Late last year Heather told me she wanted to do a reunion ride. I doubled over with joy. We haven’t ridden together since 2013. We registered as soon as we could at the turn of the year. It got even better when Heather’s long-time friend Katie signed up too. Then Katie’s friend and co-worker signed up. Heather is sort of like that (and I suppose we all are in a way). One action is contagious, and leads to a train of actions behind it. Speaking of contagious….
You know where I am going with this. We started tracking Coronavirus overseas in shortly after we registered for the ride. B asked me if I thought it was going to impact us. I thought not. I was wrong. That second week in March Washington state shut down. Heather, in Colorado, didn’t face a shut down until a few weeks later, but she called it right then and there. She said Bike MS would be canceled. I disagreed. Bike MS was so many months away. I thought we’d have it under control by then. A few months passed, infection rates continued to rise, and Heather wondered why ride still wasn’t canceled. We heard nothing, but I assumed the ride had to be going to some other format rather than cancel altogether. Bike MS is the biggest charity ride in North America and the main source of the MS Society’s funds. The whole world is under great stress, half the nation is unemployed, and I’m sure few are thinking about giving to the MS Society. As an autoimmune disease, people with MS are at a high risk or complications or death from COVID-19. So many people are having long-term complications, I can’t imagine people with MS living with one more symptom. We still needed to contribute. Turns out I was right about something. Bike MS went 100% virtual.
Bike MS had virtual riders before; that label went to people who wanted to support the ride, but couldn’t actually ride the course. I’ve known some people who have done this, riders who got injured before the ride, riders with MS who had an exacerbation, and non-riding spouses who just wanted to be part of the action.
I didn’t really get the point of it at first. It didn’t feel very exciting. I didn’t get to go to Colorado and ride with my friend. There seemed no point in riding at all. What for? I could collect donations and not pedal once, and no one would know. Heather lost all interest too. I didn’t even bother asking for donations. I stopped riding entirely.
The the Colorado MS chapter held a Team Captain rally online using the remote meeting platform, Go To Meeting. I signed on. Why not? I was sitting at my desk for work anyway. I participated in meetings like this now every day. I joined a small group of ragamuffins, team captains just like me. Some people didn’t know how to use their computers very well, many didn’t have cameras on, but MS employees was there, and one guy showed up riding his bike on his indoor trainer, sweat towel and all. They started talking about the virtual concept and how we’d all be connected through social media. The ride dropped its minimums, encouraged everyone to take part, and shared ways they would make is fun for us. They published printable bib numbers and photo props on their website. They challenged us to do all sorts of things online. They brought a whole lot of enthusiasm (it was happy hour after all). Enthusiasm crept up inside me like it always does around ride time. I contacted Heather. Proving that enthusiasm goes both ways, she talked about doing the ride with her friends over the course of the month. They planned to quarantine so they could get close along the ride and even planned out friends they could visit who had yards they could eat outside picnics at. I decided to do the same, but over a week. I planned for 150 miles in 5 days. I hadn’t been riding hardly at all, but I could do that.
A few weeks later the Team Captains had another meeting to firm up our plans and share all the neat things teams were doing; how they were fundraising and how they were going to ride. Riders would go out and serenade neighbors who donated, or in one case, serenade the neighborhood until someone donated. People did crafts and made team face masks just like team jerseys.
It took a little longer for me to actually start riding than I planned, but once I got it together, there was no stopping me.