3-day bicycle ride will become disorder's rolling support group

The first time Jim Smith tried biking 200 miles, on the annual Seattle to Portland ride, he had to pull off 20 miles from the finish line with an intense attack of ulcerative colitis.

"I had to call my wife to say, 'Hey honey, I'm in a porta potty. Come pick me up,' " he recalls.

The next time he attempted that distance, he cycled alongside 60 other riders who had faced down similar symptoms, riding to raise awareness and money in an event Smith himself had helped bring to the Seattle area last year.

August marks the second time cyclists from around the country will ride 210 miles through Snohomish County in three days as part of Get Your Guts in Gear, a benefit for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The disorder, caused by either ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, is marked by extreme abdominal cramping and chronic diarrhea.

For the riders and volunteers who live with the disease or love someone who does, just the chance to meet each other and discuss their experiences is worth the exhausting three days.

"We're squeamish about that part of our body. And it can be terrible to go out in public thinking, 'Where is the nearest restroom?' " said volunteer Lois Fink, who has IBD. "This is a rolling support group. Everybody's been there."

Guts in Gear founder Judith Pacitti, an avid biker from New York, was diagnosed several years ago with Crohn's disease and organized the fundraising ride to benefit the IBD Quilt Project, which is modeled after the AIDS awareness quilt.

Since that first New York ride in 2004, annual events have cropped up this year in Austin, Texas, and last year in Snohomish County, thanks to Seattle-area volunteers like Smith and Fink.

A half-dozen dedicated riders, like Harry Keefe, of New Jersey, whose daughter was diagnosed with IBD in 2004, will even ride at all three events across the country this year.

Keefe, a veteran cyclist and fundraiser, who has participated in rides benefiting children's shelters and cancer research, as well as five of the six Guts in Gear rides so far, says more famous events with thousands of riders can't match the IBD rides when it comes to the quality of support and community.

In fact, while the New York ride grew from 27 cyclists in 2004 to 92 riders this year, and more than 80 participants have already registered for the Snohomish County ride in three weeks, Pacitti has decided to cap all rides at 100 cyclists each in order to preserve the personal feel and close relationships of the events.

The organization so far has raised more than $1 million toward charities that include the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, the Colon Club, the United Ostomy Association of America and the IBD Quilt Project.

Organizers, however, insist fundraising is only part of their goal, along with uniting and empowering people whose lives have been changed by IBD.

Smith noted the story of a recently diagnosed high-school student who volunteered at the Texas ride in March.

"He said, 'I never knew there were so many people like me,' " recalled Smith. "That's what this is about. We're showing people that you can live with this disease. It is not a death sentence. That's this ride in a nutshell."

Brad Haynes: 425-745-7812 or bhaynes@seattletimes.com