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| Ride to Defeat ALS |
Mazzetti, a construction and engineering firm from San Francisco, California has been organizing a company team for a couple of years to support the "Ride to Defeat ALS" in Napa Valley, California. Mazzetti started participating in the ride on behalf of a good client's husband with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease). This year my husband, Jesse and his best friend, Nathan will be part of Team Mazzetti on The ALS Association, 9th Annual Ride to Defeat ALS on September 28, 2013.
"Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive neurodegenerative diseases that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degenerative of the motor neurons in ALS evenutally leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed." ("What Is ALS?" The ALS Association. N.p., 2010.Web. 08 Sept. 2013 http://www.alsa.org/about-als/what-is-als.html)
Jesse Avery - Mazzetti
Since 2007, Jesse has been riding recreationally, mostly short rides with occasional longer rides around the San Francisco East Bay. He started riding more frequently to and from work across the Bay to Stanford University in 2011.
As of a couple of months ago, we decided to add road cycling to our outdoor family activities and Jesse is now towing our two toddlers on our family rides as well as training on longer rides with Nate. This will be Jesse's first century ride (100 miles), in fact when he decided to join Team Mazzetti he had never done more than 50 miles in a day. Jesse is very excited to be riding in his first century ride for ALS.
Nathan (Nate) Rische - FedEx
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| Photo Courtesy of Nate Rische |
A late bloomer in a family of cyclists, Nate finally jumped in the world of cycling about two years ago when his car broke down for extended mechanical issues. He borrowed a bike to ride to work, and then walked down to the local bike shop and spent more money than he planned for his own bike. He rode to work, then began riding on the weekends for fun, and then his rides kept getting longer and longer. This will be Nate's first official century, a previous attempt was thwarted by a mechanical failure on his bike. You can follow Nate's adventures and writings at In the Absence of Something Substantial.
Fundraising - Ride to Defeat ALS
Jesse and Nate are trying to raise $500 each (a total of $1,000) for Ride to Defeat ALS. Donations go to The ALS Assocation which helps patient programs to research for ALS. For more information in regards to donations please click here.
To donate on behalf of Jesse please visit Jesse's Participant Page.
To donate on behalf of Nate, please visit Nate's Participant Page.
Personally, I'm really proud and excited for my husband and our good friend Nate. Jesse and Nate have been riding together for almost two years now without a particular ride or cause in mind but when Jesse received an email at work about joining Ride to Defeat ALS, Jesse jumped right in as well extending the invitation to Nate. They've been training hard these last few weeks even with hectic work and life schedules.
Thanks guys for riding to defeat ALS!
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