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The Truman Charities Podcast
Two Day Cycling Challenge Honoring Veterans & First Responders | The Face of America Challenge | Mike Beezley Ep. 139
The Face of America Cycling Challenge is a 110-mile, two-day ride that brings together adaptive and able-bodied athletes, veterans, and allies. After six years of riding, Mike Beezley has raised over $100,000 for World T.E.A.M., the nonprofit behind the ride that empowers athletes of all abilities through inclusive events like this one.
In this episode, Mike shares how the event supports people of all skill levels, honors our military, and the special moments that keep him coming back year after year. You’ll hear about the community support that helps riders push through, how World T.E.A.M. uses funds, and why this event is more than just a ride.
Listen to our conversation to learn how you can join the next ride or support Mike’s team!
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This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/
Welcome to the Truman Charities Podcast. I am Jamie Truman, your host. Imagine experiencing Gettysburg, historic Civil War battlefields, alongside adaptive athletes who have served our country. You'll hear their stories, honor their sacrifices and gain a profound understanding of how fortunate we are to be Americans fortunate we are to be Americans. Mike Beasley and his team are joining the Face of America Cycling Challenge through World Team, a nonprofit that creates inspiring athletic challenges for adaptive and able-bodied participants alike. These programs empower individuals, building confidence as each athlete overcomes physical, emotional and technical obstacles. Mike has participated in Face of America for six years and has the most incredible stories about some of the athletes he has met. He shares insights into the training involved and highlights how anyone can participate in this life-changing event.
Speaker 1:But before we talk to Mike, please take a moment to rate and review this podcast. Scroll down, give us five a moment to rate and review this podcast. Scroll down, give us five stars and rate each short review about why you enjoy this show. As a 100% volunteer-based organization, these reviews are invaluable in helping our podcast grow. Now please welcome Mike Beasley to Truman Charities. Mike, thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 2:It's my pleasure, glad to be here.
Speaker 1:So when Jerry told me about what you're doing, I was really excited, because I never actually heard about this particular event. So May 16th to 18th, right, you are riding the Face of America Cycling Challenge to Gettysburg benefiting the Nonprofit World team, and so you had mentioned this is your seventh year doing it, correct?
Speaker 2:That is correct. I've been in the DMV area since 2016. And so this is your number seven for me.
Speaker 1:Wow, and within those six years you've raised $100,000, which is incredible.
Speaker 2:Pretty good for a guy that's from Vegas to come out here and be able to reach out to so many people. But it's such a worthy cause. It makes it kind of easy in the reality of the overall scheme so to meet all these new relationships and build and get money and raise from there. It's been very successful.
Speaker 1:I want to know why you are so connected to this particular organization. But before we get into that, tell me a little bit about the Face of America Cycling Challenge and about the World Team.
Speaker 2:The World Team is, you know the ones that organize the entire race Face of America. And you know I kind of walked into it. I've always been a cyclist, at least for the last 25 years, and when I first came out here, you know I wanted I used to work on the board for MS in Vegas. I used to work on the board for MS in Vegas and when I came out here I wanted to find something that was worthwhile, which I thought was a phenomenal charity to be able to be part of. And this is the one I've really fumbled across.
Speaker 2:Basically, being new in town, I didn't know many people. This one girl that I met in a cycling class. She said, hey, I got this ride. I says I'm up, let's do it. And during this ride I've never been part of anything that gives you that much passion and that much energy with what we're doing and what the true reason is. I mean, people do stuff for charity, but this is a charity that really is passionate for me. So you know, I fumbled into this ride and I hook up with a team called Team Dell and there became really the power behind the ride and I say power, power, not only in just raising money, but power in regards to helping these adaptive athletes get up these different hills. So it's just an incredible event. The stories you hear and hopefully we can expand upon that, the stories that I hear each and every time make me keep coming back.
