After cycling 550 miles as part of the Empire State Ride to support Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Huntington native Kane Lewandowski returned home with a reinforced outlook on life and lessons to share.
Lewandowski, 23, has spent the past few years taking part in increasingly difficult physical challenges, beginning with 5K runs and progressing through triathlons, Spartan races and Ironman races before taking part in the Empire State Ride. The event served as a new way for Lewandowski to challenge himself physically all while supporting a cause he feels connected to after his grandmother passed away from cancer around 10 years ago.
“[It was] probably one of the better experiences of my life,” Lewandowski said. “While I was doing it I was able to meet a lot of people and hear their stories, and I think the most shocking part of it is that there’s people that have cancer and they still did it — I’m glad I did it but I think looking at it, I can do even more.”
The Empire State Ride is unique in that despite the fact it is centered around a 550 mile bike ride, it is not a race. The focus is not on competing with fellow riders to ride the fastest or finish first. The event is meant to serve as a way for people to challenge themselves while coming together to raise awareness and money for Roswell Park.
Of the 230 cyclists that participated, most were a good deal older than Lewandowski — he estimated no more than 20 or so were under the age of 30 and the majority of the people he spoke to were around retirement age. Despite the range in ages, most cyclists had one thing in common — a personal connection to cancer.
“The majority of people were doing it because they knew someone that had cancer,” Lewandowski said. “There were [also] probably 20 or 30 people themselves that have cancer.”
In seeing everyone who participated in the ride and the inspirational stories many of them provided, Lewandowski came away feeling that people are capable of much more than they realize and that when healthy, people should focus on taking advantage of everything they have the opportunity to.
“You’re meant to do more than just sit around all day,” he said. “Your body is able to do a lot. There’s other people that have been cursed with a disease and they still live life to the fullest.
If you’re a perfectly healthy person, you should always be living your life to the fullest, because you don’t know what’s going to happen to you.”
In addition to raising around $4,500 of the $1.9 million raised by the entire ride, Lewandowski also contributed along the way by spending a rainy day volunteering at a rest stop. Each day, cyclists biked between 60 and 100 miles with rest stops set up roughly every 15-20 miles along the way. Without being properly prepared to ride in the rain, Lewandowski decided to have his equipment moved ahead to the next campsite and spend the day setting up and maintaining a rest stop while distributing snacks and drinks to cyclists as they passed through.
His volunteering speaks to the nature of the Empire State Ride. Nobody forced Lewandowski to ride through the rain or suggested that he could not take part in the day if he did not ride. Instead, they were open to him wanting to help out in a different way.
“They said if you need a day, don’t hesitate,” Lewandowski said. “We’re not forcing you, that’s obviously not the goal — the goal is just to raise awareness and funds. The bike ride is really just the activity part of it.”
Essentially, the biking itself serves as a way to attract more fundraising for Roswell Park.
“I think it’s much easier to basically tell someone, ‘I’m biking 550 miles across from one point of the state to another to raise cancer funds,’ rather than saying, ‘I’m raising money for cancer, please donate,’” Lewandowski said. “I think it’s an easier sell if someone is like, ‘Oh wow, he has skin in the game.’”
With a strengthened and inspired outlook on life, Lewandowski returned home to his girlfriend mentioning that she wants to do the Empire State Ride in the future — he expects he could return to share the experience with her next year. He also has his sights set on another new physical challenge in 2026, perhaps climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or trekking through Patagonia.
Donations to Roswell Park can be made through the Empire State Ride here.
