Helping ride out multiple sclerosis

What do you wear for a 150-mile bike ride? If you’re Melissa

Friedman, false eyelashes, a bright red wig in braids, striped

stockings and a frilly petticoat.

Dressed as her alter ego, Tag-along the clown, Friedman was

preparing Saturday morning to set out from Huntington State Beach

with more than 2,000 other cyclists on a two-day ride down Coast

Highway to San Diego. Held by local chapters of the National Multiple

Sclerosis Society, the event is expected to raise about $2 million to

fight multiple sclerosis.

The bike ride is in its 23rd year, and it’s the fifth trip for

Friedman, 39, of Long Beach. She started doing the ride after

learning she had multiple sclerosis.

“I train for Ironman [competitions], and I was training when I

started having the symptoms,” she said.

Because of her illness she had to give up the Ironman -- a

triathlon with swimming, running and a bike race -- but she can still

do long-distance bike rides, she said.

Stories like Friedman’s are the reason Jerry Brown of Costa Mesa

joined the ride this year. Brown, 61, has never been part of the

multiple sclerosis event, though he is a seasoned cyclist -- he and

his wife have ridden about 24,000 miles together in Canada, Mexico

and Hawaii.

As a psychologist and a drug counselor, he’s seen clients with

multiple sclerosis, and a close friend’s wife also has the disease

and can now hardly walk, Brown said.

“Everyone I know that’s been touched by this disease is a woman,”

he said. “Most of them have been athletes, which I find really

tragic.”

The Saturday morning sky was a murky gray, but shafts of light

were beginning to break through the clouds as riders set off in

clusters of about 30 people at a time.

“This is the largest group of riders we’ve ever had,” said Rachel

Zimmerman, a spokeswoman for the event.

That’s fitting, since the ride also celebrates the combination of

the Orange County and San Diego chapters of the National Multiple

Sclerosis Society to form the Pacific South Coast chapter.

The new chapter serves 18,000 people with multiple sclerosis in

Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties.

One Huntington Beach family hasn’t personally been touched by the

disease, but they still threw all their efforts into the weekend

ride. Mark Noehren was riding with sons Jimmy, 14, and Jeffrey, 11,

while mom Karen served as the “ground crew.”

“They’ve been training. Last weekend the youngest one did his

first 50-mile [ride],” Karen Noehren said proudly.

“We’re just riding for the great cause of MS. We want to make a

difference,” she said.

“Because we can,” her husband added.

Brown also was making the ride a family affair. After biking

Saturday’s 100 miles by himself, he planned to have his wife join him

on a tandem bike for the remaining 50 miles to San Diego today.

He’s been cycling his whole life, but Brown, who is 61, still

realized the magnitude of such a long ride.

“It’s not a big deal for someone to ride 100 miles,” he said.”But

I’ve noticed it’s getting to be a bigger deal at my age.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

o7alicia.robinson@latimes.comf7.