When Bob McEnaney isn’t relaxing at his Gunflint trail cabin he is on his bike or working with people to improve their fitness as a personal trainer. McEnaney recently took part in a 12-day ride across America where bicyclists rode between 250 to 350 miles a day. Bob fell just short of his goal, finishing about 2,600 miles of the ride, raising funds for veterans as he pedaled across the USA.
Bob McEnaney fell short in his attempt to pedal his bike from Oceanside, California to Annapolis, Maryland, a distance of 3,000 miles in 12 days, but he did raise about $13,000 for the Minnesota Military Family Foundation (MMFF).
“I accomplished 95 percent of what I set out to do. I didn’t quite finish the race but I think I did inspire others to get off the couch and get active and I raised far more money than I thought I could,” he said.
The transcontinental bike route covered 12 states and included 170,000 vertical feet climbing. To complete the race on time bicyclists rode between 250 and 350 miles each day, almost twice the distance of the Tour de France in half the time.
McEnaney, who has a cabin on West Bearskin Lake, coaches and trains endurance athletes for a living. In a phone interview, he said, “I did pretty well. I made it 2,500 to 2,600 miles before stopping. My hands and feet are still really sore and I’m exhausted,” he said from his home in Woodbury, Minnesota.
McEnaney chose to support the MMFF because he grew up as military child. His father and grandfather were both army medics.
“These two weeks of intense physical labor on my part are nothing in comparison to what our soldiers sacrifice,” McEnaney said. “My pain and sacrifice may go away after the 12 days of cycling, but these families live it every day. I was riding for the soldiers and their families knowing that we are raising money to make their lives just a little bit better.”
Athletes have to qualify for the Ride Across America (RAAM), said McEnaney. “I qualified in 2012. I completed the Furnace Creek 508-mile race and several other long races to get in.”
Fifty solo riders took off from Oceanside. Each rider had to ride alone, no drafting was allowed.
“We could ride side by side for a few minutes, but then you would have to take off and go. I rode alone into a headwind for two straight days as I made my way across Kansas. That was grueling.
“The hardest part though is that no matter how well you did or didn’t do on one day, you only got to sleep for a couple of hours and then start up again. The clock never stops. There is no rest or recovery.”
To keep himself nourished his crew fed him about 300 calories an hour. Those calories consisted of sports drinks and real food. “I ate ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, peanut butter and jam sandwiches, Pringles and pickles and mini donuts. Anything my body craved, really,” he said.
McEnaney did his first triathlon in 1981 when he graduated from college. He has run marathons and other running events and has been training non-stop for more than 30 years. When asked if he would attempt the RAAM event again, he answered, “Right now that’s not a good question to ask. I’m really beat up. It takes a lot of preparing and organizing to do the race. You have to have a crew and it costs a lot of money. But I guess if I did, I have to say that I learned a lot from this race. I would do things differently next time and it would be better. But I don’t want to think about that right now.
McEnaney founded Ride for a Reason in 2012, setting up an organization that promotes fun and healthy activities and fosters individual health and recreation, while raising funds and awareness for a variety of charities.
Ride for a Reason, said McEnaney, combines cycling and running events with an opportunity to give back to the community.
McEnaney has been coming to Cook County since the mid-1970s. He rides his bike when he’s here, riding along the shore or taking his mountain bike to trails or on the Lima Mountain or Greenwood Lake roads.
He takes solace in knowing that in 33 years of racing, only 250 riders have finished the RAAM’s race in 12 days. Maybe one day he will be one of those riders that makes it the whole way, but for now he’s craving rest and food, happy to know that his foundation raised far more than the $5,000 he set out to raise for the families of Minnesota military veterans.
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