Novice cyclist prepares for the ride of his life

This year, Scott Fisher, of Seashore Ace Hardware in Stone Harbor, knows his way around the county better than he ever did before. In preparation for a five-day charity bike tour through the Midwest, Fisher has been starting his days astride a borrowed Cannondale road bike, checking out back roads and scenery he’s never seen before and learning things about the county he never knew before.
“I never knew where Green Creek was,” Fisher said, or that it is an actual body of water. “Now I’ve seen it,” he said.
Fisher logs in about 30 miles a day before work. He said the training is time-consuming, but it’s getting easier.
“Thirty miles doesn’t take as long as I thought it would,” he said.
In less than a month, however, Fisher will be putting his training and endurance to the test in Ace Hardware’s Tour De Kids, a fund-raiser for the Children’s Miracle Network.
On Sept. 11, Fisher and some 100 other cyclists from across the country will meet at Ace headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. (near Chicago) to begin their five-day trek to St. Louis, Mo. They’ll travel about 340 miles—roughly 70 miles a day for five days with stops at four Children’s Miracle Network hospitals.
The route is mostly over flat terrain, but just in case, Fisher makes sure to include local bridges in his daily training. He said he also believes the county’s offshore breezes are helping him to prepare for potentially windy conditions as well.
Fisher is new to cycling. Fisher, who is vice-president of his family’s Seashore Ace store, said he decided to join the Tour de Kids while having dinner with a friend and fellow Ace employee from California during the company’s convention last year. The friend participated in the 2007 Tour de Kids and shared his positive experiences with Fisher. Before he knew it, Fisher said he was borrowing a road bike from a friend and training for the ride of his life.
It’s a lot of work, but “It’s for a great cause,” Fisher said.
Children’s Miracle Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping kids by raising funds for an alliance of 170 chil-dren’s hospitals across North America. Each year these non-profit hospitals provide the quality care, research and community out-reach to millions of children with diseases and injuries of every kind. Just this year Children’s Miracle Network hospitals are ex-pected to provide charity care worth billions of dollars, and the hospitals depend on community support like the Ace Bicycle tour to raise the money they need to fulfill their mission.
Last year the Ace Tour de Kids raised $500,000 dollars. This year participants and organizers are doubling their efforts and hoping to raise $1 million.
As part of his effort, Fisher is holding a Beef and Beer fundraiser on the sundeck of the Windrift Restaurant, on 80th Street in Avalon on Aug. 24 from 4 to 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by Seashore Ace. The cost is $25.