On May 1, Mercer Island resident Timm Fenton dipped his rear wheel in the Pacific Ocean, strapped on his helmet, mounted his bike, and began a remarkable solo 4,200-mile cross-country ride---all for a charity close to his heart.
After months of training, the 59-year-old cyclist left the Oregon coastal town of Florence headed east. For the next 67 days, he followed the classic TransAmerica bike route, climbing over 11,000 feet to cross the Continental Divide and passing through ten states before reaching his finishing line at Yorktown, Virginia in July.
Fenton’s trek was in honor of his mother Jan, who died in 2017 after a two-year struggle with ALS, the progressive neurodegenerative disease that has long resisted cure. The avid lifelong cyclist hoped during his ride to raise $50,000 for the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) in Massachusetts, the world’s first and largest nonprofit biotech focused solely on ALS research. As he said on one of his posts during his ride, “This is about reaching our goal and raising awareness to reduce and eventually prevent the suffering of those who have ALS.”
As Fenton told ALS TDI author Jonathan Gang, “The memories of my mother and the struggles she faced with ALS are constantly with me. What I'm embarking on requires a level of endurance…But when I think about my mother and what she endured…it was remarkable, the courage and bravery she faced it with.”
The upbeat Mercer Island man kept a blog, continually thanking those who supported his ride from start to finish, including his wife Kelly, his kids, and the Seattle bike shop Shots and Sprockets that loaned Fenton a high-tech bicycle owned by one of their former mechanics who’d passed away from ALS. Fenton’s posts and film clips documented the vast beauties of our country and recounted many acts of kindness from people he met along the way as well as encounters with everything from rain, windstorms and snow to heat advisories and bike-chasing dogs. You can check out clips at: als.net/PedalsVsALS
On July 11, Fenton dipped his front wheel in the Atlantic Ocean in Virginia, fifteen pounds lighter than when he started. As he said in a talk he gave to supporters at a stop in Montana, his mother’s spirit of grace and courage was with him on his adventure. As of mid-July, he had raised over $53,000 for ALS TDI.
As Timm said after his long trek, “Having completed the actual ride doesn't mean the fund-raising efforts stop. We still need to fund (or find) a cure." Donations to The Pedals Vs ALS fund to recognize Timm’s efforts can be made at: als.net/PedalsVsALS or sent to ALS TDI, 480 Arsenal Street, Suite 201, Watertown, MA 02472.
To learn more about Timm’s remarkable ride, check these links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1353617919041610
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLoF_EzBv1F/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Author note: Tim and Jan Gillespie are Oregon writers whose son Nate, who lives with his family in Seattle, was diagnosed with ALS two years ago.
“This is about raising awareness to prevent the suffering with ALS.”