Special
Events - Kathleen Richardson's PH Awareness Month Bike Ride Across Florida
Kathleen Richardson starts off in Daytona...
...sporting a specially made PH Awareness Month
Biker Jersey
Friday morning, the Day after Thanksgiving, we
started our bike ride across Florida. My husband and I had been
planning and preparing for this ride for 6 months (if you count
thinking about it...it was really 2 years!). Our neighbors, Kathy
and Mike, volunteered to drive us up to Daytona Beach (a 1 1/2 hour
drive from our house in Ocoee). We arrived in Daytona at around
9:30am and the city was filled with cars and pedestrians. There
was a car show at the race way and a mall directly across from the
race way filled with people trying to get their holiday shopping
under way! As soon as we parked at the beach, we unloaded the bikes
and I kicked off my shoes and walked down to the water. Jody decided
to carry my bicycle down so as not to get sand or salt in the gears.
We took pictures in the water and then made sure we had all of our
necessities in Jody's back pack. I had my heart monitor strapped
to my chest and the wrist part on my wrist. I used the heart monitor
to make sure I kept my heart rate between 115 and 121 beats per
minute. I had been advised by the "exercise guys" at Columbia
Presbyterian to keep my heart rate in that range so that I would
be exercising my heart muscles, but not over doing it and doing
more harm than good. We had 3 extra tire tubes for my bike and one
for Jody’s (he rode a hybrid that has thicker tires so less
chance of flats. I rode a road bike {Dolce Specialized} with thinner
tires and a definite susceptibility to flat tires!) We also brought
a few CO2 cartridges to blow up tires (much smaller than a bike
pump), some tools, a bunch of energy bars, packets of energy drink
powders, clothes to wear at night (one pair of pants and a shirt)
tissues and a little money. The pack was small and so we traveled
"light". Jody weighed the pack....18 lbs! Oh...of course
we had water bottles! Once we were sure we had all that we needed,
we started heading west (It was about 10:00am when we headed out)!
Most of the riding we did while preparing for the trip was on a
bike trail not far from where we live. I'm thankful that we had
decided to do a little bit of riding on the roads near our house
in preparation for the ride as it's really a completely different
experience to share the road with cars and trucks and buses. As
I mentioned earlier, there were tons of people in Daytona the first
day of our ride...so there was tons of traffic. The first hill to
conquer (and really the longest and steepest) was the bridge going
over the Inter-coastal Waterway. It can sometimes be a bit of a
challenge to keep my heart rate at 121 (actually gets up to 123
and even as high as 127) going up a hill. I have to take them very
slowly. Thanks to all the advances in bicycles, the gears on my
bike can really enable me to get up hills without having to get
off and walk...just have to work on keeping upright going that slow!
The fun part, though, is on the other side and sailing down hills
with the wind rushing by my ears and the feeling of speeding down
at 25 to 30 miles an hour!
After our first 25 miles (done mostly on a highway....flat as a
pancake, newly paved...so very smooth...with a fairly wide shoulder)
we rode through the town of DeLand and stopped at a quaint cafe
called The Old House Cafe. We ate outside at a table next to a peaceful
water garden. The food was delicious and we got to have a short
conversation with our waitress about PH and our ride. After about
an hour of relaxing, we set out on our next leg of the journey...we
had another 19 miles to go to get to Sanford...our first day's destination.
I have to admit, starting out after lunch I felt a little crummy,
but riding for a few miles worked that out and the rest of the ride
went well....until just a few miles outside of Sanford. After stopping
at a car dealership to go to the bathroom, I realized something
didn't feel quite right and shouted back to Jody, "Hey Jody,
how do my tires look?" The reply, "You have a flat!"
Thanks to Mike at the Outspoken Bike Shop, we knew all we needed
to know about changing the tire (we're still newbies at this "serious"
biking thing) and had practiced some (I had to change one by myself
out on the trail near our house...so changing the tire really wasn't
a big problem, just a short delay along the way). We got back on
our way after about 20 minutes (guess that's slow, but we took time
looking for the culprit of the flat....3 tiny pieces of glass imbedded
in my tire) and made it to the Days Inn in Sanford by about 4:30
pm.
