Why Shannon Cunningham Rides [a "How are you healthy?" special feature]

Does riding 200-miles in two-days make you a healthier person? Perhaps. Does riding 200-miles in two-days to improve someone else’s life make you a healthier person? Maybe. Health is so much more than physical. Mental, spiritual, and emotional health is a part of staying “healthy”.  The choices we make in our lives contribute to the overall health and happiness we experience. Below is one of several stories from participants of an annual event called the Ride for AIDS Chicago. The Ride for AIDS Chicago is a two-day, 200-mile charity cycling event that raises money for Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) and partner agencies. TPAN and the partner agencies that benefit from the Ride for AIDS Chicago provide direct service to those living with HIV and help prevent the spread of the virus through information dissemination, HIV testing, and education.

Why I ride? Great question.

If you asked me ”why I ride” when I signed up in January, I would have said that I’m committed to being a better steward to my community.

If you asked me”why I ride” when I got my first donation, I would have said, because I can make a difference $25 at a time.

If you asked me ”why I ride” when I got to know the great people of TPAN I would have said, because this organization is amazing and I want to help make a difference.

If you asked me ”why I ride” when I when I went to my first PFLAG meeting and got to listen to Richard speak, I would have said, “For you, Richard.”

If you asked my “why I ride” after this past Sunday, I would have say, “I ride because I’ve come to the realization this Cause needs me as much I need this Cause. “ I needed support on the course after a fall and suddenly felt an overwhelming sense that my fall somehow equated to me being a burden as a result of my own actions.

Then it hit me: I wonder how many diagnosed with HIV/AIDS feel like a burden? How can I help change that?

This is more than just a physical challenge of the Ride, or the financial commitment to raise money.

I want to help change the way people see themselves and help guide them to their own greatness.

That’s why I ride today.

-- Shannon Cunningham
Chicago

How are you healthy?
Please join the hundreds who have shared their tips.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here on LifeLube.
Gay men and all allies welcome to participate.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign

Why Shaine Wynsma Rides [a "How are you healthy?" special feature]

Does riding 200-miles in two-days make you a healthier person? Perhaps. Does riding 200-miles in two-days to improve someone else’s life make you a healthier person? Maybe. Health is so much more than physical. Mental, spiritual, and emotional health is a part of staying “healthy”.  The choices we make in our lives contribute to the overall health and happiness we experience. Below is one of several stories from participants of an annual event called the Ride for AIDS Chicago. The Ride for AIDS Chicago is a two-day, 200-mile charity cycling event that raises money for Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) and partner agencies. TPAN and the partner agencies that benefit from the Ride for AIDS Chicago provide direct service to those living with HIV and help prevent the spread of the virus through information dissemination, HIV testing, and education.

It started with a Life List.

One of the items on that list I put down was to do a ride or marathon. I am not much of a runner, but I love, love, love to bike. So a ride it had to be. I had only heard about the ride in California and that is what I had set my sights on. I was at the doctors for a routine check up and my doctor told me about the TPAN ride and said that I would have no problem doing it.

I got a bike from Ebay. Raised some money and learned more about TPAN and their programs. The Ride at that time was roughly 180 miles. I managed to do it with no clips, on a heavy mountain bike. I don’t even think I had padded shorts.

“All you have to do is pedal,” is what I kept on telling myself. 

Mile after mile, hill after hill and the second I crossed the finish line, I wanted to do it again.

A couple of months before that ride, I found out a really good friend of mine, Greg Fanning, had passed away. He was found in his apartment alone. Greg had a great soul, provided lots of laughs and had an amazing talent of rehabbing wood furniture.

He had his share of demons he was dealing with. He wasn’t very familiar with TPAN's support programs for those dealing with HIV. I was one of a few people that he could relate too. From then on, there was/is an additional element to the Ride, other than the personal and physical challenge.

I can’t help to wonder that if Greg was more aware of TPAN and what they could have provided him, if he would still be around today, making me laugh uncontrollably and amazing me with his ability to magically turn an old rocking chair or nicked up table into a stunning piece of art. For that year, 2007, I rode in his name.

That is why Shaine rides, to make sure the doors stay open at TPAN and people are aware of the programs there, so the art and laughter stay alive, which is tops on my Life List.

-- Shaine Wynsma
Chicago

How are you healthy?
Please join the hundreds who have shared their tips.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here on LifeLube.
Gay men and all allies welcome to participate.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign

Why Richard Cordova Rides [a "How are you healthy?" special feature]

Does riding 200-miles in two-days make you a healthier person? Perhaps. Does riding 200-miles in two-days to improve someone else’s life make you a healthier person? Maybe. Health is so much more than physical. Mental, spiritual, and emotional health is a part of staying “healthy”.  The choices we make in our lives contribute to the overall health and happiness we experience. The following stories show that sometimes, you have to give, to get. Below is one of several stories from participants of an annual event called the Ride for AIDS Chicago. The Ride for AIDS Chicago is a two-day, 200-mile charity cycling event that raises money for Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) and partner agencies. TPAN and the partner agencies that benefit from the Ride for AIDS Chicago provide direct service to those living with HIV and help prevent the spread of the virus through information dissemination, HIV testing, and education.

Why I Ride/Crew/Produce

I did my first Ride for AIDS Chicago in 2008. I didn't know anyone on the Ride, and I donated the entire $1,000 myself. I had just got done fundraising for my first AIDS marathon and I didn't want to burden my friends with another fundraising request.

In the beginning, these events - marathons and 200-mile bike rides were all about me. I had been HIV positive for about six years, was a pack a day smoker, and led a "party" lifestyle that was surely going to see me to an early grave if I continued doing what I was doing.

When I found out I was HIV positive, I had 123 T-cells, I was in fact not just living with HIV but technically someone living with AIDS. I spent a good portion of my 20's believing that my life had a short shelf life. I thought that I wouldn't live to see 30.

By the grace of modern medicine my immune system recovered. My immune system recovered while my mindset stayed the same. It was only when I had the realization that it was my behaviors that were going to kill me, not my HIV that I started to make any real change.

In the spring of 2007, in an effort to ditch my destructive habits I started to train for my first marathon. This led to being a running Coach for the National AIDS Marathon training program, then my first Ride for AIDS Chicago which led to my Riding for the past three years, captaining a team of 25, and now helping produce the event itself.

Somewhere along the way I realized that I'm going to live a long and healthy life with this disease. 

The coolest thing for me was as a Captain in 2009 and as a running Coach for the AIDS marathon I realized that I had the power to help people have their own trans-formative experience by participating in events like the Ride.

Maybe they do it for the cause, maybe they do it for themselves, maybe they do it for a friend...

It doesn't matter why people do the Ride for AIDS Chicago. The fact is, they are doing it. Not only are they doing it, but they are committed to raising money to support people living with this disease. That means something to me, because everyone should feel as comfortable with their disease as I do.
So the reason I have ridden, why I crew, and why I produce the Ride for AIDS Chicago is to make a difference. A difference in the lives of those participating and a difference in the lives of the people supported by the programs that the Ride helps support.

-- Richard Cordova
Chicago

How are you healthy?
Please join the hundreds who have shared their tips.
Tell us HERE. Send a pic to the same place.
And we'll blog it, right here on LifeLube.
Gay men and all allies welcome to participate.
Read past posts.
Learn more about the campaign