Man’s 7 hour, 118-mile ride nets nearly $6,000 for PWFD

  Nick Grosenick completed his century ride — 118 miles, to be precise — on May 23, the day after his 41st birthday, and in the process raised roughly $5,300 for the Port Washington Fire Department.

That’s just shy of his $6,000 goal and enough to buy three automatic external defibrillators for the fire department’s vehicles.

“The whole fundraising side of things was cool,” Grosenick said.

He’s hoping a few more donations may come in and he might reach his goal before closing his GoFundMe page at the end of the week.

He used the century ride as a way not only to raise money for the defibrillators but also to raise awareness of the need for these devices.

Grosenick, of Port Washington, said his century ride took just less than seven hours. He and four friends took off from Sheboygan Falls and ended at Peninsula State Park in Door County, averaging about 16 mph.

“The weather was good,” Grosenick said. “The first 50 miles went pretty fast.”

They traveled along the Lake Michigan shore, a route Grosenick said was “very scenic,” and enjoyed a tailwind that carried them to Algoma.

The last part of the ride was largely heading into the wind, he said — including a time near the end when they were on a downward slope.

 “It was kind of demoralizing to be going downward and have to work at it,” he said.

 After the ride, Grosenick said, “the first words out of my mouth were, ‘I feel absolutely no need to ever do this again.’”

But after some conversation and rest, he said, he decided “this might be something cool to do once a year, where we would pick a project to raise money for. There’s always a cause that’s worthwhile.”

The day after the ride, Grosenick said, he rode his bike about 10 miles “and it hurt quite a bit.” That afternoon, we went about 20 miles on his bike.

“After doing almost 120 miles, 20 is really not a big deal,” Grosenick said. “Sometimes the best thing for sore muscles is to get the blood flowing.”

 His back still aches and his neck’s still a little sore, but it feels good to have accomplished his goal, Grosenick said.

But for now, he said, he’s giving up the road for a while and going back to mountain biking.

“I miss dirt,” he said.