Many people want to see America, coast to coast. You can do that via planes, trains and automobiles – but on a bicycle?
That’s the trip Martha Gossage Hall is planning, to benefit a cause close to her heart. The Peachtree City resident is training for a solo cycling race that starts June 13 in Oceanside, California, and ends in Annapolis, Maryland. Called Race Across America, the event spans 3,000 miles across 12 states, with climbs of more than 170,000 vertical feet. It’s 30 percent longer than the Tour de France, but has to be completed within 12 days.
This doesn’t faze the tirelessly cheerful single mom, an endurance coach for Atlanta-based Peak Racing Team who also works in the Coweta County solicitor general’s office. She was part of a co-ed RAAM team in 2015, which qualified her to ride solo. Fewer than 20 percent of RAAM athletes are women; the number of women who ride solo is even smaller. Hall will be accompanied by an eight-member crew plus her two sons, Jon, 12, and Henry, 15.
Born prematurely, Henry weighed less than two pounds at birth and had his first eye surgery at six weeks old. He has limited vision but not limited goals. He’s an avid reader and an avid talker — a smart and funny kid currently on the Whitewater High School swim team.
Hall has dealt with some serious health issues of her own, but she’s determined to race across America to benefit Henry and other kids like him. Her ultimate goal is to raise donations to support the Atlanta-based Center for the Visually Impaired, whose Social, Therapeutic, Academic and Recreational Services program provides monthly services and activities for school-age children in metro Atlanta. These include going rafting and zip-lining, taking cooking classes, attending sports games and getting college prep advice.
STARS has really helped Henry, she says, and she wants to help them back. “It has given him confidence, broadened his friendships, and gives him a place to belong with other kids who are like him and accept him,” she says. “As a parent, to see your child blossom and grow and develop these amazing relationships with other kids, it touches your heart.”
And Henry appreciates her effort. “It’s really awesome,” he says, “because it means so much to me and my friends at the program.”
As she trains, Hall is working up to riding 1,000 miles a week by May. For the actual race she’ll be on her bike 19 hours per day, getting only four hours of sleep plus a little time to eat and change clothes. Henry and Jon will be in charge of the Team STARS social media along the way.
Hall did the night shift during her first cross-country ride, and says seeing the sun rise every morning across the vast and changing landscape was “by far the most memorable experience.”
She will see all that and more again. But she’s doing it so kids like Henry can see a better future.
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