MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Tim Ward began his bike ride on July 10th, but this trip was going to be different. His plan is to bike close to 2400 miles around the state in just 22 days, Making the trip to bring awareness to a nonprofit that works with the incarcerated population, called “Chance for Life”. Ward has been calling this trip “Trace Michigan,” where his goal is to ride around outside of the state, which to the surprise of some people, included the Upper Peninsula.
“People had said, ‘oh you’re doing the UP too’ I said ‘Yeah, it can’t be Trace Michigan without doing the UP’,” said Ward. “Chance for Life” was founded in 1992 to provide conflict resolution and job training to Michigan’s incarcerated population. CEO Thomas Adams visits correctional facilities across the state to educate those returning to the community.
“This program is my life, we’ve been doing this for over 30 years,” commented Adams. “You know you can give a person anything you want to but if you don’t teach them how to process information differently then when they are put back in the same situation they’ll do the same thing so this is tremendous”.
Ward has ridden long distances like this in the past but never this much back-to-back riding. He says the Trace Michigan ride has him putting everything into perspective.
“You know the people that go through Chance for Life program, they have to push through a lot to change who they are in the sense of the miles that I have to put in I have to push through that too, so that’s the point is wherever you’re at just stretch,” continued Ward.
Riding over 100 miles a day on his bike, his exhaustion may be reaching its peak but the mental fatigue is an entirely different mountain to climb.
“So today we’ve got 100 plus miles and that’s kind of Tim’s every day, every day seems to be about 112, 118 just depending on the hills and elevation,” commented Crew Chief Malcolm Campbell.
“What Tim has done has really put himself into this mix, you can give money you can talk about a lot of things but when you give your time that means that you believe that means you care and so I think the world of Tim,” continued Adams.
On Tuesday, Ward continued his journey along Lake Superior up to the Keweenaw, still cycling for the Michigan community.
