Rochester Dentist Pedaling Nearly 5,000 Miles for Charity

Talk about getting your exercise! One Rochester dentist is pedaling his way across the United States on his bike, raising money for charity along the way.

Big ups to Dr. Steven Sperling, a dentist at Northwest Dental Group in Rochester, who is taking part in cross-country ride-- a ride that will take him from Washington in the Pacific Northwest, all the way to Massachusetts on the east coast.

This Associated Press story says the trip will end up being nearly 4,300 miles, and will span about 9 weeks. If you do the math on that-- 4,300 miles, divided by 54 days (the story says the group plans to rest on Sundays), that leaves you about 85 miles a day. Which is about 6 hours in the saddle ever day, as you pedal your way across the USA!

And that's pretty impressive. I love to get my mountain bike out and hit the trails around Rochester, but I don't go NEARLY that far. Heck, my wife and I usually ride about 10 or 12 miles and figure that's enough for one trip.

Back when I was right out of college-- and nearly 20 years younger, mind you-- I used to ride my bike about 20 miles a day. Which was a pretty good workout. But even that looks pretty puny compared to what Dr. Sperling is doing.

This US News & World Report story says Dr. Sperling is using the ride to raise money for The Reading Center and Smiles for Life, a dental mission organization. The ride started on June 15th, and should be done sometime in mid-August, the story noted.