One month before Halle and Alec Temple were supposed to celebrate their first wedding anniversary – there was a funeral.
“She was really small, she was about 5'3" but when she walked in the room she really filled it up with her personality with her laugh,” said Alec Temple. “It was a contagious laugh.”
That laugh is what Alec misses most about his late wife, Halle.
Her brave battle against Ewing sarcoma ended in May 2020. She was 25-years-old.
"Most of my time is spent on this bike seat,” he said.
Halle was an intern for Pelotonia. She was the one who got Alec interested. And Halle is the reason he continues to ride, raising money for cancer research.
This year he's training to go a distance he's never gone before — 100 miles
"It kind of takes over your summer,” he said. "So that way other people don't have to experience the same things we did as a family and she did as a patient," he said.
The timing of the event comes amid a rise in COVID hospitalizations. Doctors say people with compromised immune systems, like cancer patients are at risk as the delta variant spreads.
"The more severe disease is in the unvaccinated population and we're also seeing some hospitalizations in patients who are immunocompromised meaning people who are on cancer treatments or are transplant patients,” said Dr. Nora Colburn, Medical Director of Clinical Epidemiology at Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
With increased health and safety concerns, Pelotonia has made changes to keep riders and volunteers safe.
For example, you won't see the same massive starting lines as years past.
Rides will begin in waves and there will be points where masks are recommended.
Pelotonia provided the following statement to 10TV:
“The safety of our Pelotonia participants, volunteers and spectators is our top priority. Pelotonia has spent much of the past year working with top health and safety experts in our community to adopt additional COVID-19 protocols and make numerous adaptations for this year’s Ride Weekend. We will continue to work with local and state officials as Ride Weekend approaches.”
“I’m not particularly worried I think Pelotonia’s handling it well,” said Alec Temple. "I think they're doing a really good job with that and I don't think that they would have this weekend if they weren't considering their main community is one that's an immunocompromised community."
For Temple, it's an event to keep a legacy alive and fuel cancer research; a mission shared by all of those along the ride.
“The happiness is just contagious when you're there so it's going to be a great time."
To read about Alec Temple's foundation, click here.