With 270 miles covered over three days – the distance of the Tri-State Trek can seem like a lot. But the Trek isn’t just for hardcore cyclists and endurance sports enthusiasts. It’s not even just for people who have put in hours and hours of training to prepare (although we would certainly recommend it). All it truly takes is some inspiration, and a commitment to support research to end ALS. Just ask Team Cookie’s captain, Molly Conners-Noe.
When Molly, who lost her mother to bulbar ALS in 2020, came to tour the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI) last year, it was about a month before the Tri-State Trek. As Terri Handler showed her around our Watertown lab, she mentioned that the Trek, our most import fundraiser, was coming up soon. At the time, Molly didn’t even own a bike she could ride outside. However, as she learned about the Trek and the essential research to end ALS at ALS TDI, she was inspired. She called up her sister and convinced her to join her in riding the 100-mile, one-day version of the 2021 Trek.
“I bought a bike two weeks before the Trek,” she remembers. “I had only ridden it outside twice with the clip-on shoes. I ride the peloton every day, but that's not the same. You don't experience the weather, the hills, the bugs in your face, and the sun.”
Despite being a new rider tackling a big challenge, Molly says she felt supported by the Trek team and volunteers.
“I never was without a water or Gatorade or a bar,” she says. “I was the last person in the whole Trek, so the Ride Marshal, Britney, stayed with me the whole time. She was so sweet and so patient. You'd always have somebody coming around in the van and you hear the cowbells coming and the cheering, and you just of wanted to keep going.”
Molly was able to finish 56 of the 100 miles of the ride – a long ride for any cyclist, but particularly impressive for a beginner. In 2022, she’ll be back, and she’s shooting for the full 270 miles. While the challenge is something that she’s excited to tackle again, it was the event around the ride – and the people she met – that are the biggest factors drawing her back.
“It's the camaraderie of it and like meeting people who know what you've gone through [that made me want to come back]” she says. “It's a like a big group therapy session of meeting other people who are either experiencing it now or who have experienced it.”
For the 2022 Trek, which celebrates its 20th ride this year, Molly and her sister are putting together a team named Team Cookie in honor of the name her mother’s grandchildren called her. By her side will be members of her family, coworkers, and friends, as well as the person who brought her into the Trek family last year – Terri Handler, who retired from ALS TDI in 2021 but will be returning as a Trek rider. Molly is now hard at work, starting her training much earlier than last year, and working to spread the word about ALS TDI’s research and raise funds.
“When I'm fundraising, I tell the story of what happened with my mom, and how underfunded ALS research really is,” she says. “I wanted to also throw my support behind an organization like this, where the money is actually going to the science and into finding a treatment. It’s almost like a therapy for me, to avenge her death in a way. I see my fundraising as that something like a tribute to my mom.”
If you’d like to join Molly, Team Cookie, and the rest of the Tri-State Trek Family for this year’s ride from June 24-26, you can sign up here. According to Molly, you shouldn’t be intimidated – even if you’re far from an expert cyclist or big-time fundraiser.
“My advice to would be, don't be intimidated by the 270 miles because you always are going to be supported,” she says. “In terms of the fundraising side, just get organized and start reaching out to friends and family and small donations. If you, you know you're worried about asking people for money, just kind of start small. It's a kind of a numbers game. If you can get 200 people donating even smaller amounts, it makes a difference.”
In addition to the in-person ride, this year there are options to ride virtually or to participate by performing the activity of your choice. To learn more about the Tri-State Trek, how it benefits ALS research at ALS TDI, and how you can participate, click here.
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