We showered and rested a bit before our friend Dr. Kandel came to
meet us for dinner. He lives in Longwood, not far from Sanford,
and wanted to meet us and treat us to dinner. He showed up at around
6pm and drove us out to the Olive Garden. We also met Jim and Elaine
(friends from church) and had a great dinner together! Sleep was
sporadic that night, but felt rested by morning and ready to go!
Steve and Diane (friends we had met at church, but also have done
lots of bike riding and roller blading with) met us for breakfast
the next morning and sent us off on our second day! I don't remember
much about the first ride of Day 2. I do remember it was pretty
cool to begin with (as were all the mornings) and we rode through
bear country on the way to Mt. Dora! The traffic was minimal on
the roads. We passed by several bear crossing signs and an area
where they built high chain link fences with barbed wire on the
top to keep the bears from crossing the road. I was really hoping
to see a bear somewhere along the journey and thought maybe we would
see one as we went through "bear country" but we never
did see one!
We made it in to Mt Dora ahead of schedule as it was only 16 miles
from Sanford rather than the 20 that Jody had calculated. We stopped
at a gas station to ask for directions to Edwardo's so we could
meet Velvet. Velvet is a fellow PH patient. She was recently diagnosed
with PH and saw a blurb about our bike ride on the PHA website.
She noticed that we were going through Mt. Dora and called me up
and asked if we could meet for lunch (she lives just 10 minutes
from Mt. Dora). It was a delight to meet her! We enjoyed talking
over a scrumptious meal at Edwardo's. After Velvet left, Jody and
I walked around Mt. Dora a little. It's one of my favorite towns
in Florida. It's a little town with lots of character, interesting
shops, and many yummy places to eat! We cut our strolling short
when we noticed how windy it was getting and how dark the clouds
to the west were looking. Setting out from Mt. Dora we battled some
strong head winds and a really bumpy little road right next to Lake
Dora. By the time we got to 19, the wind had calmed down (probably
because we weren't right next to the lake any more) and the pavement
was much smoother....so the ride was easier and more pleasant! The
challenge of highway 19 was that there was no real shoulder and
the vehicles went by at a pretty good clip. I did a lot of praying
while we were on highway 19.
The clouds that we saw while we were in Mt. Dora did spit at us
just a little bit, but held off really raining until after we reached
the final destination of the second day...The Mission Inn Resort.
Twenty minutes after we settled in, the rain began to pour! I think
it rained on and off through much of the evening and night. We washed
our clothes in the sink (thinking we would save some money) and
hung them up to dry. They never did get dry so we had to use the
coin operated drier the next morning. A lesson learned. A friend
of ours from church, Betzi, drove out to meet us for dinner. She
lives just a little ways from Howie-in-the-Hills. We went to Applebees
and had a great meal and fun conversation.
Day 3 started off wonderfully and only got better as the day went
on! It was a cool, sunny morning. As we left the Mission Inn, a
cyclist came up so we asked him to take our picture in front of
the Mission Inn sign. After the picture taking session, we set off
for another day's adventure! We were in Howie-in-the-Hills...so
the terrain was a little more varied, gently rolling hills. After
a few hills and a couple of miles, we came upon the Yalaha Bakery!
It's out in the middle of nowhere....in a town called Yalaha. We
had been told that it was a great place to eat. We'd just had breakfast
not too long before, but wanted to stop anyway. WE rode in through
the parking lot and around back and found about 20 bikes and as
many cyclists hanging out eating sweets! How cool is that? The cyclists
were mostly from the Orlando Road Club. They ride in the area every
weekend...and we hit their favorite pit stop at just the right time!
We got a "to-die-for" chocolate chip cookie and struck
up a few different conversations with fellow cyclists. We had a
few brochures about our ride and PH and gave them out to a few people.
