Pedal power

we’re sad people. It’s about drinking and barbecue. It’s about MS, but you don’t feel like it.”

That’s probably because the founder Alice Laussade created the event to help her own brother, Mike Laussade, who also has MS. Through mutual friend Marta Sprague of Noble Coyote the siblings met McRae and she was convinced to join their Meat Bike team.

Meat Bike, which is an offshoot of Meat Fight, provides people with MS with a brand new road bike from Richardson Bike Mart and a full cycling kit — Spandex, helmet, shoes and more. The purpose is to get active because cardio can lessen the symp- toms of MS. In return, the participants agree to cross the start line at any bike MS event.

“I was like, ‘Oh wow, I haven’t ridden a bike since I was 14, so I don’t know,’” McRae remembers.

As McRae thought about it, she remembered how much she loved riding her bike as a kid, and she did need the exercise, so she figured, “Why not?”

She signed on, and she and Sprague began riding together at White Rock Lake. She also began riding with other Meat Bike team members, and for the first time met other people with MS.

“Before I wasn’t exercising and putting myself out there,” she says. “I wasn’t even meeting other people with MS. I was just living with MS, so getting this bike was really some of the best medicine anyone has every prescribed to me.”

At first she only rode a few miles at a time because she was nervous about falling. MS affects balance, fatigue, nerve pain and sparks muscular symptoms like cramping, stiffness and difficulty with coordination.

“I was afraid it would make me feel worse,” she explains. “But it didn’t and I was able to ride more and more. It was exciting that I could even accomplish that, and it actually gave me energy and I’m stronger from it too.”

In 2015 McRae rode in her first longdistance ride, and she made it 77 miles — something she never dreamed possible.

“The most I’d ridden before that was 22 miles,” she points out. “I never would have even entered if it wasn’t for Meat Bike.”

She plans to race again and hopes to ride longer distances each year. McRae has made Meat Fight and Meat Bike two of her passions. As the team adds new riders, the older riders become mentors, she says. Although the focus is more on socializing and exercise, as a byproduct, she’s become more comfortable discussing MS.

“It’s a part of my life, and it’s healthier to have it out there and talk with other people who have MS,” she explains. “So as you’re riding and things come up, like if you can’t feel your feet one day, it’s easier to talk about it with people who also have MS. It makes me realize, ‘OK I don’t have to hide from this and keep it in the background.’”