Cyclists ride 100 miles for charity

POTSDAM — This is not your average bike ride.

There will be no sightseeing and there is no destination. It's a 100-mile loop around the Clarkson University campus.

But it's for a good cause: to raise money for Lance Armstrong's Livestrong cancer research foundation.

"It's stupid and physical and ridiculous and that's the point," said Douglas G. Bohl, an assistant professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering. "It's going to be boring, it's going to be a grind, but it's nothing compared to what people with cancer are going through."

Mr. Bohl and two of his colleagues completed 72 laps around the Clarkson campus as part of a worldwide fundraiser, 100 Miles of Nowhere.

The event was begun two years ago by a blogger, the Fat Cyclist, after his wife died of breast cancer. He started his blog, which has been featured in cycling magazines, several years ago as a way to shame himself into getting into shape. When his wife got sick, he started cycling to benefit cancer research, Mr. Bohl said.

This year, teams in Australia, England and across the U.S. are signed up to participate, approximately 500 people in all.

"It's just taken off and the guy has been raising tons of money for cancer," said Lorraine D. Harper, an administrative secretary at Clarkson. " We decided to do it at Clarkson because we're all Clarkson people."

The riders raised $1,650 by Friday, when they did the ride in spite of the chilly and sometimes rainy weather. More pledges still may come in the mail, they said. The team's goal was to raise $1,500.

A 100-mile ride is not for the fainthearted, and all three have been cycling seriously for years. None had ever done that many miles in one trip, though they did ride from Lake Placid to Potsdam last summer, a distance of about 80 miles.

"Your butt will definitely be tired after 100 miles," said Ms. Harper, one of the three on "Team Fatty." "We do a lot of cycling. We do regular 30-mile rides all the time after work."

The ride was broken into 25-mile chunks, so the trio could take short breaks to eat and stretch.

Over the course of the ride, other bikers came out to keep them company, though none did the entire ride with them.

Mr. Bohl came across the Fat Cyclist blog in a cycling magazine and has been reading it ever since. The ride has taken on a special resonance with the team, according to Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations Jennifer E. Clarke, after the university's board chairman, Everett G. Foster, died of cancer in February.

"We thought it was a pretty neat idea, as far as getting attention," Ms. Clarke said. "I don't think any of us don't know someone we've lost to cancer."