For the fourth year, Alabama Power Company bike riders took to the streets for the annual Dam Ride.
The group, called the Power Pedalers, biked 78 miles Friday and Saturday from Alabama Power headquarters in downtown Birmingham to Lay Dam near Clanton and back.
“Seventy-eight miles is a little more than your casual, average group ride. It takes a little bit of training and experience for an endurance ride like this, to get to the level to enjoy a ride like that,” said participant Nick Kirby. “A lot of us ride together during the week, but it’s always good camaraderie for us to get together.”
There was also a kayak component for the second year from Waxahatchee Marina in Chilton County to Lay Dam and then on to Mitchell Dam.
In addition to exercise and fun, the ride raises money and awareness for a good cause, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
“Every time I turn around I learn of someone else who has been diagnosed with MS. That’s what all of this is about, reaching out to our community,” said John Morris, who helped organized the ride and is power generation specialist.
MS is a chronic, often disabling disease in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the brain and spinal cord of the central nervous system. About 1 million people in the United States have the disease.
The Birmingham ride is a training ride for Bike MS events later this year. Those include Bike MS: Rocket City 2019 in Madison in June and Bike MS: Tour de Beach 2019 in Orange Beach in September.
To learn more, visit www.bikeMS.org.
(Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter)
