Anne and Mike Kruimer – Overcoming Disability in Tandem
Paralyzed from the waist down in a 1992 cycling accident, Anne Kruimer of Edison, New Jersey is one of the tour’s more extraordinary participants. She and her husband, Mike, ride a specially designed tandem bicycle with a front hand crank, averaging 4,000 miles annually. Theirs is a remarkable story of overcoming obstacles and continuing to reach goals in the face of adversity. Married 32 years, the couple is a true tandem, as Mike says, riding together or not at all. They will make the 53-day, 2,800-mile journey from Maine to Florida this fall alongside eight other cyclists.
“We hope to show that, unlike the Appalachian Trail, the East Coast Greenway is accessible to people of all abilities,” says Mike. “Deciding to go on this trip has renewed our goals and helped focus our minds and energies. We’ve always wanted to do a long ride, but after Anne’s accident it looked like we would never be able to. Twelve years later we’ll be among only 10 cyclists to ride the inaugural tour of the East Coast Greenway from Canada to Key West. That’s huge!”
Jack Kurrle – Setting the Pace at 74 Years Young
The tour’s oldest participant, Jack Kurrle (pronounced “curly”), is a 74 year old from Sun City West, Arizona who has ridden across the United States twice in the past 20 years. In June 2002, while cycling down the East Coast, he was struck by an automobile, leaving him with a broken neck, back, and hip. Since climbing back on his bike again last summer he has ridden nearly 5,000 miles despite lingering physical problems. Jack is a vibrant interviewee whose positive outlook on life is both infectious and tremendously inspirational.
“This tour will be something for me to be proud of,” Kurrle notes. “It’s the equivalent to being in the first group to hike the Appalachian Trail, and that’s exciting. For me it’s more than that though—it’s therapy. Today I don’t take any medications, not even aspirin, and I owe it all to cycling. People tell me I’m crazy for getting back on a bike at this point in my life. I say, when you fall off a horse you have to get back on. You can’t let your mind get in the way of having fun and doing the things you like to do.”
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