Tour de Harrison bike ride to benefit cancer research

By: | Times-Dispatch
Published: June 21, 2009

Tour de Harrison

Victory Lap 2009

Event: This is a family bike ride to benefit childhood cancer research.

Registration: Walk-ups will be taken at 3 p.m. today at the University of Richmond's Weinstein Center.

Cost: There is a $35 donation for adults; $20 for children under 12.

Route: From UR, the ride will go down Grove Avenue to the Boulevard and back.

More information:

www.tourdeharrison.com

MARIA HOWARDFitness It was the imagery of a bike race that got Harrison Strickler through his battle with cancer. So it's fitting that his family chose a biking event to raise money for cancer research after Harrison regained his health.

Harrison was 6 when he was diagnosed with a form of leukemia in February 2004. Nearly every night throughout his chemotherapy and radiation treatment, his mother, Leslie, would remind him that a bike race is grueling and that winners don't give up. Harrison, who loved to ride his bike and had long admired cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, was strengthened by that reminder.

So last year, exactly two years after his last chemotherapy round, Harrison's family hosted a Father's Day event called the Tour de Harrison Victory Lap. Harrison, who's now 12, led the way on the 10-mile bike ride starting at the University of Richmond and winding through Byrd Park before returning to UR.

The Stricklers are set to do it again today.

"It's a way for us to give back to the community that helped us through so much," said Harrison's father, Al Strickler. Last year's event raised about $20,000 that was donated to the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research. It was then awarded as a grant to fund the research of a Columbia University doctor studying childhood T-cell leukemia.

Today's biking event starts and ends at the UR Weinstein Center. It is sponsored by AT Home Care and will include dinner afterward.

Harrison grinned when asked whether he likes to be out front in this race. "Usually," he said modestly. But of course, he doesn't get the chance to ride 10 miles with a police escort all the time.

"Usually, we just ride around the neighborhood," he said with another broad, braces-filled grin.

During his treatments, Harrison wrote to Armstrong, who survived an aggressive form of testicular cancer and came back to win the Tour de France seven times. Harrison received T-shirts, pictures and notes from Armstrong.

That boosted his spirits and helped him through.

Al Strickler said: "The whole biking theme was strong through that adventure and the recovery. . . . That imagery was reinforced on a daily basis."

And why Father's Day? That, too, seemed to fit, Strickler said.

"It's an event that families can participate in . . . instead of just going to dinner or something like that."

But don't be fooled into thinking you have to train for this event. It's not a race. Everyone sticks together on this bike tour.

"It's very controlled," Strickler said.
Maria Howard is a group exercise instructor for the YMCA of Greater Richmond. Her column runs every other week in Sunday Flair.