LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A Lubbock veteran\u2019s 75th birthday party ended like others might, with a slice of celebratory pizza. But it started with him setting out to do something he\u2019s never done before, a 75-mile bike ride.<\/p>\n
Wayne Sullivan and his cousin, Don Rohde, turn 75 this year, giving each other the gift of a challenge. They rode their bikes Wednesday from New Deal to Hale Center and back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to come back breathing,\u201d said Rohde. \u201cWe were both athletes in our early life, all through college, and life happens and you get away from it. And so, we\u2019re sitting there on the couch at 74 thinking, you know, we\u2019re not done.\u201d<\/p>\n
PJ Sullivan, Wayne\u2019s wife, is usually by his side on the marathon route. They ran another just last month. But this time, she\u2019s following behind, cheering from the truck.<\/p>\n
Wayne suffered from a stroke eight years ago, so she says he does live within some limits.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, he can\u2019t speak, as you know, he can\u2019t drive. So, he stays pretty active at home,\u201d PJ said.<\/p>\n
But when it comes to things most 75-year-olds say they can\u2019t do, like a 75-mile bike ride, she\u2019s there to cheer him on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said go for it. You can do it, you can do it,\u201d PJ said.<\/p>\n
She also got to cheer him on last year as he returned home from the Texas South Plains Honor Flight. The Vietnam War veteran was able to see the memorials built in his honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still quite the guy for 75,\u201d Rohde said.<\/p>\n
Don has his own health concerns that could slow him down, like an irregular, rapid heartbeat and a pacemaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cSee this? Never let your mind tell your body how old it is. There\u2019s more truth to that than people understand. When you admit you\u2019re old and admit you\u2019re disabled or you admit you can\u2019t do this or you can\u2019t do that, you can\u2019t. When you don\u2019t listen to that and you say, I can get up and do this, I can get up and do that, you do,\u201d Rohde said.<\/p>\n
When people heard they planned to ride from New Deal to Hale Center and back, they questioned the plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say, you know, how do you guys do this? I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t have an answer other than we\u2019re just too stupid to quit,\u201d Rohde said.<\/p>\n
But the pair won\u2019t be outsmarted by a silly little number like 75.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 KCBD. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A Lubbock veteran\u2019s 75th birthday party ended like others might, with a slice of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[27408,27406,7423,11863,27407,7990,27405,27414,27411,27415,27417,10174,27420,584,26411,168,170,169,27409,27419,27413,27418,1998,27410,1997,27,3435,12100,27412,27416,233],"class_list":["post-47469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-27408","tag-75th","tag-army","tag-bike","tag-birthday","tag-brittany-crittenden","tag-celebrates","tag-challenge","tag-cousin","tag-cycling","tag-don-rohde","tag-flight","tag-hale-center","tag-health","tag-honor","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-mile","tag-new-deal","tag-obstacles","tag-pj-sullivan","tag-plains","tag-ride","tag-south","tag-texas","tag-veteran","tag-vietnam","tag-war","tag-wayne-sullivan","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}