If you frequent the trails around Folsom and the American River Parkway, chances are you have seen Doug Lee a time or two. Lee is not hard to miss as he can usually be found on one wheel rather than two. Now at 60 years of age, the Folsom resident has launched a fundraiser where he plans to ride the same distance as his age on his unicycle, all in an effort to raise funds and awareness in the fight against Type 1 diabetes.
For Lee, the unique fundraising plan is not supporting a cause or a charity he just randomly picked from a list. Instead it’s one very close to his heart. In 2020, Lee’s grandson Maddox was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was just 16 months old. After watching Maddox suffer from the effects of the disease and helping him manage it firsthand, Lee wanted to find a way he could help others facing the same challenges as well as raise awareness for Breakthrough T1D, a nonprofit dedicated to researching Type 1 diabetes.
Through his unique unicycling endeavor ahead, Doug aims to help and highlight the importance of diabetes research and the potential for breakthroughs that could transform the lives of all ages affected by the disease. As he takes care of his grandson two days every week, Lee has seen firsthand what it takes to manage the disease.
Initially, managing Maddox’s condition required frequent blood sugar checks and multiple daily insulin injections. Now, with an insulin pump, Maddox experiences fewer finger pricks. Lee hopes ongoing advancements in technology and medicine will further ease his grandson’s treatment.
“There was no history of it in our family. It just caught us off guard,” Lee told Folsom Times. “None of us knew much about it at all. In the beginning it was a lot of finger pokes to check his blood sugar and multiple daily injections of insulin, like seven to 10 shots a day.”
Today, Lee’s grandson has been equipped with an insulin pump that greatly reduces the number of finger pokes. Seeing the relief today’s latest technology offers the little boy who calls him Papa, Lee wanted to do what he could to help others in the future benefit from research and technology, which can reduce a lot of the stress when it comes to managing T1D.
“Our family is fortunate to have great healthcare coverage that helps with this, but not everyone does have that luxury,” said Lee. “I’d like to picture a day where everyone has the opportunity to be able to manage this disease with the most advanced technology and, even better, a day when we can find a cure for it. Breakthrough T1D is working hard to make a difference so I am really excited to be able to contribute to their organization like this.”
Lee spent nearly 40 years in law enforcement. He began as a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy, where he worked through the ranks and eventually went on to work for the state. He later became the Chief of Police for the City of Lincoln before retiring in 2021.
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It wasn’t until he was retired that unicycling became more of a regular routine in his adult life. He first learned to ride a unicycle at 12 years old and did so regularly as a teenager. As an adult, he occasionally took the unicycle out for a spin around the block, but nothing to the extent of riding 60 miles, or even half that distance.
“I would take it out of the garage a few times and ride it around the neighborhood to see if I still had it,” said Lee. “Some of the neighbor kids would laugh at me going by, but later I realized this was a great form of exercise. It didn’t hurt my neck like the position on my regular bike did, so I started to ride more and eventually hit the trails.”
Lee explained that Breakthrough T1D offers a “fundraise your way” option, something that caught his eye and made his forthcoming unicycle ride a reality. Donors pledge through his fundraising page to support his effort, where he has a goal to raise at least $5,000 prior to his ride. With a little over a month to go, he has already garnered just over $3,800 in donations as of Friday morning.
“The fundraise your own way was perfect for me to do something I love and make a difference,” said Lee. “There are many fundraising rides out there for regular cycling but there was no way I could ride in those as a unicycle is much slower.” Lee also has an acquaintance who rides the same number of miles to match his age each year, so he put those two aspects together and saddled up to take the ride.
Lee plans to make his official ride in September when the triple-digit temperatures are gone and he’s comfortable with the planned distance, something he is training for regularly now. Currently, the furthest Lee has ridden is 31 miles, which was just the other day on the route he will likely take for the official 60-miler.
