Mon July 20 2009 |
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Steve Bieringer |
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Written by Steve Bieringer
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My Red Rider Story
“You know you don’t own a bike” was Jan’s, my wife, response nine years ago when I told her I had decided to mark the one year anniversary of heart surgery- a quadruple by-pass- by riding the twenty-five mile course in the 2001 American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure. Not only did I not own a bike but could only recall riding once in the previous thirty-five years.
While I had always exercised, the heart surgery- more the result of a family history than thirty-three years of complication free diabetes- had moved daily exercise to the top of my priority list. So after the surgery I followed the doc’s orders and participated in a three month cardiac rehab exercise program and then began a five or six day a week exercise regime. But after three months boredom set in, a reason of course that many people stop exercising. A goal other than going to the gym every day was needed. It came in the form of the Tour de Cure, coincidentally scheduled for the anniversary week of the surgery.
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Read more... [Steve Bieringer]
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Thu July 02 2009 |
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Bob Avritt |
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 Bob Avritt, Team Type 2
I grew up in a southern household. Born in Texas, but grew up in Montana. We lived on a steady diet of fried foods. My grandmother kept us well fed. Breakfast of eggs, bacon, and southern fried potatoes. Lunch was fried potato sandwiches. Dinner would be steak and potatoes.
By the time I was in the 7th grade, I was already well over 200lbs and wore a 42" waist pant. Yep, I was the fat kid. The kid that everyone made fun of. Teased relentlessly. Funny how this torment can shape your self-worth so many years later... My teen years were the most difficult. P.E. and swimming class in school! SWIMMING CLASS! I was terrified! And, as it turns out, I was right! There were 3 girls in my swim class that made my life a living hell. I don't recall their names now. Their names do not matter. I took my anger and frustrations out on myself. I mean, they had to be right. I was just fat and lazy... It was my fault. My flaw...
I turned to drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and food. Mostly destructive relationships that were driven by the need to be accepted by whomever would have such low standards as to be interested in me. I was kicked out of high school my junior year which gave me entirely too much time on my hands. Wish I could say I used that time constructively. If I did, I'd be lying.
I won't detail what hitting bottom was for me as far as the drugs and alcohol goes. Some things are just better left in the past.
Life went on. I had two great kids with my common law wife, Patty H. Mya and R.J. ROCK! We divorced and they all moved to North Dakota. So, of course I used food to medicate the completely empty feeling of not having my kids around. It was all I could do to stay away from the booze. Stay away from the drugs. Food was a far lesser evil. This is the time frame when I got up to my heaviest. I saw ~340lbs.
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Read more... [Bob Avritt]
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Wed March 25 2009 |
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Why I Am Here |
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 I've been a cyclist my entire life. I did my first major bicycle touring when I was 15. I sold my first car to buy a fancy road bike before I went to college. I went to CU and did a bunch of seriously stupid cycling things during school like riding up Flagstaff mountain every morning before class and hauling camping gear, beer and ice to Rocky Mountain National Park on the weekends on our bikes.
My wife Jan and I might have had a bike touring honeymoon but we got married in January, so we skied during our honeymoon and went bike touring the next Fall. I bike-commuted to work most days through the 1990s and we dabbled in mountain biking some weekends.
Then in 2000, I started getting sick and was diagnosed on June 6, 2001 with what was then called Late Onset Type 1, now called Latent Auto-immune Diabetes of Adults (LADA.) I don't think I rode 500 miles total in the first five years after diagnosis, mostly due to peripheral neuropathy and a good helping of apathy. During those years, I used the ADA as an educational resource and made monetary contributions but not much else. In 2005, I forced the bike issue by buying a new mountain bike but still didn't ride regularly. I also attended my first ADA Expo that year and picked up a Tour brochure. In 2006, I got back into cycling, at least to work a couple of days a week.
In 2007, I picked the Tour de Cure to be my way of getting back to something that had always been a part of my life before diabetes. My original goal was "simply" to ride the century, I didn't care how much I raised, I just wanted to ride. Reality hit hard after the first month of training rides and after I adjusted my priorities, I decided that I could do more for the cure than just attempt a 100 mile ride. Jan and I formed a Tour team and raised over $6000 in about thirty days. Not that my team effort was easy. It was an emotional roller coaster. I edited, re-edited, re-re-edited my fund raising e-mail messages and then would agonize over everything. At this point, I told my wife that I would really like to stop crying every time I sent or received e-mail. The outpouring of support and contributions from our families, friends and coworkers was truly unbelievable.
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Read more... [Why I Am Here]
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