I’ve put thousands of miles on it and this will be the third cross state wheelchair tour it has endured. I have complete confidence in the manufacturer of my wheelchair, Invacare. They make a very durable chair that can put up with my constant and vigorous abuse. However, there are replacement parts that go bad and need to be looked after. We will have to be vigilant out there. Especially because this year we are not bringing an extra wheelchair. Instead, we are bringing lots of extra parts and an additional lithium battery which I got from GREEN LiFE, a battery company based in Tampa Florida.

Smoke happens

We also recognize that smoke can be a challenge. Fortunately, we’ve dealt with this on previous rides and it seems that summertime fires on the West Coast are just a part of life these days. COVID is another issue that concerns us. Luckily, it’s an isolated area and we are just going to be riding along on trails or the road for most every day and will be in an air B&B most every night. We will be cooking much of our food and avoiding the public whenever possible. One of our final concerns is the minivan. We have to drive further than usual to get to the starting point and will be driving more each morning and evening to reduce the number of locations we have to stay. This does add to our fuel cost but is essential due to the pandemic. The van, affectionately known as the Quadyssey, has been recently serviced and we’re hopeful it will endure the trip.

The finish line of our 2018 ride

It isn’t cheap to do these adventurous rides and we rely on our sponsors and individual donors to fund our expenses. We have awesome sponsors who have supported us on all three of our big rides. Nelson Boyd and Invacare, we could not do this without your support! This year we have other sponsors such as ASL, Diestco, Bodypoint, and Green Life. Other partnerships are in the works. Sponsor funding covers a big chunk of the expenses, but not all. Individual donors have been absolutely vital in making my endeavors a reality. It’s been hard for me over the years to learn to ask for help, but I’ve found that people love seeing goals completed and passions pursued. With that, I ask of you once again, consider supporting our nonprofit and our mission to create a more accessible outdoors. You can donate here.

We are pumped!

Stay tuned for more updates and mark October 4th on your calendar to follow us on our journey. It should be a great time and I look forward to sharing it with you all.

Sea to Sound 2020

Ready to kick things off!

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I last updated you on the latest Ian’s Ride happenings. Let’s see if we can remedy that here and I can tell you all about our most recent event, the second annual Sea to Sound.

Me and my Papa enjoying the West End.

It’s been a hard year to run a nonprofit whose tagline is Get Outside. I’ve had to recognize that I’m quite privileged to live in an area where I can go hop on a trail that is sparsely populated, and go out and ride for hours. So many wheelchair users live in urban areas and don’t have these opportunities. COVID has put us all on high alert and I wouldn’t want to be out on a busy trail in the middle of a city. This realization made me realize I had to push forward with Sea to Sound more now than ever. We would have to do some things differently, like limit our numbers, but nature is the best medicine and I knew many people needed to do something fun outside and be able to do it in a safe way. So, we started to plan…

Don't cross her, or you won't get a sandwich.

We definitely wanted a virtual option so people from out of state could participate in their own way. After speaking with local race directors and signing up for a few virtual races myself, we managed to put together a fun virtual event utilizing runsignup.com. We ordered swag, got finisher medals, and set it up to go live on the same day we began the in-person ride. We had virtual participants from eight different states, and some of them did things that I would love to highlight. I’ll have to save that for another blog.

We were a little nervous planning for the in-person ride. We knew it was doable, we just had to wrap our head around how to do it with social distancing and local regulations. There was one local event that had not been canceled, Ride the Hurricane, and I eagerly signed up and climbed that mountain. It’s a 17-mile course and everyone had no problem staying socially distanced. The aid stations had good signage, tape on the ground to mark 6 feet, hand sanitizer, and food and beverages that you were able to grab without cross-contamination. I was encouraged.

Leading the pack

The S2S route would be the same as 2019. No new sections had been added since then. This did require a little shuttling, which brought more social distancing concerns. We realized we would just need more vehicles, encourage everyone to have their own ride if possible, and keep passengers in our shuttle well separated. We trained aid station volunteers in clean, safe preparation methods and tried to locate our aid stations in places where there was plenty of room for people to spread out. We sent the word out of our plans, opened up registration and hoped the old phrase “if you build it, they will come” rung true.

Talk about multimodal!

