Staff Writer

A Scarborough mother and daughter tandem will do their best Lance Armstrong impersonation this June for a good cause.

Lisa Letourneau and Abby Chick will participate in the Trek Across Maine, a 180-mile bicycle trip which begins at Sunday River in Newry and ends in Belfast. Letourneau said this year will be the 25th anniversary of the bike ride, which raises money for the American Lung Association.

Chick, a sophomore at Scarborough High School, and Letourneau are no strangers to Trek Across Maine, as this will be the seventh year the two have participated. Letourneau said she first participated in the Trek as a physical challenge when she turned 40. She said the next year she missed the event due to a family trip, but was “inspired” to participate the year after with her sister, Jean Saunders.

Letourneau said the event has now become a family tradition, as Letourneau, Saunders, Chick, and Saunders’ daughters Katie and Allison all participate.

Chick said training for Trek Across Maine usually begins in April, once the snow melts. She said training begins with short trips totaling 500 miles by the time of the event. Chick said she and Letourneau train every weekend, gradually increasing the length of their ride.

“My favorite is riding to Salmon Falls,” Chick said. “It’s real pretty.”

Training has become easy for Chick, who runs on the cross-country team, as well as the indoor and outdoor track teams.

“I think the physical challenge was when I was younger,” Chick, who was 9 when she first participated in the event, said.

Letourneau said they ride up to 60 miles per day of training – the length of each day of the three-day event.

On the first day of the Trek, bicyclists head from Sunday River to the University of Maine at Farmington, where they spend the evening. Bicyclists then travel another 60 miles on day two to Colby College in Waterville, where they again spend the night before finishing the next day in Belfast.

“If you’re in OK shape, I think you can do it,” Chick said.

Letourneau said there are also rests stops every 15 to 20 miles for bikers.

Chick said almost every year Trek Across Maine bicyclists have to brave the same problems.

“There’s so much rain,” Chick said. “Out of the seven years, there’s been six and a half times where it’s rained.”

“It can get really cold,” Letourneau said. “There’s nothing you can do to stay dry. You have to put bags on your shoes [to keep them dry].”

Letourneau said each bicyclist is required to raise at least $400 each year for the event. Chick said she and Letourneau set up a Web site through the American Lung Association to raise money, as well as asking family and friends. Letourneau said between herself, Chick, Saunders and her daughters, they were able to raise about $3,500 last year.

Letourneau, who is a physician, said lung disease is a “huge” national problem. She said her grandmother died of lung disease and her son, Sam Chick, has mild asthma. 

According to the American Lung Association Web site, lung disease is responsible for the deaths of one in seven people nation-wide. It is also attributed as the number one killer of babies younger than a year old. About 35 million people in the United States suffer from some form of lung disease, such as asthma, emphysema and chronic bronchitis, according to the site.

Chick said she enjoys spending the second evening of the event at Colby College, because each year the president of the university talks about progress that has been made by the American Lung Association. She said she also likes when the president asks the crowd how many people have volunteered over the years.

“It’s really fun, because we’ve done [Trek Across Maine] longer than a lot of people,” Chick said.

Trek Across Maine is scheduled for June 19 to June 21. For more information, visit www.lungme.org.