Using Bracelets to Raise Awareness for ALS

ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a neurodegenerative disease that causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. It is more popularly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease after the famous New York Yankee. It is a pretty nasty disease where you slowly lose the ability to walk, eat, and breathe. ALS has no cure and the treatment during the end stages of the disease involve supportive care, feeding tubes, wheel chairs, and breathing support.

What does ALS have to do with riding 330 miles thru the French Alps? Well, when I ride, I usually am alone. Just peddling along by myself. I have a lot of time to think. I found myself thinking today of my mother, Kathy. She died three and a half years ago of ALS. She was a great mom and I miss her a lot.

She would have loved the idea of me riding in this event. She would have thought me nuts at 47 years old to try and subject myself to the training and everything leading up to the ride but she would have been proud of me and she would have talked to all of her friends and bragged about her youngest son. She liked to brag about all her kids, but I like to think that Mom loved me more than my brothers and sister. I like to think that she bragged about me more than them. She probably didn’t but it makes me feel better to think she did. Anyway, for some reason I just couldn’t stop thinking about her on my ride today.

Remember the little yellow rubber bracelets that Lance Armstrong made so popular? Well the ALS association makes a red rubber bracelet in support of and in memory of people with ALS. Our family got involved with the ALSA and started wearing their red bracelets. After Mom died, it became increasingly more difficult to wear mine for very long because I found myself thinking about how much I missed her all the time. I got so melancholy that I just had to stop wearing it. Dad and one of my brothers and his family still wear theirs and sometimes I feel a little guilty for not wearing mine but I just can’t.

Thinking about Mom on the ride today made me think I needed to wear that little red bracelet on the ride up and down the Alps. She would have liked that and I think just imagining her bragging about me might help me make it up and over the Col du Galibier, the tallest and toughest climb of the trip. What kid doesn’t do better when he knows his Mom is out there bragging about him. Heck, even us 47 year old kids need a little braggin’ on us every once in a while.

Original article can be here.