Fortunately for us, it did. Day one began out on the far west end of the Olympic Discovery Trail at the Camp Creek trailhead. We kept our numbers below 25 people for each day to keep things manageable. We headed off with three people in power wheelchairs, two on scooters, a number more on bikes and one bearded dragon.   This section is one of the most beautiful on this three-day ride and everyone was cheerful and dazzled by the beautiful tall trees and lush undergrowth that surrounded us. It was just over 5 miles to the first aid station and those miles went by very quickly. The biggest highlight of this day for me was having my grandfather along on his scooter for the full 17 miles. We had a lot of fun rolling along side by side checking out the big trees and catching glimpses of Lake Crescent as we approached the finish. We reached the finish line around 3 PM and were treated to some tasty sandwiches and good company. Everyone was shuttled to where they needed to be, and we finished the day with a small outdoor gathering at my house where we could enjoy a cold one and chat about the day.

Mickey Dickey, age 100, ready to enjoy the trail

We managed to get some sleep before Saturday, our longest day at nearly 40 miles, and we were all pumped and ready when we got to the starting point. This was a 9 AM start and we encourage many of the wheelchair users to join us a little further along so they don’t drain unnecessary battery. So, I was the lone wheelchair with a small pack of bikes staggered behind me. One fun thing about this day is the variety of scenery you see as you travel with 37 miles. And we certainly had variety. Not just in scenery but in participants. We were thrilled to have two equestrians and their horses join us in Agnew. We were joined along the way by several more wheelchair users and two of our board members, Deborah and Jeff. Railroad Bridge was beautiful as ever, and just after we crossed it, we joined up with Mickey Dickey. She is 100 years old. She and my papa led the group for several blocks through Sequim and it was just delightful. As usual, wheelchair and scooter batteries began to drain toward the end of the day which put the shuttles into heavier use. My crewmate Jimmy ran the whole 40 miles. 

Kenny Salvini showing off his modeling skills

Day three was shorter with a later start. we all experienced the sketchy bit of riding directly on the highway, and everyone had to be shuttled from Discovery Bay to the Four Corners area. These two specific spots are true highlights that made us appreciate the connectivity of the ODT all the more. We were lucky to have my friend Jesse Collens, a ventilator dependent quad, join us on the third day. The Larry Scott Trail portion of the ODT is dirt. The smoothest dirt ever, and It was heartwarming to see Jesse’s ventilator and wheelchair covered in dust by the end. We also had Invacare rep Brandon join us with his daughter on his lap. He is able bodied and attempted to drive a sip n puff wheelchair, I admired his ambition, but he was forced to use the hand control to keep pace with the group. We ended the day at Kah Tai Lagoon Nature Park where we brought in some Thai food and just hung out a bit at the appropriate social distance. 

Me and mom

We all had a wonderful time over the three-day ride, and that is all thanks to our wonderful volunteers and sponsors. There’s a lot of moving parts in getting aid stations up and running every 5 miles for a 71-mile course. Not to mention providing support for people of all abilities, recognizing that some wheelchair users may need a push and a pickup at any point along the route. The people behind the scenes make sure everyone is comfortable and confident that they can get the support they need. There are a few people I want to specifically thank. First, my mom, Teena Woodward. From the planning stages to the finish line, my mom is helping every step of the way. She is coordinating aid stations and pickups while we are riding, she’s keeping our followers on social media up-to-date with our progress, and she makes sandwiches at the lunchtime aid station. She really does it all and we could not do it without her. Thanks mom!

Best support a group could ask for!

Next, I’d like to highlight a few different folks who were in their vehicles moving aid stations and participants throughout the three days. First, the man the myth the legend: Terry Gallagher. I’m proud to call Terry a friend and Ian’s Ride is lucky to have him as a board member. His knowledge, good humor, and get it done attitude help make sure everything and everyone is where they need to be at the right time. Buddy Depew and his wife Meg are also on the short list of extremely valuable volunteers. Buddy has a calm, levelheaded demeanor that always brings peace to my frazzled brain. He was there for all three days and he and Terry tag-teamed moving all of our aid stations and equipment. Beyond that, he and Meg own the Sequim Bee Farm, a local business focused on sustainable beekeeping that provides delicious honey and bee products. They were one of our main sponsors and we are deeply grateful for their support. That brings me to another volunteer I’d like to thank, Russ Woodward. He is my stepdad and manages to keep my chair up and running 365 days a year, and that’s saying something. I put my chair through the ringer and no matter what I manage to break, he always finds a way to fix it. For Sea to Sound, he drove our big shuttle bus all three days getting people to the starting point, picking them up if needed along the course, and taking them back to their vehicles from the finish line. Big thanks to all mentioned.

