KEYC - Mankato News, Weather, Sports - - Big Ride Across America

Steve Linbeck's biking more than 33 hundred miles. He says, "There is this sort of vertigo you feel dizzy and not sure what to do and disoriented. You know your struggling for some kind of solid ground and some way to move forward."

But it wasn't the trek that made him lose his ground. In 2004, his wife was diagnosed with stage three lung cancer. And it was all just tangled up in there and terrifying to look at it" Biking is a big breath of fresh air. He says, "It sounds corny but I stop and thing well compared to what she went through this isn't that big a deal."

But Ride Director Charlton DuRant says, there is a reason most people participate just once in this event. DuRant says, "They don't call of the big ride for nothing it's quite an undertaking it's 48 days under the road we average 80 miles a day for 40 days."

From Seattle Washington–to–Washington DC, the group is expected to raise $150,000. So far, Lindbeck raised close to $29,000. "I just looked on my website and somebody had sent a contribution earlier today and it's really inspiring all the people who have donated."

His other inspiration is his wife. "She has run for post cancer marathons and we feel that it's kind of a miracle that she's her and we both do anything we can to improve the odds for other people to have such a great result."

Lindbeck will celebrate his 20th wedding anniversary with his wife at his next rest spot in Wisconsin. She's flying out to meet up with him from their home in Alaska.