Speaker 1:So tell me a little bit you just mentioned, tell me a little bit about a couple of those stories.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think one that I usually lead with is one that happened probably about three years ago. When these adaptive athletes get on these chairs and they're all different rhymes and reasons of how they may have got injured, either in war or in service, there's one girl, and they're so low to the ground and when you start going downhill, we're flying. They're going about 40 miles an hour. With them being so low to the ground, they have a tendency to take a turn, they're going to flip over. Well, here's the thing All these service people are so competitors that this one girl we told her and told her you're going too fast around the corners. Sure enough, it becomes kind of, you know, heartfelt for me, because it's really a cool story.
Speaker 2:She slides into the bushes about 20 yards. We go back, pick her up. She's scraped up from her arms down to her ankle. We put her back in her chair. We said you know, we'll get the SAG vehicle come get you. We only got about six miles left in the first day, which is about 65 miles. She looked at my bunny. She says I got hit by a bomb in Afghanistan. You think I'm going to stop? It's pretty cool. Oh my gosh, I was in the tail end bleeding and yada yada and it was just. That's one of my lead stories and it's one of those cool things. And every one of them become emotional because these guys did stuff that I'd never done. I never served. You know, I never was part of the. You know the service industry out here. You know the cops, the firemen and everything else, so it's pretty cool for me to be a part of this stuff.
Speaker 1:I did like how, when I was reading about how some of the funds that are raised are used and that is helping the organization provide, like travel grants and lodging, meals and equipment for those athletes adaptive athletes from all over the country, and sometimes overseas, to come and be able to participate within this race.
Speaker 2:So that's true. And so there's a couple of guys that forget their names off the top but they come in from, I want to say from Germany, and they're low to the ground, and they come in and it's a ride, not a race. But these guys, keep in mind, we're doing this ride, we're the power behind them, and so when we get to these hills, then these two guys always they're both every single year they think they're racing against each other, but we're doing pushing at least up the hills, and it's like they're looking at us like can we go any faster? And so we're giving everything we got and some of the pictures I may have sent over to you you might have looked at it Some of the horsepower to get up these hills is it takes not just one guy, maybe two guys, sometimes as many as six.
Speaker 1:We do almost 6,000 feet of elevation gain in the two-day period from Crystal City to Gettysburg, yeah, so I was going to ask you a little bit about where the course begins and what is that two-day ride like?
Speaker 2:So day two is a little bit more hilly. We stay up in Fredericksburg and so we're up there for the night and it's about seven hours of pedaling the first day and about five and a half the second day. Now it's a ride, not a race. So the main thing when you have a ride of this caliber, you know we have police in the front, police in the back, so we keep all the riders together there. Now they have a good crew of marshals, that kind of run by John Bordeaux. He is the main guy that runs Face of America and we basically keep everyone together.
Speaker 2:So it extends to that where you could actually ride a 65 mile ride and probably for the really good riders maybe in four hours, maybe three and a half, but when we do it it's about seven hours of pedaling time. So we're keeping people together, we're taking turns, pushing these people up these hills. Some of the hills have such an incline that the people stop on the side of the road to maybe hand pedal. And the reason they do this is because if we're going up one of these hills they're back heavy. So if they go back up those hills and we ran out of gas, then that baby's going backwards and it's flipping over. And so it's fun, it's entertaining, it's enjoyable, but at the end of the day, people can still get hurt.
Speaker 1:Okay, so then it's 110 mile total throughout the two days, and so how is that broken up again within the first and second day?
Speaker 2:So I want to say it's 65 the first day and another 50, 51 in the next year, 64, 51, something of that nature so and we take a lot of the back roads. So we're going through the country and if you catch good weather we have the luxury. This year it's a month later than it was last year, in April. Last year we caught some rain and some pretty bad thunderstorms and that's not fun to ride in. So then they pull us all to the side. We get together and we you can go through some of the mist and some of the rain, but you can't go. I mean, all those tires are about three quarters of an inch wide, so that is not the safest thing out there, so they'll pull us off the road. So they take great precautions.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell me a little bit about the training for you guys for this two-day race.
