After His Son’s Death, Mac Dorris Started a Charity Ride to Raise Awareness About Mental Illness
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Name: Mac Dorris
Age: 68
Hometown: New Paltz, New York
Occupation: Retired lawyer; now CEO of The Ride for Mental Health charity bike ride
Time Cycling: 50 years
Reason for Cycling: I love riding. I love how I feel on the bike and how I feel after a ride. I enjoy riding in a group with friends. I like the challenge of the hills and I enjoy the speed of the descents. It puts a smile on my face. I also love the scenery up in the Hudson Valley—there are so many great vistas.
I started to ride fairly seriously when I was in college when my older brother introduced me to a 15-year-old kid who raced. I thought I would blow him away when we went on our first ride together. Little did I know—he dropped me after 100 yards. That was my introduction to a new level of cycling. I loved it and he taught me everything about pace lines and training for racing criteriums. That was all back in 1974!
That same year, my friend, Tommy Gerstley, introduced me to racing, and I started as a Cat 4 adult riding in criteriums in the Northeast. Tommy and I would do our usual training ride of about 40 miles up to Doylestown, Pennsylvania and back, most weekdays after work. We would do a sprint at the end of each ride and I don’t think I ever won the sprint. He was a terrific track rider and had giant thighs. My only chance in the sprint was to reach over and mess with his gear levers.
I did okay in the criteriums, but never won. I didn’t have a great sprint, nor was I a great breakaway rider. I was pretty good tactically, and usually found a good wheel around the last corner to help pull me across the finish line in the top 10. I moved up to Cat 3, but never had the speed to move up to Cat 2.
There were no training apps back then. We used rollers for training indoors. My racing career was short, but fun. I was done by 1979. The stars back then were people like Wayne and Dale Stetina and Davis Phinney.
Today, however, cycling has become something more than racing. Cycling helped my healing process following the death of my son, Eric. He was our middle son. Eric was a great kid—smart, good looking, funny, insightful and generous. He had many interests, each of which he pursued with great passion, from technology to fashion to cooking.
Unfortunately, he also struggled with anxiety, depression, and ultimately borderline personality disorder. In 2015, he went to McLean Hospital as an outpatient for his mental health struggles. Unfortunately, he died in early 2016 from an accidental overdose. He was only 21.
I cannot begin to tell you how devastating it is to lose a child or a sibling at such a young age. About a year after Eric died, I looked on the internet for charity rides that benefit mental health. Finding almost none, we decided to start The Ride for Mental Health.
The Ride for Mental Health takes place in New Paltz, New York, and participants can ride 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, or a 14-mile rail trail route.
For me, the Ride helps with my grief. It allows me to tell others about this great young man named Eric who would want to help others if he were alive today. The Ride allows us to honor Eric and to let others tell their stories about mental illness.
We would like to see the Ride grow from year to year. Our goals are to eliminate the stigma surrounding mental illness and to raise critically needed funds for the education, research, and treatment of mental illness. For me, if we can simply help one person, it’s all worth it.
We started with 100 riders in 2017. This past summer, we had more than 100 volunteers and 464 registered riders, which included a sizable number of virtual riders from all over the country.
The Ride for Mental Health is developing a community of riders who come together not just for a day of riding, but for a weekend of riding and sharing and meeting others who want to show their support for mental health. Participants can ride on Saturday or Sunday or both days. We have a dinner for everyone on Saturday evening. The most popular ride option is to ride the north 50 on Saturday, join us for dinner in the evening, and return Sunday to ride the south 50.
Currently, I try to ride four days a week. I’ve been riding more indoors lately now that we have amazing apps like Zwift. We are starting a new club on Zwift—The Ride for Mental Health—and we’ll have our first ride at the end of March. It will be every Tuesday morning at 6:45 a.m. eastern time. It’s another exciting part of this adventure.
When the weather improves I will ride outdoors more. I have a terrific group to ride with, and I also go back to Brooklyn from time to time. I have a number of riding friends who I join in Prospect Park.
I feel great after I’ve gone for a ride. I’ve also met so many great friends through cycling. I always wave when I see another cyclist on the road and they always wave back. I love the diversity of a group ride. Nobody cares about things like what people do for a living or how much money somebody makes; it’s just about the ride. I really appreciate that aspect of group riding.
These three tips have made my cycling journey a success:
1. Get out there and ride
Mix it up. Try different types of riding. Try gravel riding. Ride on a rail trail. We have amazing hiking trails near us in New Paltz, New York that are wonderful for gravel riding. It’s a great change of pace from road riding. Going up into the Mohonk Preserve and Minnewaska State Park in New York on a beautiful fall day is simply amazing.
2. Join a group
If you haven’t ridden with a group, join a local bike club and go for some group rides. They will probably teach you some new routes and you’ll meet some other great people who share your passion for the bike.
3. Go on a vacation with your bike
There are many organizations now that organize wonderful weeks of riding in exotic and beautiful places. It’s a great way to get away for a week.
Mac’s Must-Have Gear
→ Wahoo Speedplay Comp Pedals: I love the speedplay pedals. I love the ease of getting into them and the amount of float that they offer.
→ Wahoo KICKR Smart Trainer: I love the Wahoo KICKR smart trainer. The northeast has some very cold weather and I’ve been using the trainer now for a couple of years and it makes riding indoors so much easier than the old days.
→ Castelli Winter Jacket: I love my Castelli winter jackets. One is for 30-degree temperatures and the other is a very versatile jacket that works well in 45 to 65 degrees. They are game changers compared with the old clothing I used to wear. The technology keeps improving.
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