Miles for Matheny essentials

The Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk is back downtown for the first time since 2009.

If you’re planning to attend Miles for Matheny on Sunday, April 22, and you haven’t registered, on-site registration begins at 9 a.m. in Liberty Park in downtown Peapack.

Parking for all participants – except cyclists – is provided at the Pfizer facility off of Route 206 North (Pfizer Way) in Peapack. Everyone parking at Pfizer (drivers and passengers) will be asked to present a valid ID (driver’s license, passport or other government-issued ID). Shuttle buses between Pfizer and Liberty Park will run continuously throughout the day from 8:30 a.m.-3:15 p.m. Parking is FREE.

Travel time is about five minutes. Cyclists only may park at the Peapack train station, the Gladstone train station or the Peapack-Gladstone Bank at 190 Main St. in Gladstone.

There are four major activities at Miles, followed by a Celebration Picnic in Liberty Park:

• Cycling Routes at 10 a.m. (50-miles; ‘Hills of Attrition’), at 10:45 a.m. (35 miles, 25 miles) and at 11:45 a.m. (10 miles).
• Kids Fun Run (ages 3-10) at 11:30 a.m. Friendly competition in which everyone is a winner.
• 5K Road Race at 12:15 p.m. USATF-NJ NBGP 500 point event through Peapack-Gladstone on town and rural roads.
• Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk at 1 p.m.

Non-runners and families can enjoy fun and fitness walking alongside more than 130 Matheny students and patients as they navigate 1.5 miles around town.

Cyclists will have a choice of five different routes.

Bill Simpson.

Bill Simpson has a message for all those planning to ride the Hills of Attrition cycling route at this year’s Miles for Matheny fundraiser and community event. Enjoy an “easy ride” this year, because next year, the course will be longer and harder.

Simpson, a Gladstone resident who has been designing this route for several years, reasons that, “We already have a 50-mile route. Next year the Hills of Attrition is going to be 66 miles. It will continue further west, and there will be no rest stops.”

Simpson has cycled all over the country and the world, including such places as California, Colorado, Ireland and Switzerland. “In this part of New Jersey,” he says, “the hills are small but challenging. This is great, great cycling country.”

Simpson has lived in Gladstone since June 2004 and, before that, lived in Pottersville. He remembers that in the early days of Miles for Matheny the Bedminster Flyers, a local riding group that he belongs to, was asked to design all the cycling routes, and he was specifically tagged for the Hills of Attrition. Asked if he has any advice for those tackling the Hills of Attrition, he says: “Most guys who ride it know what they’re up against. But remember, if you go up, you also get to go down.”

Miles for Matheny will be held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack. All funds raised will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny inpatients and people with disabilities in the community. Activities include five different Cycling Routes, a 5K Race, a Kids Fun Run and the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk in which more than 100 participants in wheelchairs, with walking partners, travel 1.5 miles around town. Peapack-Gladstone Bank is the Cycling sponsor, and its Whitehouse Station branch will be used as a rest stop.

For more information about Miles for Matheny, or to register, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

Cyclists line up in 2009, the last year Miles for Matheny was held in downtown Peapack.

Cyclists will have new routes this year.

The five cycling routes at the 15th annual Miles for Matheny will have a new look. After three years with the same routes, Lee Brush, a resident of Annandale and former president of the Bedminster Flyers cycling club, felt it was time for a change. The 12-mile route is now 10 miles, the 23-mile route is now 25 miles and the 32-mile ride is now 35 miles. The 50 miles and Hills of Attrition rides will remain the same.

The 10-mile distance is the “family friendly” route. In the past, it hadn’t been so friendly because there were some difficult hills and the route crossed a highway.

All cycling rides will use the Whitehouse Station branch of our cycling sponsor, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, as a rest stop, reducing our rest stop locations from four to one. This will make delivery and pickup of supplies easier and should be more interesting for the riders and volunteers at the stop.

Miles for Matheny will be held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. The 50-mile and Hills of Attrition rides take off at 10 a.m.; 25 and 35-mile rides start at 10:45 a.m.; and the 10-mile ride leaves at 11:45 a.m.

Miles for Matheny also includes a Kids Fun Run at 11:30 a.m.; a 5K race at 12:15 p.m.; and the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk at 1 p.m. All funds raised help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny’s inpatients and to children and adults with disabilities in the community.

For more information, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.