We
recently made a post to congratulate Team “SLU Phycycle Therapy” for their participation
in BikeMS 2013. BikeMS is a National Multiple Sclerosis Society cycling event
that raises money to fight MS. SLU PT faculty, students, and friends made up
Team SLU Phycycle Therapy. One PT student, Hannah Schweickart (Class of 2014) invited
both her father and grandfather to participate in the event with her. She
described to us below what it was like to have 3 generations of Schweickarts
BikeMS.
Ever since I can remember, cycling has been
a part of my family’s life. Some of my earliest memories with my dad are from
camping trips when he would wake me up before sunrise, put me in a seat on his
bike, and ride to the top of a mountain or lookout area so we could watch the
sun rise over the smoky mountains. I also remember thinking my dad was really
cool because he rode his bike to work every day. When I got a little older, I
remember my dad telling me that my grandpa would be riding his bike across
America. These few stories are what helped get me excited about cycling, even
though I never really did much with it.
Never having really
participated in a long ride like this before, I was thinking I would opt for
the shorter route of 40 miles a day instead of the 75 miles. With about 4
months to train, my dad convinced me to attempt to get in shape for the 75 mile
ride. It would have been easier if we lived in the same place to go on rides
together, but we would call each other and update each other whenever we had a
big ride and I used that as motivation for me to keep pushing. Before all of
this started, we had decided that the order of cycling shape went the opposite
between generations than what you would expect. My grandpa was in the best
shape, my dad was in the middle, and I was at the end, in the worst shape. The
best bike went the opposite direction though, so I had a slight advantage
there. I am too competitive to let both my dad and my grandpa beat me on this
ride. I wanted to be able to hang with both of them so I knew I had work to do.By the time the weekend arrived, I had gone on a few long rides so I felt prepared for the 75 mile ride at least for day 1. I was excited that all 3 generations were going to be riding that route together. How many people can honestly say that they got to ride 75 miles with their almost 80 year old grandpa? So we went to Columbia, ate some pasta, and prepared ourselves for the ride the next day. That morning, we met up with the rest of team SLU Phycycle therapy, ate some delicious pancakes, and got ready for the start of our day.
The ride started out
great, but the day got very hot with the street surface temperature reaching
greater than 100 degrees. Throughout the day, I got to spend time talking with
my dad and grandpa and occasionally riding ahead and waiting for them at the
next rest stop. Towards the end it was hard to keep motivating myself to cross
the finish line, but watching my grandpa just blow right by me while I was
taking an unplanned rest stop gave me the inspiration to keep going. Because we
were all at different levels of riding it became harder to stay together the
later in the ride we got, so we didn't finish at the same time, but we all did
finish. The next day was rainy and all of the people on our team decided not to risk the potential injuries that could happen with slick roads so none of us rode. Overall though, the weekend was a great time to get to know some of my classmates, faculty, and even my dad and grandpa a little better. It is definitely a weekend I will never forget.
Hannah
Schweickart
