by Steven R Malikowski, PhD

My next book will be Long Ride: Cycling 4,000 miles with stage 4 cancer. It’s based on real events in 2017-2018. Here are the first few lines.

“You have every reason to think that you’ll live longer than average.” Dr. Carrington told me while I sat in an exam room.
“What’s average?” I asked.
She paused and softly said, “Three years.”

I broke down, and this story shares that sadness. But the story doesn’t dwell on sadness. A few lines later, it says I had stage 4 prostate cancer and adds a little humor.

Prostate cells must have testosterone, whether they’re healthy or cancerous. So, like most guys in my situation, my first treatment was a shot that turned off my testosterone, years before.
There are a few symptoms of having no testosterone. You might guess the first one. My sex drive fell to nearly nothing. I’d sometimes joke that if a dozen supermodels were standing around a new bike, I’d ask them to get out of the way, so I could see the bike.

My oncologists recommended a few treatments, but my cancer got worse before we could try them, leading to a search for another treatment. I worked out my mixed up emotions on intense bike rides. Then, a new medication worked. We didn’t know how long it would work, so I decided to cycle 4,000 miles across the US while my body still could, raising a dollar a mile for cancer research.

I made new friends, shared my sad news, cried a lot, and laughed a lot. I also met others who’d gone through tougher times than me. I needed their inspiration when cancer still scared me and when my insurance company tried cutting off the meds that kept me alive. Generous strangers also helped when I was lost, exhausted on 100-degree days, and stuck in intense storms.

One of those strangers held my attention more than most. Even with mixed up emotions, I instantly felt attracted to her. She was a German woman traveling the world alone. Sometimes, she seemed interested in me, but I was never sure, until we cycled together for 1,000 miles.

With all these emotional turns, the story shows what it’s like to pedal up a mountain, reach 51 MPH going down, and some of the best sights a 4,000-mile ride across the US has to offer. In this story, I take you along for the ride. And there’s a happy ending. I lived.