They were very encouraging! I wish I had thought to take a picture
of the bunch, but didn't think of it until after we had left.
The ride on the third day was an absolute delight! We were way out
in the country, the temp. was just perfect, the sun was out, but
sometimes behind the clouds making it a really pleasant day. We
rode by farm after farm on a country road with no shoulders (but
the traffic was so minimal that it didn't matter!). At one point
we were riding by some cows that just couldn't keep their eyes off
of us! I wondered aloud if they had ever seen a cyclist before!
We stopped and took pictures of the cows...such a peaceful, pastoral
scene that I couldn't pass it up! We also passed by many barking
dogs... but they were all fenced in...so...no problem! We ate lunch
in Webster....meatloaf, sweet potato soufflé, salad...yummmm!
Toward the end of the day we rode through a state forest area..
again hoping to see a bear or maybe a great big snake....but never
saw one. As I remember...we did see a bunch of turkeys on Day 2...
gave them quite a scare… and we saw two bald eagles...so we
did see some wildlife!) We made it to the Days Inn in Brookesville
just a little ahead of schedule and set into our routine of getting
the clothes washed, resting and then heading out to dinner. We were
on our own for dinner so walked to the Cracker Barrel not far from
the hotel.
Day 4 came quickly and both of us were full of energy and zeal to
get to the "finish line"! We rode along highway 50 all
the way...wide shoulder, smooth pavement...and must have been down
hill almost all the way as we really zoomed along! We stopped once
(pit stop and directions) at a 7 Eleven. While Jody was inside a
couple sitting in a car waved me over and asked about our ride!
They were very interested and told me they would pray for us!. The
very last stretch of the ride was in a fairly secluded area, narrow
road canopied with palms. After riding about 30 miles, we made it
to our destination...the west coast of Florida in Bayport! Jody's
dad and step-mother were there waiting for us! It was great to reach
the end and accomplish our goal of riding across the state! There
wasn't a beach where we ended up...there was a pier and a retaining
wall and rocks covered with barnacles...so I climbed down over the
wall (just a couple of feet) and carried my bicycle over a few of
the barnacle covered stones and touched the Gulf of Mexico with
my toe! We did it! To be honest, at that moment, I felt ready to
ride some more! We made a bunch of phone calls to let people know
we had finished the ride successfully and safely and then went to
lunch. After lunch is when the adrenaline wore off and I was ready
for a nap!
All along the way of preparing for this trip I had mixed feelings.
I really wanted to do the ride, believed I could, and yet also wondered
if I really could do it. It took months of preparing...building
up endurance, planning, praying. I sometimes found myself thinking
I was crazy for trying, but in the end I'm so glad I did. I do hope
and pray that by doing the ride we've increased awareness and raised
some money for PH research and hopefully encouraged people along
the way, but there was also just the personal accomplishment of
doing something that I thought I'd never be able to do once I was
diagnosed with PH. I am deeply grateful for all of the encouragement
I have had along the way from friends and family. I am deeply grateful
to the Lord for His constant presence and assurance of His love.
Friends Kath and Mike drop off Kathleen and her
husband Jody, who’s accompanying her on
the ride across Florida!
Kathleen pays tribute to her local Support Group
meeting place in Orlando!
Fellow PH patient Velvet meets up with Kathleen
for Lunch in Mt. Dora
Jody Richardson rests with their bikes on the
bridge over Lake Dora, on their way over Route
19 towards Howie-in-the-hills
A stop for a picture at Okahumka
The last stretch to Bayport
Jody’s dad and step-mom meet up to cheer
them on at Bayport
Kathleen and Jody at Bayport
Success! Kathleen touches the sea on the west
coast of Florida (the gulf of Bayport) after the
long 152-mile ride.
The
information provided on the PHA website is provided for general information
only. It is not intended as legal, medical or other professional
advice, and should not be relied upon as a substitute for consultations
with qualified professionals who are familiar with your individual
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