Fanatical is the word that comes to mind when describing the ALS TDI Tri-State Trek. Well, not the event, but the people, yes the participants! But it doesn’t stop there, oh no, the cheer squad, oh boy, the cheer squad! Led by the incomparable Glynis Murray.

It starts very early in the morning, definitely before my usual wake up time. It starts at… who the hell wakes up to bike a hundred miles at this time, by choice even. I need a coffee just thinking about it.

Once the horn sounds though, and the cyclists take off, the energy and fanaticism is coursing through your veins like the coffee you’ve consumed to wake you. It can’t be helped, it’s contagious.

Allow me to set the scene…

… It’s overcast, a slight drizzle in the air, a glimmer of hope in everyone’s eyes. Hope because with every push of the peddle, every strained muscle used to propel forward, hope moves forward. Many of the cyclists have a very personal connection to ALS, having lost a loved one, or currently having a loved one battling. You hear it in the conversations and the countless reunions taking place among the veterans of the trek. The energy building as the cyclists gather behind the starting line. Three, Two, One! Off they go. Dozens of cyclists traversing across three states. Unimaginable to this Texas boy, 100 miles only gets you to the next major city in Texas. But I digress.

All of a sudden, the cyclists part as they leave, among them a solitary wheelchair, is it an aging Lance Armstrong, a confused pLWALS, no! It’s none other than the intrepid TJO! Does he have enough battery to finish the trek? Obviously not, he’s just being the typical goofball that he is….

The same scene plays out the next day, with the same energy and enthusiasm. In all, the cyclists will have completed 200 miles, and raised thousands of dollars in support of ALS TDI, all of it going to research, in the hopes of curing this horrible disease.

Having been Meg and I’s first time, I can honestly say we will definitely try to return, as long as I can. At the end of the race, after all participants have cleaned up and recovered from the arduous trek, I’m still recovering from watching them cycle, must be my ALS, LOL. An evening of awards ensues. Not awards for places, but more importantly for categories of years attended, not your typical trophies, more meaningful to me. This is followed by personal testimonials. At which time I shared in the way I tend to do, with humor.

In the end, you realize why the fanaticism. It’s love, yes love. Love of family, friends and of our fellow human. All of it in the pursuit of ending a condition that leaves its afflicted without hope, broken and desperate for life. This event has rolled into our lives and we have been smitten by the amount of support and love displayed by these fantastically fanatical fast pedaling tri-state trekkers.