Speaker 2:Most people train three to five months. I've been unfortunate in it, that well, kind of fortunate in a way, that I've been busy. But I also just recently had back surgery and the passion of this ride for me is I pushed my probably needed back surgery three years ago. But I pushed my back surgery back so I could be able to do it each and every year. So we did it April of last year. I knew if I did it in October I wouldn't miss a lot of training time because of the weather, and so I kind of set it up where now I got five weeks to probably get in about five to 600 miles of training and then I'll be good to go. And then I got to also do my fundraising. A lot done in the next five to six week period.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're going to be busy, so tell me how many people participate on average in the Face of America Challenge.
Speaker 2:Somewhere from 250 to 400, about 80 to 85 adaptive athletes.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, I was wondering what the ratio is.
Speaker 2:A huge amount of people to help. I mean, you're not just pushing one, you're going back and pushing two and waiting for them. But then you get to hear their stories and the stories are phenomenal and meeting other riders on the ride because it's at a temple where you're still only going 15, 17 miles an hour you can still have conversation. So it's really kind of good to know what other people do and why it's important for them. I have one story. In fact I'm going to just kind of read off what he told me, because he told me the other night at one of the ballgames and I said man, I got to tell this story. His name is Rainer Fouch and he's been doing it for almost 19 years. So he first heard about it in 2007 as a young Marine stationed in Camp David and on President George Bush's mountain bike security detail. This first ride was incredible and I could see the important mission of FOA through the adaptive athletes participating in the ride that year, many of whom were combat veterans recovering from severe service-related injuries.
Speaker 2:Right around the time of my second ride in 2008, one of my former teammates on Bush's security detail was severely injured while deployed to Fulaloo Maybe a butcherdat, sergeant Stephen Hearneman struck by an IED on patrol and lost both legs. One year later, steve rode the face of America as a major monster on his recovery journey, with several members of our platoon alongside. Steve showed me that what happens to you in life doesn't define who you are and what you're capable of. Then he also gives a video. I get emotional when I tell these stories because they're true and these are people that you know that just really had life kind of taken away. Right, it loses both legs and a year later he's out there riding Come on.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible. What do you think throughout the six years that you have participated in this?
Speaker 2:what do you think your most memorable moment has been? I think the first part of it. You know, and I've done a lot of big rides the MS150 is 101 day, 50 the next day. That was hard, but this seems to be more difficult. So I think that the memories for me is so. I think my first time that I rolled into Gettysburg it was so along the ride, especially on the second day, there's people out there cheering for us, Cool Flags everywhere, super cool. You know you became a true American. We roll into Gettysburg. I feel like a war hero, pushing these people. People clap and sing. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 1:So you guys finish at? Where is that in Frederick this year, correct? The Maryland? Yeah, saturday's finish in Frederick, maryland, by the Frederick Fairgrounds. Tell me a little bit about what that's like. You guys have like a big celebration afterwards. Yeah, we go to the bar. Those chairs are kind of small. What that's like.
Speaker 2:You guys have like a big celebration afterwards. Yeah, we go to the bar Sitting on those chairs they're kind of small, yeah. So by the time we go have a drink and dinner, it's eight o'clock and we're going to sleep because we're getting up and rolling at 6.30. So there's not really much excitement, except for you're hanging out with people that you really build a bond with. I ride with Team Delm. They call us Team Pink because we always have the pink jerseys. But it's also the team that they know that's always helping the riders and to me that's also maybe one of the top things. That's why I joined. But I got a chance to meet these guys and some really good riders. I mean, you got Brett Rice, one of my good buddies, brian Mitchell here's another great story. I'll kind of defer back.
Speaker 2:Brian Mitchell, former Redskin, former Eagle, also does a B Mitch and JP show daily on 106.7. I said B, you got to come do this ride. He's a cyclist, we rode before together. I said if you do this ride, you will come back every single year. Well, I think he's been doing it for five years Now. He does have something coming up this year he can't do it. But him and I have always asked because we're both competitors. We're always in the top three to five when it comes to fundraising. He does it every year.
Speaker 2:His father served, my father served. Neither one of us did. My father wasn't going to let me serve B. He's probably playing football. He had a great college career, had a great pro career. He's got the second most all-purpose yards in football, just behind a guy named Jerry Rice. So his credentials are pretty solid and his reach when it comes to getting donations, too, is probably a little bit bigger than mine, from a non-local guy to a guy that played in the NFL.
