By the time Mark and Heather Segal pedaled into North Dakota, they hoped the biggest challenge of their carefully planned 3,900-mile bike ride across the U.S already lay several states behind them.
On the third day of the trip, the couple discovered that wildfires had closed the critical road meant to carry them across Washington state. And so, they’d blown up their map, embracing an unexpected three-day detour and riding more than 200 extra miles to get back on track.
Easy? No. Satisfying? Yes.
But then came the headwinds of North Dakota. This was a problem that could not be solved, only endured.
After three straight days of riding against the wind, Mark raised the cuff of his jacket to reveal a white Team Reeve bracelet around his wrist. He’d worn it every day since 2021, when he and Heather had first set off on what would become an annual and epic fundraising ride across the country to raise money for spinal cord injury research.
On this day, he needed to see the bracelet, to remind himself of the friends he rode in honor of, and their ongoing determination to reclaim lives reshaped by injuries.
“When I pulled it out, that was my motivation,” he says. “I imagined my friends rolling alongside me. I thought about the progress they’ve made and the obstacles they have to face to keep going. And I knew I had to keep going.”
On September 25, 68 days after they set off, the Segals rode the final miles of their journey back home to Larchmont, New York. Arriving on what would’ve been Christopher Reeve’s 72nd birthday, the couple had much to celebrate.
Since 2021, they have ridden from one corner of the country to another for Team Reeve, pedaling close to 12,000 miles and raising nearly $128,000 to fund treatments and cures for spinal cord injury. They’ve survived countless challenges, including severe dehydration in Yuma, Arizona, a precarious ride across a bridge in Alabama during a storm with wind gusts of 40+ mph, and multiple days of bone-chilling rain on the coast of Oregon. They’ve sampled milkshakes and donuts in cities and small towns from Texas to Maine and stood in the shallow headwaters of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.
And, wearing their neon Team Reeve T-shirts every day, the Segals have introduced the work of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to hundreds of people along the way.