Physical activity that would make many people head for the nearest couch was always an essential part of Pat Messer’s calendar.

“I taught aerobics, I swam, I hiked, I camped. The only thing I never did was bicycling,” says Messer, 59. This May, the outdoorsy Cheyenne, Wyo., resident won’t ride a bicycle, but a recumbent tricycle as she pedals from Bar Harbor, Maine, to Anacortes, Wash., to raise money for and awareness of arthritis. Messer’s 11-year battle with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which once forced her to use a wheelchair, now takes a backseat to her desire for the open road: She and two buddies will ride a total of 4,200 miles on their journey this summer.

This cross-continent ride, including camping and cooking out along the way, is a product of Messer’s hard work and determination to fight her RA, including pool exercise, a switch to a vegetarian diet, and working with her rheumatologist to find the right medications. While she hopes the money and awareness they raise will help other people with arthritis conquer their disease, Messer acknowledges that the support of her family, friends and doctor, as well as her body’s resilience, has helped her return to a level of health and fitness to attempt this journey. “I know how lucky I am. I could have been a lot different.”

Thief in the Night

Messer was working as a veterinary technician, going to school and raising teen-age sons in 2001 when she awoke one January morning with sudden, mystifying pain. “I woke up and couldn’t walk. My legs were so swollen, my feet were so swollen,” she recalls. After multiple visits to Cheyenne doctors to rule out various causes for her pain and inflammation, a neurologist finally referred Messer to a Denver rheumatologist who diagnosed RA.

She knew little about the disease or its devastating systemic effects. And they were devastating for this active mother of three. In her first year with RA, Messer lost her ability to drive her car, and was forced to use a walker and sometimes a wheelchair to get around. Yet she clung to her desire to get back to earlier joys like camping, hiking and travel. With the encouragement of her rheumatologist, Robert Monger, MD, Messer started swimming in a local heated pool, and her mobility improved. Exercising boosted Messer’s spirits, which had been hurt by RA as much as her joints, she says.

“Chronic disease causes mental stress that is almost worse than the physical pain,” says Messer.

By 2002, she also started to find medications to fight her inflammation, including methotrexate and biologic drugs. Her approach to RA was and is proactive; she says Dr. Monger encourages her to research her own treatment options so they can set a plan together. RA is something you manage so you can get back to living, Messer believes. “There really isn’t much to do about it. I could take care of myself, the house, the boys – all through creative management.”

Feeling better from swimming and determined to return to outdoor activity, in 2002 Messer decided to take a much more strenuous plunge. She signed up for a cycling ride down the California coast for an AIDS charity using a joint-friendly, recumbent road trike she ordered online. Her husband, Bruce, who commutes back and forth from Colorado Springs, Colo., to work as a builder, supported his wife’s new hobby despite the expense.

Money in the Messer family was tighter due to her leaving her job and her medical expenses, and the trike cost $2,500. She was undeterred. “I made a deal with my husband. Since I can’t drive my car anymore, we’re saving all this money, so can I buy this trike?” she recalls. “It was a big deal to us. But he knew I was going nuts, because I had always been active and had always traveled.”

Once Messer’s trike was shipped from Australia, she started training, and in 2002 she rode in that first charity race, a seven-day, 575-mile race down the beautiful coast of California. “It opened up the world! You can’t describe it.”

Her mother followed her progress and later sent Messer an article about another race, the California Coast Classic, a similar ride down the west coast that raised money for the Arthritis Foundation’s research and awareness programs. This race was the perfect blend for Messer of riding and camping outdoors and a cause that was highly personal. She registered and rode her first of eight California Coast Classic rides. Bruce has joined Pat for three of those trips – although she says it’s not his favorite idea for a vacation - and she’s met many friends on these rides as well.

“People on a charity ride are so different than people on a vacation ride. They want to help. Everyone is on the same level. You’ll have a CEO riding next to someone who has an ordinary job, someone for whom this is the only vacation they’ll be able to take for three years,” says Messer, who says she’s ridden more than 65,000 miles in road trips over the past 10 years. “You build such bonds with people.”

Although the talkative Messer downplays the effect RA pain has on her physical well-being during these long trike trips – which involve camping in a tent each night between daytime rides – she admits that they’re strenuous. “By the fourth day, you’re tired. It takes three days of sleeping in a tent before you get used to it, so you’re not sleeping well,” she says. The enthusiasm and support of her fellow riders motivates her each morning. “Everyone is so excited. So you just keep pedaling. I’m slow, I’m always on the back end of the group, but there is always somebody with me, somebody to talk to. Or I just enjoy the peace and quiet of riding.”
 

Tackling RA From All Sides

Along with her successful drug treatment, regular physical activity makes cross-country cycling possible, Messer strongly believes. “If I did not exercise, I could not move, I know that!”

She also adopted a vegetarian diet several years ago – something she says may or may not affect her RA but makes her feel healthier overall. She trains a few days a week on her trike, and she is now able to hike 8 to 10 miles again with Bruce. “I’m doing great! When something as simple as being able to walk across a room without excruciating pain, when you can go back to that – you don’t take it for granted, believe me.”

Messer’s newest challenge is a cross-continent trike ride she conceived with two friends from past rides: Kellie Morris, 58, who has undifferentiated arthritis; and Ed Dallas, 60, a Minnesota man who also mushes dog sleds and who survived a heart attack a few years ago. Morris will ride a trike and update their Facebook page on the way, and Dallas will ride a bike and also handle cooking duties. Their “epic journey,” as the trio calls it on Facebook, started a few years ago when Messer wanted new riding challenges and sought friends to join her. They hope to raise $30,000 for the Arthritis Foundation through fund-raising events at local restaurants, personal appeals and social media outreach. “We really have to hustle and hope people step it up,” she says of fund raising.

Messer’s year-long planning included tasks like gathering road maps, ordering bike trailers for their gear, and finding camping sites or motels along the way. People she meets often are incredulous that a 59-year-old mom with RA is undertaking this wild ride, she adds.

“People who know me know I do all these rides, but they think I’m out of my mind to do it for three months. People say ‘I’d love to do this,’ but getting started is hard,” laughs Messer, whose only concerns are sleeping on cold nights and avoiding oil tankers on the highway. “But once you’ve ridden the streets of Los Angeles or San Francisco, you’re ready for anything. That is combat training on a trike!”

She says she looks forward to the freedom of the open road, the majestic scenery of the countryside, and the camaraderie of riding with her friends. She also hopes their ride will illustrate how RA doesn’t have to derail your active lifestyle.

“I consider myself absolutely lucky. I feel like I have my health and the support of my family,” she says. “The money we’re raising helps, but this is also about raising awareness about chronic disease. That you don’t stop, you keep going.”

The Epic Journey

Pat Messer, Kellie Morris and Ed Dallas are riding 4,200 miles in 90 days this summer to raise money and awareness for the Arthritis Foundation. Here are the details of their epic journey:

Starting Point: Bar Harbor, Maine
Ending Point: Anacortes, Wash.
Start Date: May 17, 2012
End Date: Aug. 17, 2012
Approximate Miles Per Day: 55

To learn more about their trip, to follow their progress along the way, or to donate money, go to www.facebook.com/2trikesnbike