Jimmy and Josh. Josh is clearly the tall one.

There were many more people helping behind the scenes, and I can’t name them all here. But a quick shout out to Jesse Major, Beverly Dawson, Sandy Ulf, Celina Smith, and Jeanne and Skip Salvini. We love each of you and really appreciate all the help you offered. Finally, I better thank the two guys who isolated themselves down in California prior to the ride so they could drive up and be part of the ride. I’m speaking of Josh Blaustein and Jimmy Quenelle. They are always part of my big rides and it would not be the same without them. The laughs and smiles they provide always keep my heart full (the beer they brought up from California didn’t hurt either…). I’ll never be able to properly express how thankful I am to have these friends in my life, but they are a huge motivation for me to plan these things.

So, it’s been an unusual year but we still managed to get outside and have a fantastic time exploring the entire length of the Olympic Discovery Trail and being with friends. We managed to do it safely and have an amazing time in the process. Next year should be even more fun, I can’t wait!

We did it!

Sea to Sound 2019 – Day Three

Port Townsend here we come!

We woke up to beautiful blue skies and warm temperatures for our final day of the ride. We were getting a slightly later start, 11 AM, since it would be a fairly short day. We just had to ride the 8 miles between Diamond Point Road and Discovery Bay, then get shuttled over to the four corners area where we could finish today on the Larry Scott Trail, a lovely section of the ODT. Everyone was in good spirits as we loaded up the vehicles to head out to the trailhead. Jimmy was ready to continue running, and Josh Sutcliffe decided to join him for the first 8 miles.

Getting outside and doing life

We arrived at the day's starting point where Shannon, Kenny, and Marsha had their power wheelchairs charged and were ready to ride the 15 miles into Port Townsend. Our good friend Raquel joined us again on her bike and brought her pet bearded dragon. With the cage mounted to the back of her bike, and a few other cyclists, we were looking like quite the motley crew.

Chuck and Lori

The ride from Diamond Point Road to Discovery Bay is not technically on the trail. It cuts between little segments of Highway 101 and a nice quiet street called Old Gardiner Road. This road was very pleasant for us to roll on. It was wide enough where we could roll next to each other and chat. There were lots of views of the Puget Sound and the warm day had us all smiling. I'd like to comment about two people who had been with us for the entire length of our ride, Lori Schneider, and Chuck Leber. These two are close friends of mine. Lori is the main reason I currently have over 1000 consecutive days of rides. Her current streak dwarfs my measly 1000 days. She and Chuck have been great competition on many fronts, be it trivia, number of beers rated in a year, or miles on the trail. I always get a smile when I see either of them, and I was honored to have them ride with us for the entirety of the weekend.

Sketchy

We continued along Old Gardiner Road until we hit a point, which I knew was coming, where we would have to get on the shoulder of Highway 101 for about a mile and a half. Now I am comfortable with riding on highways. I'm always doing it on my long rides and I have complete faith in my team in maintaining visibility and keeping me informed with what's behind me. It turns out that comfort level drops significantly when I know there are three other power wheelchairs riding along in tow. I love all three of those chair users and I certainly didn't want anything to happen to them. We slowed it down a bit, got in a big single file line, gritted our teeth, and charged forward. It all went fine, we made the mile and a half without a hitch, however we all expressed our dislike of that 1.5 mile section and were happy to get back on the quiet road. One big danger of riding your chair on the shoulder of highways is the rumble strip. If our tires hit this strip, it immediately slows that side of the chair down and forces you into traffic. We all avoided that rumble strip like the plague.

Quick snack before shuttle to final section

For the final half a mile before our first stop we were on a recently completed section of the ODT with beautiful views of Discovery Bay. We rolled up to that first aid station of the day to lots of smiles and cheers. We all ate more than we needed, our good friend Buddy brought much appreciated honey sticks, and we chit chatted with some folks who had showed up to cheer us on.

Hottie!

