HANOVER COUNTY, Va. — Retirement provokes a lot of feelings, including the urge to find meaning and do some good.
"I've thought about the feeling of having accomplished something, and again, thinking about those stricken with multiple sclerosis, and how our group has helped them through hundreds of thousands of donations," said Thomas Rayner. "At a certain age, you realize life doesn't go on forever, and you want to do some things while you can.
But the 62-year-old Hanover County man picked a challenge that very few retirees would even consider. "This started becoming a larger and larger thinking item and pondering item. And I thought, 'I should give this a shot.'"
This summer the former Anthem executive is going to put thousands of miles on his bicycle. "What we'll do in Yorktown is to dip the right tire in the Atlantic or Chesapeake Bay, and then in San Francisco later, we'll dip the left tire. So that's coast to coast."
That's 3,785 miles to be exact, across nine states. And he'll be doing it to raise money for people living with multiple sclerosis.
With a mid-June departure date for the 65-day journey, he is already ramping up the training. "I'm trying to ride four days a week," said Rayner. "It takes a lot of hours per week, a lot of road time and a lot of planning, because it's important to train. You don't want to go out there and let the team down, let yourself down, and you don't want to get hurt."
The Bike the US for MS Transamerica Ride is not for the faint of heart. "There will be a decent pace we'll have to keep up with, but you just have to think about really what you're riding for. It's those one million folks in this country who have multiple sclerosis, and can we make their lives just a little bit easier?
Rayner says he does not have a relative with MS but knows several people with the disease.
As for what his family might think of a multi-month cross-country trek on a road bike, it seems they're used to Rayner periodically coming up with big plans.
"My kids weren't totally surprised, because I've done a couple of things like this," Rayner said. "I ran a marathon, and I'm not a runner."
Rayner's edge may be his ability to focus, not just on spreadsheets, but on the terrain in front of him. "There's a big mental component, particularly when you're going up three sets of mountains that are in the different states," said Rayner. "There's a lot of training involved. There's a lot of gear involved. But in one sense, you really can't train for something like this. What they say is, you get in shape in Virginia, and that carries you the rest of the way, through the other eight states."
As for the other aspect of his new-found job, the raising money part, Rayner says that comes naturally as well. "It's the old-fashioned, 'Hey, can you help me?' Rayner said. "And when we tell people about the cause that we're part of and what you're trying to do to help, people are more than willing. People have been very generous, and I'm very uplifted from that."
If you would like to contribute to Thomas Rayner's effort to help people with MS, click here.
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