"First Time Rider"

Kay Sailor and Jim Cassidy, 2001

I had always resisted doing the Red Ribbon Ride for 3 reasons:

1. I did not think I could bike that much, and
2. I had an inflated sense of my own importance to St. Joan’s, and
3. I’ve seen that picture on the website of Jim and Kay Sailer under a tree with packs of ice on their heads!

I pretty much forgot about it until January when I started getting emails from the Ride office. I realized I was really going to have to raise $1,500 and I was really going to have to bike 300 miles. Concern was setting in. By now, people at St. Joan’s had heard that I was signed up. I was getting email from my newly assigned Rider Coach, Chuck Parsons. I was now on Team Oz. I was invited to several kick-off parties. Wheels were in motion…could not back out now.

In early April I began the first of many Saturday training rides that Team Oz sponsored. The first one was 15 miles. At this point, I don’t think I had been on a bike for at least a year. The first ride was challenging but not too bad. The other riders were very supportive and happy to see me trying. Maybe I could do it after all.

Every Saturday for over 3 months, I had to get my butt out of bed by 6:00, load up the bike and gear and ride. Nature did not cooperate. Almost every Saturday it rained and it was chilly and overcast. The second ride it just poured. Everyone was wet but spirits were high. Despite the weather, the same group of people came back for more every week-including I. Several of the rides were really tough. Big hills, more miles every week. But the Team support and camaraderie REALLY helped me stay motivated.

Experienced riders kept telling me you will be SO glad you are training. You will actually enjoy the Red Ribbon Ride. Remember: it’s a Ride, NOT a Race! People had plenty of helpful tips.

The fundraising took time but went much better then I expected. As the money was coming in, I realized I was going to make my goal. I discovered people are generally very happy to support an out-of-shape person who intends to bike 300 miles in JULY for a good cause!

In the meantime, I started commuting via bike to work and racking up those miles. I even took my bike on vacation in June. Lo and behold, I was really enjoying biking. I spent a fortune on clothes and gear. I spent so much time at Erik’s Bike Shop in Shoreview, the staff got to know me by name. They joked I should just start working there to get the staff discount!

The week before the Ride, I started getting nervous. Could I really do it? What if I couldn’t? A few days before the Ride I resigned myself to just doing the best I could. I was as ready physically as I was going to be. I had learned by now that plenty of people would be there to help if I had trouble.

Then it was 5:00 a.m. on Thursday July 14th and my Dad arrived at my house to take me to the Mall of America. I was FAIRLY calm. At 6:30 off we went from the Mall. I was glad I had learned how to safely ride in a pack of bikers thanks to the Saturday rides.

4 days on the bike. I’m not the fastest rider so I was in the saddle about 10 hours each day. But, I had no injuries. I hydrated and peed like I was supposed to (you will never have so many strangers asking you when was the last time you peed as you will on a Ride!). Applied LOTS of butt balm. And you know what? I LOVED IT!!! So much that I intend to ride again next year.

Did I have any problems? Oh yeah, see the next paragraph…

The 1st day I was in “the zone” and missed a turn in Hastings. I went into downtown Hastings, realized I goofed, and turned around. Then, I got to go up a BIG hill to get back on the route. Fortunately, we did that hill during a training ride so I was familiar with it! I had to pee really bad on the 5th leg of Day 1 so I parked the bike and went off into some trees. Fortunately, there was no poison ivy! I had some bike trouble on the 2nd day but the bike techs fixed me up. The hills on the 2nd day were long, steep and seemingly never-ending! A dog chased me for about ¼ mile. The 3rd day it was extremely hot and we were out on a county road with absolutely no shade. My feet swell up when they get hot and they were bloating and hurting. I was thinking of sweeping out when along came a sweep wagon. The sweep (manned by SJA’s own Jim Cassidy and Pat Harvey) gave me more water. This simple boost charged me up enough to finish the leg. The next Pit had a soaking pool setup. I sat down and soaked my feet for awhile. I was able to finish each day.

Everyone was wonderful. People of all fitness levels, shapes, sizes, backgrounds coming together, helping each other.

Highlights for me:

• Completing the first day!
• Hearing Dick Voss calling me into the Dairy Queen in Lake City(below) on Day 1 for an informal group pit stop.
• Falling into my tent at night for a deep sleep.
• The massage every evening
• Excellent food! Gee, I did not realize this was an all-inclusive trip. Where’s the guy with my margarita?
• The plastic pools at camp where I soaked my feet every evening
• The head dunk in the Pits on those hot days
• Rick Spaulding’s Mom and Grandma on Day 3. After years of reading about them, I met them and I got a rice krispie bar and a note!
• Roscoe Town Hall
• Seeing Echo Thoren at Pit 2 every day. She’s as crazy as she’s been telling me all these years!
• Last Big Hill group on Day 3. I made it up the hill to get away from that music!
• The scenery on Day 2 while climbing out of Lake City. The mist on Lake Pepin. I wish someone on the trip had some bagpipes. Wouldn’t that be cool?
• The farm country and the corn fields on Day 3
• Singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning” with the red tutu riders on Day 3
• Talent night. Wow
• Chipotle’s Rolling Burrito. It was a blessed site on Day 3. Rising up out of the shimmering heat on that baking highway into Faribault.
• Motorcycle sweep Ken (Paul Lipetsky’s brother, right) permanent grin (same as his bro’s).
• Jim Cassidy and Pat Harvey’s sweep vehicle between Pits 2 and 3. As a rider, Jim always knew right where to be. There he was at the top of the bad hills with his cookie tray and squirt gun. Pat banging that tambourine and leaning out the window. Despite rumors to the contrary, disco never died!
• Laughing A LOT!
• Surprising Becky Rose on Day 4 by coming up behind HER for a change: “Once there was a little old ant…”
• Remembrance Ceremony on Day 3. I cried.
• Seeing my Dad in the crowd at Closing Ceremonies. He was just beaming and he gave me a big thumbs-up!
• Complete stranger, and fellow rider coming up to me after the Ride shaking my hand and saying: “I just want you to know I think you did a phenomenal job.”
• The feeling of knowing I did it and I want to do it again.
• If any of the above is cryptic then you should’ve been there!

Janice LaDuke was baptized at St. Joan of Arc but her parents left St. Joan's in the early 70's and went to a "less radical" Catholic church instead. She's very glad to have found her way back to St. Joan's in 1994!! Janice is a librarian by profession and has been working in the library of a healthcare consulting firm since 1997. In her spare time, she enjoys listening to all kinds of music and working on her home near Como Lake in St. Paul. Janice is also Echo Thoren's assistant every Sunday at the 11:00 a.m. service.

If you want to do the Red Ribbon Ride next year and I hope you do, I cannot emphasize enough how much the Training Rides helped me get ready and enjoy it. See you next year!

Rick Spaulding is a photographer specializing in digital photography for the theater and works for National Camera Exchange. He is also an antique dealer and eBay afficianado who enjoys collecting marbles but his true joys in life are his two boys and his beautiful wife, Tinia.