A gang of bikers, mostly female, has been tearing up the trails around Vienna for the last few months. About 12 local women and a few local men are training themselves in preparation for a 90-mile ride, from JFK Library in Boston to the Kennedy Compound on Cape Cod. The ride, set for May 20, is Volvo's Hyannis Port Challenge, held to raise money for Best Buddies, an international organization that works to establish friendships between volunteers and those with intellectual disabilities.
The local riders are not Olympic athletes.
"When we first started, a lot of us didn't even own a bike," said Debbie Casey, a member of Team Best Buddies Virginia.
She described one woman on the team showing up to their first ride with her daughter's bike, which was too small, wearing a helmet "that looked kind of like an Army helmet." Now, said Casey, that same team member could pass for "Mrs. Lance Armstrong."
Most of the women are between 45 and 55 years old. Casey said the amount of time it takes to train may be one reason the group is primarily made up of women, noting that at least half are stay-at-home mothers.
"One is between jobs right now, and she doesn't have time to get a job," she said. "I'm not sure if her husband understands that she's too busy training."
Casey said a girlfriend of hers talked her into participating in the ride, which concludes with a lobster bake and a concert by the Go-Go's. "What I heard was like, 'A weekend in Boston, a party at the Kennedy Compound,'" she said.
THE EFFORT has turned out to be a lot more than that. Team members have been training for at least 12 hours a week, said Casey, with most of them taking three or so 20-mile trips individually and then meeting up to make longer treks on the weekends. They started out with 10-mile trips, "and we thought we were going to die," she said.
She also noted that unfamiliarity with pedal clips has resulted in several skinned knees and at least one chipped tooth. However, she said, no one has bailed out. She pointed out that, upon registering, each team member had agreed to raise $1,700 in sponsorships, "so we had to tell a lot of people we were doing this.
Last weekend, Team Best Buddies Virginia went to Bethany Beach to make a 72-mile ride — their longest yet. They are also currently the highest-earning of the 46 registered teams, with more than $35,000 pledged — almost $10,000 more than the second-ranked team — and they are still fund-raising.
"None of us knew what we were doing," said Susan Garvey, state director for the Best Buddies program in Virginia and member of the bike team. So, when they were first starting, she contacted Aziz Elhallou, the winner of last year's Hyannis Port ride, and asked him to coach the team. Since then, she said, he has been teaching them when to shift gears, how to ride each other's drafts and other tricks of the trade. "He's been awesome," said Garvey.
She also noted that all of the team members are crosstraining, getting regular exercise from tennis, running or other activities.
However, she said, her team will not be riding to win. "Our goal is to finish in a reasonable time, but we're not racing," she said. "We hope to be done in about seven hours."
The money they raise in the process will be put toward programs so that Best Buddies Virginia can expand throughout the state.
"IT'S UNGODLY HARD," Tana Leasure said of the training.
"We were kind of kidding around at the beginning, saying, 'This is going to be a journey.' You know, it sounded Oprah-esque," said Leasure, who sits on Virginia's Best Buddies advisory board.
She said the most difficult part of the training has not been the physical aspect, but the mental. "It's that voice that keeps saying, 'What are you doing? You're 50 years old. It's too hot. Pull over. You have to go home and fix dinner.'" She said they dealt with such despair by "spinning out" — continuing to ride while they encouraged each other.
In spite of the encouragement, "up until we could do 50 miles, I still didn't think we could do it," she said.
In addition to being a Best Buddies board member, Leasure has a child who participates in the program. Her daughter, Maddie, a freshman at Marshall High School, has an intellectual disability and is buddied with the school's Best Buddies president.
Every Wednesday, she said, participants from general education and special education meet at lunchtime to eat and play games or other activities. They also meet outside of school for recreation like movies, football games and bowling. The general education students also call their buddies at least once a week.
Leasure pointed out that generally, children with disabilities do not have a core group of friends, do not get invited out and do not get phone calls. "And as they get older, their world gets smaller," she said, adding that Best Buddies "addresses exactly what individuals with disabilities need. They need connections."
Garvey said the program operates on the middle school, high school and college levels, pairing volunteers with intellectually disabled individuals around the same age. In middle and high school buddies attend the same school.
From her experience, she said, the general-ed students learn more from the program that the special-ed participants. "That's who's been surprised the most," she said.
Nonetheless, Garvey said her "favorite thing I've heard from a parent thus far was that, for the first time, the phone rang for their child and it was a friend."
Pam Herbert's son, Brian, a sophomore at Marshall, is a volunteer in the program. "In all honesty, his first thought was, 'Well, this will look good on my college resume,'" said Herbert, also a member of Team Virginia. However, she said, he has found it to be a transforming experience.
"He says it made him more mature as a person, and he realizes these kids are just people," she said, adding that her son knows he makes a substantial difference in somebody's life. Brian's buddy, Jack, looks up to him unquestioningly, she said. "If Brian crosses his legs, Jack crosses his legs. If Brian takes a step forward, Jack takes a step forward."
Herbert said her son plans to go on outings with his buddy over the summer. "He realizes it's a friendship that goes beyond school walls," she said.
AFTER THE RIDE from Boston, said Leasure, she and her teammates plan to continue riding at least twice a week, although they had once joked that all of the bikes would be on e-Bay the day after the race. "We all swear we'll never go back to the fitness level we were at before," she said.
The experience corresponds to the organization for which it raises money, said Leasure. "It's about overcoming odds, challenging yourself, and friendship and support — everything that Best Buddies stands for."