Speaker 2:And the number one guy, which is Colonel Gadsden, is basically the face of the ride and just a motivational speaker and a same kind of story. Right, he got hit with an IAD in Afghanistan and lost his legs. His team put him back together and just to hear the story and the way that he still goes on with life and is such a strong person, it's to me super cool just to be part of that. You know, trio, and you know we've been the top three the last three years in a row. I haven't done anything and I'll still think I'll be the top three because I'll really put an effort into reaching out to the people to let them know that this is something that is unique, and if you're a true American, I think you want to be part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if somebody was interested in participating in the Face of America challenge and they don't know anybody so would they be able to do this as an individual, or would they place them on a team themselves?
Speaker 2:Yes, you could do it as an individual. You can join a team once you're there if you want. It's not a necessity. We take pride because we want our team to be the most, to raise the most money and it's tough. It's tough to beat us when you got the two and three. You know rankings every time. I think I did 25 last year, b did like 28,000. And then Colonel Gatson. He's got so much reach when you're a motivational speaker he's got a little bit of better chance than I do, so he's the nicest guy in the world, absolute nicest guy. Yeah, you just join faceofamericabikerideorg. You can go on that website right there and then just sign up for it. And I'm telling you you'll come back each and every year.
Speaker 1:Throughout the past six years that you've been involved, what do you think has been that you've seen has been the youngest participant and the oldest participant?
Speaker 2:We had one of the kids for one of the guys on our team I think was 14 years old. 14? 14 is the only strong athlete, good athlete, so I'd say 14. They might have been younger. There's another guy, and again it's another story, because I'd ask Rainer to, I said man, your story, he's been around so long. Right, it's always nice to learn why other people do the same thing that you're passionate about. And the story that once again it becomes emotional to me, but I'm kind of a weak man at some point. He was talking to me about probably the oldest rider. He's known as Mr Lou.
Speaker 2:Retired US Navy Captain Lou Meyer rode the Face of America ride for more than 10 years on a tandem bike with a pair of combat boots in the navigators, signifying those who didn't come back. As a Hall of Fame member of the World Ultra Cycling Association, lou Meyer holds several records in cross-country cycling. Send me a picture. Lou was 83 during the ride, so probably 83 is going to be my number. I'm going to go with. I like setting odds. I'm going to say that's a favorite of the age.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I love that story. So I was reading that. You guys on your two-day trip Okay. So I was reading that. You guys on your two-day trip okay. So you go through historic civil ground battlefields of Gettysburg and from the Pentagon in Arlington, virginia. You have so many different sites that you see what do you think your favorite part of your ride is?
Speaker 2:You know I mentioned the part rolling into Gettysburg, but I think going through the sites where the battles were fought and everything like that, it's breathtaking, needless to say, and there's a lot of tour buses. You go through there and through the hills and just imagining, and the cannons you'll pass the cannons that were set up. Just imagine what happened 160 years ago and what they had to go through, and just that visual and the vision, and that, to me, is probably the most unique thing about the ride. I mean, we go through a lot of beautiful countryside. There's another stop where they raised a flag with a crane and everyone sings. You know, god bless America.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I'd be so emotional. What a really interesting way to see those type of different historical places within the United States. Going on this bike ride with these individuals that have been of service to our country, how do you feel about that when you're biking?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, and it kind of goes back to once again when you get a chance to talk to these folks and what they went through and just not even the people that have been injured just what other people do and why they do it. That's kind of the rhyme and reason for, I think, for everyone. You know this is one ride that they do. There's other ones throughout the you know the us that happen on and I've always wanted to kind of take part of that, just to meet new people and and see what their story is and why they do it. And I think there's one in Arizona that, if I can ever figure out the timing on it. But I know Arizona is beautiful. Being from Vegas, I love the desert landscape, so it's just beautiful out there and there's more elevation gain than what you think in Nevada and Arizona, so beautiful rides out there.
Speaker 1:Okay, so if I was talking, if you met someone who wasn't an avid cyclist and is more of a beginner, do you think this is something that they could participate in? The?
