Chad Cochran had no idea that a favorite family pastime would soon become a new passion. A couple of years ago, Chad and his family began riding their bikes for fun and exercise at CedarHillState Park.

In 2006 Chad came across a flyer for the SAM’S CLUB MS 150 and decided that riding in the fundraising event would be his new calling, but the ride was just a few months away.

Chad’s wife, Monica, agreed that he might not be ready in time for the two-day, 150-mile ride.

“You don’t have time to prepare; you aren’t as young as you seem to think you are,” Monica joked.

Chad decided he should wait until the 2007 ride, but kept training everywhere he could – in the park, at the gym and in spin class – but he soon realized he needed a proper road bike.

A month before the 2007 tour, Monica’s cousin visited the Cochrans and they began talking about the challenge coming up in May. She mentioned that she had a road bike that had been sitting unused on her porch for the last two years.  

Chad gladly accepted the free bike and took it to B&B bicycles to get a few repairs done. He soon encountered another obstacle – SAM’S CLUB MS 150 safety guidelines required that each bike must pass inspection before the weekend’s ride.

“I couldn’t afford all of the repairs. The ride was coming up fast, and I couldn’t pass inspection. I was devastated,” Chad says.

About a week later, Chad went into B&B to look around the store, and the salesmen urgently rushed up to him as soon as he walked in the door. The store had misplaced Chad’s number and had been desperately trying to reach him to let him know that the all of his bike repairs had been taken care of.

Unknown to Chad at the time, his close friends and neighbors, Karen and Jose, had secretly paid for the repairs so he could participate in what he had been looking forward to the past two months.

“It was the most exciting experience I’ve had in a long time. [The team] decided we would cross the line together, side by side, rather than one at a time in a pace line,” he says of the 2007 tour.  

Chad will be back again for his second ride, and this time Karen and Jose’s son, Tyler, 15, will be joining him along the route from Frisco to Fort Worth.

The Cochran’s oldest daughter, Haven, 11, is already training for next year’s MS 150. Chad hopes his other two daughters will join him when they are old enough, but for now they help fundraise by baking and selling cookies.

Even after all of the problems he faced that first year, Chad says the struggle was well worth it.

“I left that event with new friends, new respect for cyclists, new inspiration, a new drive to raise awareness, and a new sport to introduce to my kids.”