The story started in 2000 when Terry Reszel went in for her mammogram. Terry explains it in her own words from their website pinkpedals4acure.org.

“It’s early in the year as I watch my cousin Cherry continue to battle breast cancer. I had just completed my annual mammogram screening when I got the first of many calls regarding my mammogram results. Asked to come back for an ultrasound, then a biopsy, due to something suspicious. After additional testing, I was told I had ‘dense fibrous tissue’ but there was no reason for alarm or concern.

Then tragic news, in 2001 my family and I learn of the passing of my cousin Cherry.  After battling breast cancer so courageously, Cherry succumbed to it on her 49th birthday.  I knew that she had postponed her mammograms for six years.  The fact that I’m here today to tell you my story is proof enough … Mammograms Save Lives!”

The process from 2000-2007 was without incident for Terry. She would go in for her yearly mammogram and everything was mostly normal until 2007. There was the need for another biopsy. Complications arose and the site of the biopsy was not healing properly. The biopsy discovered A-Typical cells, but they were deemed non-cancerous at that time.

2009 changed everything before they knew it. More ultrasounds and biopsies revealed cells with Lobular Carcinoma in Situ. The decision was made for Terry to have a double Mastectomy, but their surgeon convinced them to hold off because it was only a 1.5% chance of it becoming cancer.

“Nine months later, in August 2010, I found myself back at my doctor for my annual mammogram,” said Terry in the story on their website. “Again, I needed another ultrasound and biopsy. The wait for the test results was longer this time. I took the call at work. I heard the words no one wants to hear… ‘You’ve got Breast Cancer’.  I had gone from a 1.5% chance of getting breast cancer to 100% in only nine short months. How can that be?  Since the day of that call of learning my cancer diagnosis I don’t believe in ‘odds’ anymore.”

Despite all the unknown, fear, shock, anger and the rest of the emotions attached to a cancer diagnosis, Terry fought through everything and is a survivor with Al by her side.

Fast forward to 2016. Al decided to give a long bike ride a shot. A ride to raise money for cancer research, something he and Terry could do together to help others.

“Our first ride, we started in Afton Alps and rode to Geneva, Illinois, just over 500 miles. I’m a weekend rider, so I don’t know if I can ride 500 miles. I am not a guy that just missed the Olympic team,” laughed Al.

It turns out he could. He did so easily, and they raised some money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) in Manhattan, New York. That put the wheels in motion. Their next trip was coordinated more with the BCRF, who spoke about their researchers at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. They decided to go a little further, this time riding from Seattle to Rochester, 1700 miles.

Al typically rides around 90 miles a day on these trips. Terry is in the chase vehicle with supplies and doing the best she can to help plan for the days ahead. She will typically drive ahead and wait at the corner of the next route change or at a predetermined distance so Al can refill his Gatorade and grab a protein bar. While she waits, she works. Sometimes it is checking weather and planning the next day’s ride or updating social media, but mostly it is looking for lodging for the two of them. In the chase car, they have a plethora of supplies, spare bike parts like innertubes, chains and even tires.

“These tires typically only last around 2,500 miles, and they cost $80 a piece,” explained Al. “They are Continental tires; they are not cheap.”

So, depending on the trip he likely has six to eight tires and tubes with him. The worst breakage he experienced was when the shifting mechanism on the rear wheel broke and tore apart the rear rim, breaking the spokes. That happened on a causeway in Florida. He had to walk the bike a few blocks to the end of the causeway where Terry met him. They found a bike shop less than a mile from the emergency stop and they were there waiting when the owner arrived.

“He took us right in, he opened early. He could not believe he had the exact parts for my bike in stock. I thought I was going to lose all day Friday, and this was Easter weekend. He said he would have been able to get the parts somewhere that day, but we might have lost the day. We were on the road in 45 minutes. He stopped everything and just came in, turned the lights on and threw it up on the rack,” explained Al.

The craziest day he had of riding was in the Mojave Desert.

“I screwed up, I left at my normal time, around 7:30 in the morning,” Al said beginning to look embarrassed. “I am normally a super planner, OCD about it and I screwed up. It was noon, I had 30 more miles to go, it was 126 degrees and there was not a cloud in sight. There was no wind, my Gatorade was just hot. I finished, but the next two days we changed the time we left.”

They ended in Needles, California and the guy behind the counter at the hotel heard what Al had just done, which sparked a conversation. As it turns out, Needles was the hottest place in the USA.

The couple plans the route meticulously with the help of a company called Venture Cycling. They set the chase car up with coolers and supplies and it even has a custom-made mattress from Mattress Firm just in case they cannot find a hotel to sleep in for the night.

Hotels are the only thing they do not plan out. Terry makes calls to hotels they are near while she waits for Terry to catch up to her. Because each trip is self-funded, they reach out to hotels on the route looking for low cost or free rooms and many hotels are more than willing to support this kind of cause with a room that has not been booked for the night.

How many of these trips have they done? This one is 3,500 miles from Key West, Florida to their hometown near St. Cloud, MN. His longest was from Route 66 in California all the way to Chicago before heading over to Manhattan, 6,000 miles to the BCRF headquarters. In all, this is his sixth ride to bring awareness and to raise money for the BCRF. He estimates they have raised $59,000 plus on his six rides.

A cool factoid shared was there is an approved route for people that want to bike around the world. That route is around 18,000 miles. With this most recent trip, Al has travelled over 18,000 miles on his bike in rides for breast cancer research, so he has officially ridden enough miles to have circumnavigated the earth.

That alone is a cool claim to fame. Add the almost $60,000 he has raised for breast cancer research combined with how they took a negative situation for Terry and made it into a positive experience for them both, this is an amazing story. But there needs to be one more thing added to make this even more amazing.

Al rode 3,500 miles, 85-90 miles a day, around seven hours a day, at age 64. Let that sink in for a moment. The man that has trekked 18,000 miles on a pedal bike started the journey when he was 57 years old and at age 64 he hit the 18,000 mile mark.

If he had someone ask if they should do something like this, what would he say?

“I don't know if I would tell somebody go ride a bike and do this,” said Al. “But, it's funny you asked that. I'm a retired schoolteacher and our superintendent put a comment on one of our posts yesterday and she says you know, it's just amazing what you guys are doing. She does this all the time. I said, well, what I used to tell my students is, you can do anything you want. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do something. You know, because lots of people tell you that you can't do stuff. And we've even had a lot of friends and family from our first ride that didn't want us to do this because it's dangerous. But if you want to do something, you know, make a plan, get motivated and figure out how to do it and try to do whatever you want to do. The worst that could happen is you fail, and you try to figure out a different way to do it. If you really want to do something, make a plan and make it happen.”

Al and Terry slept in their own bed last weekend. They made it home safe and this time, welcomed by the friends and family that have supported them for the last seven years. This time, they celebrated the completion of a ride with the folks that mean the most to them.

To learn more about their journeys and to read the full details of Terry’s story, visit their website, www. pinkpedals4acure.org.