Everyone was then loaded into a shuttle and driven the 8 miles of sketchy road that is Highway 20 to the Milo Curry Trailhead. A couple people met us there to do the final leg with us. The final 8 mile section of the ODT, called the Larry Scott Trail, is just stunning. It is not paved, but the surface is very smooth and you go between dense forests, open meadows, to finally finishing with your last mile right on the shore of the Puget Sound. We all headed off from the trailhead, I took up the rear with my delightful girlfriend Celina. We'd been so busy chatting with everyone all weekend we hadn't had any time to ride together. We embraced the opportunity, reflected over the past couple days, and soaked up the beauty around us.

Rolling Thunder!!!

When we arrived at the final aid station of Sea to Sound 2019 we found our good friends from The New Moon Craft Tavern. We all started to snack and tell our tales of the day to the volunteers when Rick, the owner of The Moon, came over and surprised the heck out of me with a beer he brewed to honor my accomplishment. It had a fancy label with my face all over it. I was grinning from ear to ear. It was the most thoughtful gesture and it reminded me how lucky I am to have such wonderful people in my life. Let's just say we "admired" the beer and hung out at this final aid station a little longer than the rest before heading off to the finish line.

Big thanks to Rick and The Moon!

The last 3 or 4 miles were a breeze. We did have to tolerate the smell of the paper mill for the first couple miles of this final section, but our excitement made us not notice it so much. When we finally made it to the last half a mile we had stunning, clear views across the Puget Sound and a perfect view of Port Townsend. Marsha was the first chair to cross the finish line, followed closely behind by the rest of us. Jimmy, of course, ran the entire distance. Over 75 miles for the three days. The ladies decided that after watching his glistening muscles over the past 50 miles, they deserved a picture with him. Jimmy obliged.

Settle down ladies

We celebrated briefly before we rolled off to the watering hole for the evening, The Pourhouse. It was the perfect weather for outdoor seating, and The Pourhouse has one of the best views around. Lots of people showed up to congratulate us and hear the stories we had to share from the previous couple days. Three people in wheelchairs, who I had never met, joined us and we made some great connections. The Sea to Sound Session IPA was on tap, cornhole was played, and the soft, melodic sounds of a flugelhorn were being played by a talented musician. We couldn't have asked for more. We were surrounded by friends, had spent three glorious days outside, and got to finish each day with a tasty beverage. We all agreed that Sea to Sound 2019 was a huge success and expressed excitement about S2S 2020.

We did it!

All in all, we had over 20 wheelchairs participate in at least some part of the ride. Two stand up scooters, a couple of ebikes, one (sometimes two, thanks Josh S) runner(s), and somewhere around 50 cyclists had all been involved. Dozens of volunteers insured everything ran smoothly in the background. Then there was my amazing family. Between my mom coordinating everything, my grandmother raising money, my dad and stepdad shuttling people around, and my grandfather always being there for encouragement, I realized, once again, just how lucky I am.

Check back in the next few days for my take on the accessibility of the ODT. Overall, it was outstanding, but there's always room for improvement.

Sea to Sound 2019 – Day Two

Ready for some miles

Bagels!

We knew that day two would be challenging since it was nearly a 40 mile trek and we had eight aid stations to get set up, taken down, supplied, and ran by volunteers. There was a lot of stuff going on in the background with people driving tables, canopies, food, swag, and water to different locations and then another group coming from behind loading everything up later in the day. We also had vans at the ready to rescue wheelchairs that might get stranded. All the volunteers that took on this monumental task were amazing, and even though there were so many moving parts, everything ran like clockwork.

About to hit the waterfront with some good numbers

Josh and Jimmy lending a helping hand

We started the day at 9 AM at the Elwha bridge where the cyclists completed the previous day. We were greeted by our volunteers and Keith from the Peninsula Daily News. After a quick interview we all gathered up and myself, five cyclists, and one running Jimmy began the long day. The first aid station was only 5 miles or so from the start and we quickly traveled that distance to some much-needed bagels and water to keep us fueled for the many miles ahead. A few other cyclists joined and we headed towards the Port Angeles waterfront.

