2015 DEATH RIDE Tour VI...Ride To Defeat ALS

[Salt Peanuts]

A very good friend of mine, Jameson, is riding in Death Ride Tour in honor of a friend who is suffering from ALS.  Below is a message I received from Jameson.

 

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Hello to all. 

 

This year, we are doing two fundraiser bike rides.  Death Ride - a fundraiser for ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and Tour de Cure - the same diabetes fundraiser that we always do.

 

Why Death Ride?  One of my best friends has ALS.  He was one of the toughest guys I knew.  Five years ago, we were doing mountain centuries, and didn't think much of it.  Out of nowhere, he started complaining about cramping after long rides, and I started noticing that he was loosing power on steep climbs and wasn't recovering as quickly.  I asked him what was going on, and he said that he might be sick, but was a little vague.  He started riding with me less and less, and at the end of the summer, I noticed that the elastic leg grippers on his shorts were loose and flapping around his legs (MAJOR muscle loss).  I cornered him, and asked him what is going on, and he told me that they're pretty sure that he has ALS.

 

I obviously no longer ride with him, he now rides a little scooter around his house, but we are still friends.  He stumbled onto the site for this ride, forwarded it to me, and asked if I would do it in his honor.  

 

Being an active outdoorsy kind of guy was so much of his identity, he is still struggling with figuring out who he is.  If that was the guy biking with me many years ago, or the guy that just designed and built the chair lift in his back yard, he is still the toughest guy that I know.

 

If you care to donate to ALS research, please do so in his honor.  This one really means something to me.  Death Ride is 232 miles, 16,500 feet of elevation gain in SW Colorado, in the beginning of June.  

 

http://www.imathlete.com/donate/JamesonLudlam

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Any help to get Jameson reach his goal would be greatly appreciate it.   Thank you very much in advance.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Salt Peanuts

[skullguise]

Done.  Sad story.....wish him and his friend the best.

 

One of Andrew's classmate's dad passed from this disease, such a horrible thing.