Anchor House Ride for Runaways is Ready to Roll

Martha Moseley

Martha Moseley was fed up with getting stuck in traffic when Alexander Road was closed for construction, but she made the best of the situation by biking to work in Princeton instead of driving.

“My 14-mile drive was turning into a nightmare because of the road closure,” she said. “One day it took me nearly two hours to travel the short distance. That’s when I realized I would start commuting by bike.”

Not only did the greener mode of transportation shorten the time it took her to get home from work, but she was also able to log in hundreds of training miles for the 33rd annual Anchor House Ride for Runaways, a 500-mile, 7-day ride that raises money for Anchor House, the Trenton-based shelter for runaway, abused and neglected children and teens.

Moseley, a former Princeton resident who recently moved to Yardley, Pa. will kick off her 15th Anchor House ride when she begins peddling back to New Jersey all the way from Jamestown, New York along with almost 200 other area cyclists tomorrow morning.

The cyclists have been training for months and collecting donations to get ready for the ride. Thursday all their preparations came to a close and the time for training was over as the cyclists loaded their bikes on a truck headed for Upstate New York. After a celebratory send off today at Waterfront Park in Trenton, they boarded buses for the eight hour trip to Jamestown.

The cyclists line up to load their bikes.

Rainy weather made training for the ride a challenge for many of the cyclists this year. Moseley was glad she could ride to and from her job at Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, but it also meant riding in inclement weather some days.

Every week she packed a small suitcase and drove to work on Monday mornings. She left her car at the office all week, and traveled back an forth by bike via lesser traveled roads, avoiding the traffic back ups that were common while Alexander Road was under construction.

“At the end of the day, when I completed both legs of the commute, I had about 40 Anchor House training miles under my belt,” she said.  “It helps to have a shower at the office and the great support of my employer.”

One challenge traveling by bike was getting her morning coffee fix. “I finally figured out how to get a large Small World coffee cup into my water bottle cage without spilling a drop,” she said.

Moseley and the other cyclists will depart from Jamestown, hometown of Lucille Ball, early in the morning and pedal 73.4 miles to Olean for the first leg of the journey.

Princeton is well-represented on the ride, with a dozen borough and township residents participating.

The scene at Waterfront Park early this morning.

Note: Krystal Knapp is a cyclist participating in the 33rd annual Anchor House ride for Runaways. She will try to update this blog when she can, that is, when she is not riding or recovering from riding. For more information about Anchor House or to make a donation, visit www.anchorhouseride.org.