Adventures for the Cure: A Chat with Adam Driscoll

A few weeks ago I had a chance to talk to Adam Driscoll, who is well known in his work with Adventures for the Cure and the recent Documentary he and his friends produced to create awareness to Diabetes in the United States.  he was kind enough to talk to me, and fill me on what they’re doing and how they’re doing it.  My hope was to get this sooner rather than later, but here it is none the less:

District Cycling: Hi this is Gregg with District Cycling and I’m here with Adam Driscoll, How are you doing Adam?

Adam Driscoll: I’m doing good!

DC: I know of you from your documentary, Adventures for the Cure where you and some friends rode fixed gear bikes across the country, is that right?

AD: Yeah!

DC: Can you tell me a little bit about that for folks who aren’t familiar with it?

AD: Yeah, in 2006 myself and Patrick Blair decided that we were going to bike across the country to raise money for diabetes and another organization called Kupenda for the Children.  While we were getting ready and planning it, we were both were bikers, we ran cross country and track in college and we picked up bikes and I found out about this fixed gear bike and I was like “damn, this would be great if we could use this kind of bike.”  It was mostly because it was different than a normal bike.  It was a chance to raise more money and awareness for what we were doing by doing something a little different.  We ended up doing that trip in about three months, 100 miles a day, 6 days a week.  We had about 1 day a week off, depending where we were giving talks.  We gave talks along the way about diabetes or the organization Kupenda for the Children.  What else?  There was three of us riding and two guys driving our support car, which was a 1993 Nissan Sentra which all five of us lived out of that car for 3 months.  There were two brothers that were driving.  We went to school with them also and they were the ones that filmed our documentary and when we got back, we edited it and we were able to get Greg LeMond to narrate the film, which helped us get into some film festivals and stuff like that.

DC: There is a unique aspect to your film in that you have Diabetes, right?

AD: Yup!  I was diagnosed when I was twelve and I’m now 27.  When we graduated college, Pat and I were like ‘you know, we want to help people, why don’t we help people with Diabetes?”  We wanted to help people with Diabetes because I am Diabetic.  Biking is a bit more difficult to deal with than running because you’re on the bike longer than you are running.  When I was running, it was like 27-30 minutes for a 10K.  On a bike you’re like 2 hours at a time when you’re racing.  It was a difficult change over.  But we came up with Adventures for the Cure, that’s what we named ourselves and became a non-profit organization in 2007. 

DC: Diabetes is a big deal in this country.  It speaks to me as an American Indian because we’re the highest group per capita that is susceptible for Diabetes.  It runs more ramped among our communities than any other community.   Any Native person could tell you of someone they know that is Diabetic if they themselves  are not Diabetic and the way it affects their living and health and the different issues that come with that.  So thank you, that is incredible.  How has your film been received?

AD: The film has been received great.  Everyone that watches it loves it.  It’s just hard to get it out because we don’t really have a lot of money to get it out.  A lot of people have been helping through word of mouth.  We’re still selling about one DVD per week online.  We have it on Amazon too.  We’ve gotten some good reviews.  Everyone who has watched it seems to love it.  It’s got a combination of everything.  It’s not just a cycling movie, it’s just got a combination of a lot of things making it a fun journey.

DC: As a kid I did a lot of bike touring, something that my father and I did together doing long long trips in the desert of Utah.  I know from those experiences that there are a lot of memorable moments and random things that happen.  What were some of your memorable moments on your trip?

AD: There was one that sticks out.  Half way through our trip our tent got a hole in it.  Imagine 5 guys with a  5 man tent, you get done biking, you don’t shower and go into this tent.  It got pretty hot in there.  Half way through the trip we threw the tent out.  In Kansas and in other states like that, they have parks, city parks.  They usually have a pool there and we’ll pay to get into the pool, shower there, and then sleep in the parks because they had pavilions.  So we’d sleep under the pavilions because it was always rainy at night.  We had a little air mattress and we had our sleeping bags and we’d sleep on the picnic tables.  There was this one night where there were a whole lot of drunks guys that came by in their cars and they were so surprised that we were there.  They just pulled up and walked over and we woke up and they were all there.  At first we thought they might be hostile, but then one of our guys told them “he has Diabetes” and the guys were like “oh!  Diabetes!” and they got all scared.  It was kinda scary, but kind of a crazy situation. 

There were a lot of amazing people we came into contact with and how nice people where and the the people that let us stay with them; was incredible.  The trip wouldn’t have been a trip if it hadn’t been for the people we met along the way.  We set up with people ahead of time at warmshowers.org that helps people that are touring on bike across the United States and people just opened their houses up.  They gave us dinner, sometimes they’d let us use their car, and just a lot of amazing people we met.  There wasn’t really one awesome moment, but just how awesome everything was.

DC: You also race competitively, right? 

AD: Yeah!  I’m a Cat 3 Road and a Cat 2 Cyclocross.

DC: And on this trip you guys rode Surley Fixed gears, right?

AD: Right!

DC: Did they sponsor you guys for this?

AD: They donated three frames to us for the 2006 trip and then TriSpeed in Huntvalley, they donated wheels for us for that trip and a few other parts.  Surley was really excited about what we were doing because they have a connection with Diabetes and they kept putting us on their blog and they actually sponsored us last year for Race Across America.  We had a 4 man team and they gave us 4 complete bikes this time.  It was super generous of them to do that.

DC: What are you doing right now?

AD: Right now I am training for Race Across America 2 man.  Patrick and myself want to break the two man record, which is a 19.58 miles per hour average.  That is one of the goals.  The other goal is to raise $50,000 for the cause.  We are putting on a Diabetes camp May 15-17 and we’re also putting on a Diabetes camp on in September.  We want to raise $25,000 for the Diabetes Camp and another $25,000 for Kupenda for the Children.

DC: That is awesome.  So what kind of training are you looking at for this?

AD: Well, for example, Friday night we left Kingsville, MD at 6 pm and kept riding through the night.  We went through Hagerstown, Frederick and those areas and then went out and did the course for 200  miles from Annapolis.  We did the last 200 miles of the course.  We get about 390 miles, or somewhere right around there.

DC: Good grief man!

AD: There is lots and lots of climbing.

DC: I think anyone who knows about what you guys did by going across the country on fixed gears, you’re already hard core, and now you’re just crazy!  That is very cool!  So what are you riding these days?

AD: Now we’re actually riding Cannondale.  The Cannondale Slice Time Trial bike.  It’s incredibly fast.  I rode it yesterday for 130 miles at an average of 21.2 mph.  We also have the Cannondale 6.  We’re both going to have 2 bikes for the race and then after the race we’re going to auction them off.

DC: that’s awesome!  Give me some websites we can point people to.

AD: Sure, yeah!  AdventuresForTheCure.com .  We’ve got information about RAAM and contact information as well.  There is also Diabetes information up there, and we love to talk to people.  RaceAcrossAmerica.org is the race we’re doing. 

DC: Of course I hooked up with you on Facebook.com and you set up an organizational page on Facebook.com for Adventures for the Cure.  Well, Adam, thanks man!  I’ve been interested in what you guys are doing since I heard of it and I’ve got personal reasons for what you guys are doing.  Thanks!

AD: Thank you!

After our talk, Adam and I talked of Diabetes and the effect it has on people.  This is an important issue in our country, and Adam is not only an advocate for the cure, but to help people to know they’re not completely restricted by Diabetes.  The difference between Type 1 and Type 2 is fairly vast, but Adam is an example that anything is possible.  He’s a good guy, and his cause is incredible, so support it!

DC