Speaker 2:beauty of this ride you don't have to be that athletic. I mean one of my coworkers here. I let her borrow one of my bikes. She went out and did the second day because she had to work the day before. She did it with no problem. Now she's a little bit more athletic and she has some cardio in her.
Speaker 2:But for the most part there's people on this ride. I'm thinking no way they're riding a bike and they get up and do it and I don't know how they do it, but they're getting through it. It might slow us down a little bit, but who cares they're. If you do like some of the longer, like marathons or something there's some. If you want to quit, you quit, someone will pick you up and take you to the finish line. So it's the same thing with this. So I suggest it to everyone because once you get a taste of it.
Speaker 2:When I did my first MS ride back in Vegas, I just got into cycling. My buddy said I didn't have clip-ins, my bike was trash. The bikes really mean a lot. I mean I got high-caliber bikes now to make it easier on me. I said, well, I'll ride the first 20 miles for the first. You know, for the MS it's 100 the first day and then it's 50 the next day. I said I'll ride 20 to 30 miles, I'll call it a day and I'll you push your way through it because you know you get people to talk with, and I think that ride did four or five hundred people. Wow, I've been in rides that have done 10,000 people, which is just really cool.
Speaker 1:I do think that everybody should look on their website because they've been. This organization has been doing different athletic challenges for the past over 25 years and they have some really incredible stories and photos and videos for people to watch. So how can people help your team, help you and help raising money for these?
Speaker 2:athletes. So I'm going to give you a barcode. I'll also give you a website to reach out to and whatever you can do, every dollar helps. I mean it really does. It goes a long ways, and I only want people that want to donate that really believe it's a great cost. You know, I don't want people to say, well, I'm just doing it to do it, Because to me it's the passion behind the ride. I raise every dollar. Everyone that I talk to I say I'm doing this for this. Do you believe in this cost? And they all do, and so that's good money for me. I always want the good money. I always want the good money. I don't want people to feel like, well, you owe me a favor or something like that. I just want people to do what they think's right for what. I love being in the United States, so I love being an American.
Speaker 1:I'm surprised because Jared and I are so involved in the nonprofit world that I hadn't heard about this. It really sounds like such an amazing organization and bringing all of these people together and your stories are incredible and stories that you've told, and we'll make sure to have the link to support your team and their fundraising efforts in the show notes for everyone, so don't miss that. Just scroll down and then. So, mike, before I let you go, is there anything that we haven't covered that you think someone should know?
Speaker 2:If I'm telling someone to, really, if you want to be part of something, if you're new into the community, this is probably one of the best ways that you can really reach out, meet new people without having to go to the bar and go into the nightclub. This is a great way to meet people that are good people, people that are proud to be part of the United States, part to be an American. So, to me, join it, you'll enjoy it. So that's my best advice, I guess.
Speaker 1:Congratulations on raising $100,000 in the past six years and I'm really excited to see how your ride goes this year. So it's going to be two days of some really cool stuff that you're going to do and see, and I want to see the photos. We'll have some of the photos up on Truman Charities on all of our social media so everybody can take a chance to look at exactly what it's like to be there and so you can really get the full picture. So I want to thank everybody again for tuning in to the Truman Charities podcast. And so I want to thank everybody again for tuning in to the Truman Charities podcast, and Mike I want to thank you as well.
Speaker 2:So thanks, thank you as well. I appreciate it, and so does Face of America, my teammates, everyone that I work and ride with, and it's truly work that we love to do. So thanks so much for letting us be part of it.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, thank you. I really loved that interview with Mike, and now I'm not a cyclist, but this is making me want to be a cyclist and when my kids get older, this would be something that would be really incredible for the family to do together. So I hope you enjoyed it and, if you did, I know I asked before, but please support our podcast by scrolling down, hitting those five stars and writing a short review on why you enjoy listening to the Truman Charities podcast. If you would like to follow us, you can follow us on Instagram at Jamie underscore Truman Charities. You can follow us on Facebook at Truman Charities and you can follow me on Instagram at Jamie Truman and go to Truman Charitiescom.
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