“The challenge with the unicycle is that you can’t stand up and coast for a minute, reposition yourself, and give your bones a break,” Lee explained. “When your wheel is spinning, your pedals are spinning too. It’s much different than a regular bike, where you have some breaks in pedaling.”
Most recently, Lee rode from Nimbus Flat near Lake Natoma to the Guy West Bridge at Sacramento State and back, a distance he measured as 31 miles. While he hasn’t completely decided just yet, that stretch of trail may likely be the route he takes on his official fundraising ride, as it’s pretty flat and free of many obstacles along the way, such as tree roots that break the pavement and such.
“On a unicycle, if you don’t see one of those roots in time, it can end up in a crash,” he said. “On a regular bike you can navigate around those quickly and stabilize yourself. Not in this case; you can fall forward or back very quickly.”
As he continues to train for the big day, Lee plans to extend the distance of each ride he takes. “I’ll do a 35, then I’ll get up to a 40, and so on,” he said. “I’ve trained for marathons before, and I will take a similar approach and try and do at least 75% the distance comfortably beforehand and then push myself the extra distance on the actual ride.”
On the day of his actual ride, Lee explained it will not be a non-stop effort. He will need to make some brief stops to stretch his muscles as well as hydrate. Once the “pit stops” are complete, it will be back on the trail, where he will be joined by some others who plan to hop on their bikes and join him for at least a portion of the route. Some of those riders will be on one wheel, others will be on two. Lee has many cycling buddies, as he is a member of the Friends of Folsom Parkways organization.
“I joined the group because I love our local trail system,” said Lee, who even adopted a section of the trail near his home that he volunteers his time to help maintain and keep clear of trash regularly. “The trails have given so much to me, it’s my way to give back.”
One local resident who will be hopping on his bike and supporting Lee’s journey on the big day will be Bruce Cline. Cline is also very active with the Friends of the Folsom Parkways. Many know Cline from his time as Folsom’s City Attorney prior to retirement. He and Lee met back when Lee worked in the City of Lincoln and Cline filled the role of interim attorney there for a period of time.
“It is an honor to support Doug and this great challenge to raise awareness for Type 1 diabetes and in support of his grandson, Maddox,” Cline told Folsom Times. “Doug is a great Folsom trail lover and a trail adopter through Friends of Folsom Parkways. We will enjoy supporting Doug before and on the day of his ride.”
For Lee, the ride isn’t only about the fundraising, but also about raising awareness about T1D. He said many people don’t understand the differences between T1D and T2D and the seriousness of it. But when it comes down to it, making the donation to the organization that continues to study this disease is very important to him.
“Being able to help fund what Breakthrough T1D is doing is really meaningful to me,” added Lee. “The reason we have come so far in technology and management of T1D is through the constant research taking place. To be able to help with that in my own way and help others like Maddox in the future means so much to me.”
As a unicycle rider, Lee often is pitched with inquiries asking if he performs tricks or stunts, or juggles while he is riding and more. He said he gets the question all the time from everyday people, friends and most recently from the media that has reached out about his upcoming ride. He laughs when he talks about the idea of doing anything else while on the seat of his unicycle.
“I like to tell people that I am not a clown, I am an athlete. I even have a T-shirt that says that,” he mused. “That’s not something I even want to think about ever trying.”
At just four years old, Maddox is too young to fully understand what his “Papa” is setting out to do ahead. Lee shared that he knows his grandfather rides a bike with just one wheel instead of two and he got excited when he saw him on television recently. He knows when he gets older he will enjoy learning about it and maybe, by then, even more advances will have been made in the research, management and possible cure for the disease.
Those wishing to pitch in and donate to Lee’s fundraising journey can do so on his official Breakthrough T1D fundraising page here.
For those wanting to learn more about the organization itself and all it does for the research of T1D, visit them at www.breakthrought1d.org. For those interested in learning more about the Friends of Folsom Parkways, visit www.friendsoffolsomparkways.org.
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Photos courtesy of Doug Lee