On June 26th, Team Dog Tire-d mounted up and rode from Westminster to Ft. Collins with 9 of the 12 members of the team able to ride (son Chris had too much on his plate to train, but supported the team at the end of day 2 with a vehicle and hugs from grandson, Jason His funds raised still went to the team, so his impact fighting MS carried on).
The first day was under cloud cover for about 3 hours, which made the ride ideal. Going north was definitely the easier of the two directions, so the entire team arrived at the finish line by 2:00 p.m, where son, Christopher, and grandson, Jason, met us and our team re-united. Day two, we started our climb out of Ft. Collins at 6:00 a.m. to try and beat the heat, and scaled the hills of Horsetooth when it was still pretty cool. The day, though, heated up and as we rode the numerous hills returning to Westminster. The temperature rose to 94 degrees, and the firemen that turned on their hose to help cool us down were my vote for the best incentive to keep on riding we received. They had changed the route a bit from last year with more hills but less traffic, a fair trade.
This year, there were many more people riding who had multiple sclerosis – which in itself was a testament to the increased success of drug treatments for some people afflicted. One man I followed was wearing a sign that said he was riding “For his fantastic wife, Heidi” who had MS. Every day, 200 people in the United States are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and their lives from then on are changed. You have just helped 11,000 Colorado and Wyoming residents living with the disease, and our $10,000 raised by the team could be used for 100 bathroom safety grab bars, 20 air conditioning window units, or two months of post doctoral fellowship training for a future MS researcher or physician. Congratulations on making a big difference in so many people’s lives.
Thanks for your generosity in helping our team and all those with MS whose lives will improve.
