Erik Douds is someone who likes to accept a good challenge. The twenty-six-year-old, standing at a solid six feet with a laughing smile always on his face, visited the Seattle JDRF office after biking across the country following the Trans America Trail, or Route 76. By the invitation of a close friend from the T1D community, he left with no experience bike touring to accomplish what would eventually be over 6,000 miles from Virginia to Vancouver B.C. and down to Los Angeles.

The start of this trip happened chaotically. He was sitting in an interview with a job offer that started the next Monday when he broke the news that first he must bike across the USA. A few months before this moment, his best friend boxed up a touring bike sitting in a garage and shipped it to Erik’s house where it sat waiting. Erik began telling people about a possible bike trip but struggled to make the decision to leave his apartment, job, and life he established in New York City:

“I took the bike out of the cardboard box about two days before leaving on this trip. I tried to assemble it myself and put the handlebars on upside down.”

Cassidy Robinson, a new friend he made at the JDRF OneNationSummit in NYC, said “yes” to a road trip to drop him off in western Virginia to meet teammates Annalisa Van Den Berg and Taylor Gorman. Erik was a week behind his new riding partners so he could run the Brooklyn Half Marathon before leaving on this next journey.

Arriving in Wythesville, Virginia, Taylor remarked at this accomplishment alone, “Wow. You are really here.” The following morning would be the first-time Erik got on the REI Randenee bike fully loaded.

The Seattle audience asked about his lack of training and heard Erik’s mentality about this obstacle: “It doesn’t matter what you are doing, the first two weeks are going to be the hardest. Your mind and body are telling you to turn around, you’re not good enough, why are you here? If you survive the initial shock, you can do anything.”

Erik’s first two weeks were particularly difficult. He left in good physical shape but had never been on a touring bike. You can listen to him joke about how he did not know that the bike had a “grind gear,” which makes climbing hills easier.

One of his first days on the bike included going over Hayter’s gap that featured switch-back after switch-back up the hills of Virginia. That night his new “trail parents” he met in a local church gave him an Aleve for backpain.

One of the hardest earlier days for blood sugar management included hitting the highest “HIGH” and lowest “LOW” his Dexcom continuous glucose monitor could read: “Your body is adjusting to all these new demands while you are also figuring out how to nourish it. I am trying to consume 4,000 calories every day and maintain a stable blood sugar. Oh yeah, and most of our food comes from a gas station.”

To fuel his body for over eight hours of biking each day, he must consume twice the number of calories of a normal daily diet: “I eat a jar of peanut butter every 1 to 2 days.” What he never realized is that cyclists can burn more calories than running a marathon, every single day. This is tricky to balance as an athlete, let alone with the added obstacles from diabetes.

Having teammates who understand the demands of this disease makes a world of difference. Erik and Annalisa are both type 1 diabetics, while Taylor is a nursing student who became an expert as the weeks went on. Taylor and Erik often rode wheel-to-wheel to draft off each other for added efficiency. Taylor learned that when Erik suddenly went 30% slower she knew he was experiencing a low, or hypoglycemia.

Treating these lows and highs makes Erik an easy cyclist to spot. He has an iconic jar of peanut butter to the left of his handlebar bag complimented by a jar of jelly to the right. He rides with a fork ready to consume either fuel source based on the readings and trends from the continuous glucose monitor or blood sugar meter.

One of the biggest lessons Erik shares with us is the kindness of strangers. The three riders slept in unlocked churches with stocked freezers for bike tourists; fire departments invited groups to use their shower and pitch a tent in the field if the roaring alarms weren’t too annoying; sheriff’s offices sent a patrol car to greet the group in small towns and make sure city parks were nice enough to stay in; and many strangers welcome in bike tourists so they have a safe place for the night.

Traveling by bicycle is different than other forms of transportation because people can walk up to you and have a conversation. You fill your water up at a gas station, restaurant, or home. Your food comes from a grocery store, farmers stand, or the leftovers from a birthday party. There are no barriers stopping anyone from learning your story or offering to help in any way.

One of Erik’s favorite moments was sharing his 10 year diaversary by splitting a cake with new friends at a campsite. Around a picnic table sat a cyclist in college figuring out life, a married couple with their dog heading down to Argentina, two old-time work friends touring for a few weeks, and a handful of people simply willing to share a moment:

“There are not too many times in my life where I get to talk with so many generations at once. When people remark that it is too hard for them to ever get on a bike, I remind them it is easy enough to do as a child or someone who is retired. Cycling is a sport to enjoy for life.”

Erik rides for many reasons but one of them is to continue a legacy. His grandfather was diagnosed in 1940 with type 1 diabetes when the doctors thought living into his twenties would be impossible:

“My grandfather had to prove to people that living with this disease was possible. Imagine a doctor setting a time limit on your life every decade, until finally passing away at the age of eighty-three. The reason I set these challenges is continue this legacy and prove that we can go above and beyond what is expected of us.”

Erik shares his stories and lessons at conferences across the country, while also maintain a travel blog for our community called DiabetesAbroad.com. One of his main goals it to collect a photo from every country and state in the world to prove that we are a global community. He could use your help by visiting DiabetesAbroad and clicking “Travel Map” to upload your own photo. Who knows, maybe your photo will inspire his next trip?

 

Written by: Erik Douds