24 Hours of Booty - Why I Ride

I am proud to be riding my second 24 Hours of Booty this July. We have an even bigger team this year with Joe, Mike, MaryBeth, Mike Aldridge, Chris Rohlfs, Peggy Barrett and Stacey Fano riding too. Bootyville should be fun! If you'd like to support me, please click here.

To kick off the year 24HOB asked for submissions on why people ride. Thought I'd share mine.

My brother Peter was four when he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma; brain cancer. My mom was seven months pregnant with me at the time. Over the next year my brother underwent chemo and various other procedures to try to fight the cancer growing inside of him. Despite the battle, my brother died from cancer at the age of five. In addition to the regular demands of life, my parents had to struggle with the grief of losing a child while dealing with me, not yet two.

I am now 36 and am lucky to have a four year old child in my life, a little boy with whom I am utterly, and completely in love. He makes me laugh with his stories, his imagination and his innocence. In the middle of coloring he will look up at me and randomly tell me he loves me and my day is perfect. Many nights after I tuck him into bed, after he asks for one more kiss goodnight, I think of my parents and Peter, who was this age when he was diagnosed. I cannot imagine the emotions my parents went through finding out that their sweet boy who was so full of life, was fighting a horrible disease. I think of how hard it would be to do anything else but love and care for the sick child, much less tend to the needs of a newborn. His death must have destroyed them in a way that I cannot fathom, and then they had to raise me, not to mention manage through their grief together and try to move forward and have another child. Somehow they did which makes me feel very lucky.

For me 24 Hours of Booty is a family affair. My younger brother comes up from south Florida and he, my husband and I ride. My parents and brother’s fiancee help us set up in Bootyville, have dinner with us and hang out until it is time for them to get some sleep, and for me to get some major miles in. I keep going because my parents had to keep going. My life’s challenges pale in comparison to what they had to face and I am forever in awe of them for their strength.

I ride in 24 Hours of Booty in memory of my brother, Peter James Mann. I ride in honor of my parents, Jim and Kathy Mann, who gave me a happy childhood and stayed married, even though the odds against them were high. But most of all, I ride in hopes that there will be a day where we don’t have children dying from cancer; that if you love a child you can know there will be a lifetime of I love yous and good night kisses.