Hughes duo raises more than $15,000 for Outride Fund, Life Time Foundation during Unbound Gravel

On Saturday, they raised more than $15,000 to benefit local kids.

“This is Charlie’s first race and he’s been wanting to do this since he was 13,” Dan Hughes said of his son’s 200-mile ride. “You have to be 16 on race day to be able to ride it, and obviously with the postponement and cancellation last year, that didn’t happen. He’s been champing at the bit for awhile to do it.”

Hughes said Life Time Marketing Manager Kristi Mohn approached him about taking part in fundraising for the Back of the Pack Challenge.

She said Life Time does the fundraising event during its Leadville 100 series out of Leadville, Colo.

“My immediate two reactions were, ‘I signed up with Charlie so I have to make sure he’s OK with that,’ and then secondarily, ‘You must not want to make a very big donation because I don’t know how many people we’re going to pass,’” he said. “In the end, I think Charlie passed 710 riders and I passed 664. We raised over $15,000.”

The funds are benefiting the USD 253 Emporia Public Schools lunch program, as well as providing bikes, helmets and programming for area schools to make cycling more accessible for kids.

Hughes said he has been a big supporter of the initiative since it was first organized under the Specialized Foundation in 2015.

“It seeks to get kids on bikes and help out with all sorts of things; I think bicycles can treat all sorts of ills,” Hughes said. “It started as something to help with ADD/ADHD issues, but it’s sort of morphed out into nutrition in schools and getting kids on bikes in general.”

Hughes said getting to start his 11th 200-mile race with his son, who was the youngest rider in the 200-mile event, was a special experience. It was, however, a bit humbling watching Charlie leave him in the dust.

“To see him ride away from me on several occasions was gratifying and humbling at the same time, because at 17 he’s a strong kid,” he said.

So, with one 200-mile race under his belt was Charlie ready to commit to another?

“He’s already figured out how he could go faster and now that he’s got one under his belt, I think we’ll see him back again next year,” Hughes said. “He’s such a strong kid. He showed me a pretty clean pair of heels all day, I never really saw him after the start. I got across the line and he said, ‘You got schooled, old man.’ And I said, ‘Cool, the torch has been passed to you. You get to carry the Hughes name forward in this event.’ I think he’ll be back for sure.”

The Outride Fund has awarded more than $500,000 in matching grants to dozens of organizations across the country since 2019. To learn more about the Outride Fund, visit www.outridebike.org. To learn more about the Life Time Foundation, visit ltfoundation.org.