Snacks with Stew at the third aid station

We arrived to a bunch of people who were ready to be part of the group ride. There were eight other wheelchairs and dozens of able-bodied folk who were either wishing us well or joining us to ride. Our energy was high and we were about to ride one of the more beautiful sections with the Strait of Juan de Fuca on our left and lots of good friends around us. I slowed down to under 5 mph to allow the slower power wheelchairs and manual chairs to keep up. Josh Sutcliffe ran this section to help with pushing any chairs if needed. He ended up being a big help to our friend Sandra Boggs and pushed her the majority of the 5 miles. He was awesome and she was appreciative.

Demonstrating the dedication of the crew

At this point our group size had more than tripled and we had a great variety of transport modes. Manual chairs, power wheelchairs, scooters, bikes, and runners were all out with us for that 5 miles, and we were feeling pretty good as we rolled into the third aid station. We enjoyed our snack and shared our appreciation for the great scenery we'd just rolled through. After that, many of the power wheelchairs went to go charge so they could continue on more throughout the day.

Giving some love to our good friends at C4

I discouraged wheelchairs from joining us on the next five or six miles just because it was hilly and would really wipe out some batteries. Kenny really wanted to push the limits of his wheelchair, so he motored along with us. All was going great for the first few miles, lots of great discussions among different sets of people riding side-by-side, a nice isolated trail, and then I had to go and ruin it by crashing into a ditch. You'd think after the thousands of miles I put on my chair, and the hundreds of consecutive days riding, I could keep on the pavement, unfortunately I got complacent. I was just riding along chatting with my buddy Dave Toman when my chair started drifting to the right. Instead of stopping or swerving left like I should have, I tried to slow the chair down and slowly drift back to the left. Instead I ended up in a ditch and needed all the people with us to help pull me out. I was fine, with nothing hurt but my ego. Thanks to everyone that yanked me out!

Some youngsters and some oldsters

After the unnecessary excitement I provided the group, we powered on to our fourth aid station where everyone that was hungry got sandwiches or any other snack they preferred. There were lots of jokes made about me keeping the greasy side down, I chuckled along with them as we got back on the trail and continued east. A few miles later we hit Robin Hill Park where a special surprise was waiting. A local nonprofit, called The Sequim Wheelers, have wonderful bikes called Duets that allows a rider to sit up front in a chair while the driver pedals the bike. Two Duets were there, and my grandfather was sitting in one of them. I couldn't have been happier to have him be part of our ride. Seeing his face gave me all the energy I needed to finish up the day. As we powered along, we passed the Sequim airport where we were treated to the sights of a local festival called the Air Affaire. We got to see people wing walking, hot-air balloons, and huge remote-control planes that were doing all sorts of wild stunts. Shortly after, we made it to our fifth aid station and our group was getting pretty big. We had four young kids cycling along and my good friend Bonnie met us there in her hand cycle.

Thanks Sequim Wheelers!

After the next 5 miles, we got to our sixth aid station at Carrie Blake Park and our group started to thin out a bit. Many chairs were out of batteries, some went off to charge more, and a few brave souls, Kenny, Marsha, and Shannon, all powered their chairs on with me. There were 10 more miles until the finish line, and they really wanted to see how far their chairs would go. Kenny and Marsha made it to the final aid station, although Kenny was pushed the last 100 yards. Shannon ran out of batteries and got a pickup. All three of them rode the furthest distance they had ever traveled in their wheelchairs.

Our first handcycle! Thanks Bonnie!

At this point, running Jimmy was on his 35th mile and charging way ahead of the pack. He was in the zone and we knew better than to interrupt him. However, the guy just doesn't know when to stop. Fortunately, my mom was driving to the finish line and saw Jimmy way down the highway and went and turned him around to get back to the finish line. Thank goodness! Pretty sure he would've been in Tacoma had we not stopped him. He ran 40 miles. It was the longest run of Jimmy's life.

Some tired batteries, on to the final stretch

Todd tried to do the final leg with me, he used his van to charge his chair but ended up running out of juice a couple miles short. His lovely wife Karen continued along with us on her scooter. When we finally made it to the finish line at Diamond Point Road, all the wheelchair users were there to congratulate us, get a picture, and then head to the Peninsula Taproom for food and beverages. They had the Sea to Sound Session IPA on tap and we got to talk with a lot of people who had heard of our ride and wanted to know more details. It was a great time and a lot of fun was had. We then shuttled everyone who needed a ride to their desired location and went home to get some rest before the start of the third and final day.

Lots of happy faces at the finish line for day two

Check back real soon to see how the final day went!