Braking Away
by Jeff Kagan
If Chad Woodward had way, he would have spent more time indoors as a child. He disliked sports, yet his parents thought he’d be better off out of the house and being more active. Woodward says, “I avoided playing sports like I was getting paid for it! My parents, God love them, enrolled me in every sport under the sun, and I was without question, the worst one on the team every time!”
He discovered his athlete abilities as an adult at which time he started dabbling in track and triathlons. Having never run further than three miles in one session, he optimistically signed up for a marathon. Although the process was tough, at times unbearable, he lived through it, and he was hooked. “I drank the Kool-Aid! I went from fantastically anti-athletic to completing my first Ironman triathlon in the span of a few years.”
Jeff Adams says he was the least sporty kid around. He too caught the “sports bug” as an adult while playing softball in his company softball league. An avid hockey fan, he decided to give it a whirl and in the fall of 2001, and he now plays with the NYC Gay Hockey Association on two different teams, the Tigers and the Boxers.
Unlike Woodward and Adams, Mason Scherzer spent plenty of time outdoors as a child. His mother was a national level softball player which may have rubbed off on him. He also played tennis, and in college he progressed to volleyball. When it came to sports, he was like the Energizer Bunny. He’s been playing with Big Apple Softball for the past 14 years, and he’s also made some passes with the NY Gay Football League.
Each of these men has one thing in common – their desire to use their love of sports to help make a difference. All three are participating in this weekend’s Braking The Cycle AIDS Ride. Last year, this 285-mile bicycle ride from Boston to New York will raised over $300,000 to support HIV/AIDS services offered by the NYC Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender Center.
Why do they do it? Scherzer considers himself to be extraordinarily lucky. “For my health, for my family that didn't freak out about the gay thing, and for my friends and support network. I thought that I owed it to karma that as long as I could do something to try and help out others who weren't so lucky that I should do so. It's really a gift now that I give myself each year, this ride”, he says.
Woodward was inspired by a man in a promotional video about the ride. He says, “There was an interview with a man who told his story about being so close to dying, there was little hope left. Through actions taken by the Center, he lived. That was several years before said interview. I met him that year on the ride and he told me his story, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I have never been so moved and touched as I was in that moment. The sincerity of his intention and the courage of his story were things of storybooks to me. To this day, I count that single discussion as one of the most influential moments of my life.”
Find out more about Braking The Cycle at www.brakingthecycle.org.
Quickies
Wetness: Congratulations to Team New York Aquatics swimmers (amongst others) who swam 4-miles, from Sayville to The Pines, at the 3rd Annual Stonewall Foundation Swim on Saturday, August 13th raising over $150K for the Stonewall Community Foundation.
Dodginess: Big Apple Dodgeball had its first ever Summer Co-Ed Charity tournament in August raising $2250 with team "Lesbian Swan" swooping in to take the crown. The tournament was co-sponsored by Gym Bar and Rockbar and all proceeds of the tourney will go to the GLSEN Sports Project.
Bikiness: He likes the nickname Patch, but Patrick Chin-Hong's middle name might as well be "perseverance," after he completed Paris-Brest-Paris, a 1200 km (745 mi.) bike tour from France's capital city to the coast of Brittany, in under 90 hours. Patrick made quick stops, to eat and to sleep on cafeteria countertops and in roadside ditches, never for more than an hour, joining about 5,000 spandex-clad, sleep-deprived zombies.
Runniness: Frontrunners New York’s Men's masters team placed 5th of 28 teams in NYRR's Team Championships on August 6 in one of the most competitive team races of the year. Congratulations to the men who scored for the team: Chris Stoia, Patrick Guilfoyle, Matt Anderson, Marty McElhiney, and Mike Grzelecki!
Softness: Congratulations to the NYC Fusion and NYC Swingers on their 1st and 2nd place finishes, respectively, in the Big Apple Softball’s Playing For Life 8 Tournament D Division. Honorable mention to the Long Island LIPSA All-Stars for 3rd place in the C Division. Learn more about the tournament at www.playingforlife.org.
