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E-mail StoryCyclist lunging forward with Breathe Easy Ride
A 1999 collision with a car almost left him in a wheelchair, almost.
| Friday, May 9 2008 10:00 AM
Last Updated: Thursday, May 8 2008 3:17 PM
Arin Resnicke lets nothing stand between him and his bike — not asthma, not prior injuries, not pain.
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The American Lung Association of California’s 19th annual Breathe Easy Ride includes a three-day trek beginning Friday in Paso Robles and ending Sunday in San Luis Obispo, or a shorter, one-day trek in San Luis Obispo on Saturday.
Registration is $65. Cyclists must raise a minimum donation of $525 for the three-day ride and $135 for the one-day ride.
To learn more about the ride and how to donate, call the Kern County office of the American Lung Association at 847-4700.
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Despite being previously injured in a bike accident while commuting home from work and confined to a wheelchair, Arin Resnicke has been participating in the American Lung Association of California's Breathe Easy Ride for 17 years, this year he will make it 18.
His back feels better when it’s arched and ready for racing up hills. His hands are home when gripping handlebars.
Cycling has been a constant in the Bakersfield resident’s life since he was 4 years old, when his mother and brother fished out of the dump a candy-apple-red bike.
But his salvation has also been a source of grief. In 1999, a pizza delivery driver hit him in northeast Bakersfield on Resnicke’s way home from work, leaving pain he’ll endure for the rest of his life.
“There are only two types of cyclists,” said the 47-year-old, quoting an old cycling adage, “those who have fallen and those who are about to fall.”
The type Resnicke is depends on the day, but one thing is certain: He’s always gotten back up.
Now Resnicke, chairman of the American Lung Association of California’s Breathe Easy Ride, is looking forward to the ride on the Central Coast this weekend — his 18th.
TRAINING WHEELS
Born in Pomona with asthma, Resnicke and his family soon moved to an area promising cleaner air: Bakersfield. And to build lung capacity, his doctor suggested cycling or swimming.
Resnicke’s family was “dirt, dirt poor,” which meant they didn’t have a pool or money to get into one. They opted for cycling, with the bike procured from garbage.
“That was my avenue to freedom,” he said.
His cycling resume is a page long and includes such designations as a Union Cycliste Internationale-certified international mountain bike commissair, which means he can officiate international bike races, including the Olympics, and honorary lifetime member of the Southern Sierra Fat Tire Association.
He’s kept it up while growing in his day job — an architect. (Resnicke was the architect who oversaw the removal from Union Avenue and redesign of the iconic Bakersfield arch beside the Crystal Palace.)
Resnicke estimates that he has biked 140,000 miles.
He has chosen homes far from work “to make the commute as long as possible.”
It was biking to work that brought Resnicke together with Don Snaman, his training partner.
The two bonded — first as neighbors, then as cyclists.
“He was way ahead of the game, in terms of biking,” said Snaman, 50, who now lives in the Bay Area. “I set my sights on him, so to speak, as a goal.”
Snaman remembers a cycling trip a few years ago in which his dérailleur, the mechanism that changes gears, broke.
Content to walk his bike, Snaman was soon goaded into getting on the bike and having Resnicke push him.
“One hand is on his handlebars; one hand on my butt,” he says, laughing. “If anybody was behind us watching, they were probably saying, ‘What are you doing?’”
ROAD RASH
Snaman describes Resnicke as a hard, aggressive cyclist.
“On the downhill, he’s fearless,” he said.
Resnicke will own up to his penchant for muscle-driven speed.
And while some cuts, contusions and heckling from motorists can be expected, his run-in with the pizza delivery driver almost left him unable to walk, much less ride.
He was at Panorama Drive and Fairfax Road when it happened.
“The last thing I remember is the bumper being right here,” he said, pointing to his right thigh. “The police reported that I flew 26 feet.”
After a crash, Resnicke usually goes through a head-to-toe inventory: Can I blink? Can I move?
This time he couldn’t.
He was taken to Kern Medical Center, where doctors found he had a continuously dislocating knee cap, among other smaller injuries. Later, he was also diagnosed with broken vertebrae.
“Don’t even think about racing again,” a doctor told him.
Resnicke deteriorated to the point that he needed a wheelchair, but resolved to get back on the bike.
“Most of it was pure stubbornness,” he said.
Resnicke was on top of his bike before he could walk without a cane.
“I would never ask him to do that,” to give up cycling, said his wife Gina. “Psychologically, he isn’t himself when he’s not riding.”
ANOTHER PURSUIT
Throughout his life, he’s dealt with asthma, an inflammatory disorder of the airways that causes wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and coughing.
This, in part, pushed him to become active with the American Lung Association.
His mother also played a role.
“It was watching my mother suffer,” he said.
Adelia Resnicke, 72, died roughly five years ago from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung illness that makes it difficult to breathe. Most people with the condition have both emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
“It was seeing her quit smoking and seeing it be too late,” he said.
When he sees teens smoking, he wants to show them a photo of his mother.
“She was laying in a hospital bed with eyes that said please let me go,” he said. “It was the most horrible death. ... It’s suffocating.”
For these reasons, and a love of cycling, Resnicke is coming up on almost 20 years with the Breathe Easy Ride, also known as the Lung Ride.
The ride raises money for education, research and advocacy. He has raised $20,479 through his years with the fundraiser.
“Although cycling accidents happen, it’s really important to maintain good will,” he said. “Pick yourself up, brush yourself off and continue on in life.”