Reach for the Beach

Inspired by his father’s death, Troutdale cyclist tests his mettle with 100-mile ride

By Shannon Wells

The Gresham Outlook, May 15, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Troutdale cyclist Jason Johnson will ride in the Reach the Beach event today, May 16.

Jim Clark / Gresham Outlook

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Lung cancer claimed Roger Johnson’s life at the tender age of 39.

Now, three years since quitting his pack-a-day habit, Jason, his 37-year-old son, has taken control of his health and physical fitness. He plans to go the distance his father was denied — literally.

The Troutdale resident set off this morning on a 100-mile bicycle trek from Beaverton to Pacific City. He joined at least 2,500 other riders in Reach the Beach, an annual fundraising ride for the American Lung Association.

After logging nearly 2,000 miles on his thin-tired Raleigh road bike this year alone, Johnson’s both excited and apprehensive about the challenge he put before himself.

“This ride’s the longest I’ve done,” he says a couple days before Reach the Beach. “Until now, 76 miles was my longest (ride). I definitely could feel it. I hope I will enjoy this.”

One of three Reach the Beach routes covering distances of 26, 55, 80 and 100 miles, Johnson’s ride snakes through scenic secondary roads from the Scholls Ferry Road starting point in Beaverton to the scenic coastal town of Pacific City. A beach party with food, beverages and revelry awaits those who achieve the event’s titular goal.

Participants who registered ahead of time pay a $60 registration fee and contribute a minimum $50 donation.

Ride to remember

The event is one of several athletic-based American Lung Association fundraisers, including the Reach the Summit climb to Mount Hood and Reach the Bridge, which challenges runners to make it across from Portland’s West Hills before the Burnside Bridge is raised, notes Dana Kaye, executive director of the American Lung Association’s Oregon chapter.

Reach the Beach attracts those who have overcome lung-related problems as well as friends and relatives who have suffered from illness, she says.

“Very many of our riders suffer from asthma and have learned to manage the event quite well. We commonly have family and friends running or participating in honor of someone who has lung disease or has died from lung disease,” she says.

With more than 300 volunteers, who among other things help with organizing the care and nourishment stations along the routes, the 19-year-old event attracts participants of all types and skill levels.

“Your level of fitness and expertise on a bicycle can vary,” she says, “from the weekend warrior all the way up to a serious cyclist. The ride itself is beautiful.”

Like father, like son

Johnson, who took up smoking when he was 15, says his dad’s lung cancer diagnosis came with the prediction that he had six months left to live.

“He lived up to that,” Johnson says matter-of-factly.

His father died in 1989.

Jason says he understood his father’s decision to live the way he wanted in his final months.

“He didn’t quit (smoking),” Johnson says, standing outside the house he shares with his girlfriend and their son, Zach. “He was diagnosed as terminal and decided to continue doing what he did.”

Johnson ruefully recalls the only advice his father dispensed regarding his inherited habit.

“He said, ‘You know Jason, if you’re going to smoke, smoke light cigarettes.’ Of course, later in life I realized light doesn’t mean light in nicotine. It means light in flavor.”

Johnson, who smoked intermittently for years after losing his father, doesn’t mince words when describing the power behind his tobacco consumption.

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