(IDAHO FALLS, ID) – Even after four major surgeries, including one that left him paralyzed in his arms, Michael Farnsworth decided it was time to get back on his bike.

Michael’s motto is: “You never can give up on life, because life keeps going. You just got to keep going.”

STRUCK A NERVE

Michael went through four major surgeries – two on his back and two on his neck.

And after one of those neck surgeries, he lost the use of his arms.

“I had to learn to use my upper arms again.”

It meant relearning things most of us take for granted.

“He couldn’t do anything. You know, I had to help bathe him. I had to help feed him, his wife, Kelcie Farnsworth, remembers. "He fought and fought and fought and did all of his therapy sessions.”

She recalls that he did more than the required therapy. When she’d come home on her lunch breaks, he would want to go for walks and work whenever he could.

Michael remembers those four years as “...pretty difficult.”

After all of that hard work, he eventually regained the use of his arms.

A LOSS

But then, another tragedy.

“Last year, I lost my mom. So that gave me, you know, a wake-up call, you know, saying life is short.”

A LOVE REMEMBERED

That loss inspired Michael to dust off his 1987 bicycle – a bicycle his wife had wondered why he'd kept all these years.

Michael had always loved riding his bike, but felt he had let other priorities take precedence. His wife had even wanted him to get rid of it at one point.

When she saw him getting it down from the garage, she even texted his siblings, claiming Michael was having a “mid-life crisis.”

Not only did Michael work on restoring it – trying to keep as many original parts and pieces – he started training on it seriously and decided to enter the CHAFE race in Sandpoint, Idaho.

THE CHAFE

When asked why they named it the CHAFE, Michael responded:

“Well, I found that out after... It’s pretty painful.”

There were four length options – 25, 40, 80 and 150 miles.

Michael decided to skip right to the 150.

Kelcie was in shock.

“But then he dropped the bomb that he was going to do a race, but not only was he going to do a race, he was going to do 150 miles.”

Michael said she even told him:

“You got to be crazy.”

And Kelcie had legitimate concerns.

Since his surgery, Michael can no longer turn his neck.

“He has no range of motion in his neck,” Kelcie explains. “He can’t move it. And so, how is he going to be able to see if there’s cars next to him?”

Michael found some special glasses that help him look behind him, but Kelcie was still a ball of nerves on the day of the race – using a tracker to monitor where he was on the trail.

TAKING HIS MOM WITH HIM

But Michael had a reason for choosing the longest ride.

“The reason why I picked the 150 was because of my mom.”

Years ago, he promised her they’d take a long trip together. This was his way of keeping that promise.

With tears in his eyes, Michael stated:

“Even though she’s not with me, she’s with me in spirit.”

Wearing a bracelet in her memory, Michael pedaled for 13 hours while his 16 family members anxiously waited at the finish line.

Along the way, he made a point to stop at a bridge and pause, knowing that his mother would have loved the view.

Michael explains:

“When I made it across that finish line, that felt like I was on top of the world. I did something for me and I also did something for her.”

Kelcie also looks back on the moment fondly and proudly.

“There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Everybody was crying to see him cross that line. Just to see him finish something where he’s gone through so much and to see him complete it with his family all there – like, it was epic. I’m super proud of him.”

A finish line – and a promise kept.

PEDALING FORWARD

And Michael isn’t done yet.

He’s already training for next year, with his mom still along for the ride.

“Sometimes I talk to her in the mornings, and, you know, I tell her I miss her. And, you know, even though she’s not with me, she’s actually more with me than when she lived in Arizona and I lived in Idaho, because now she’s with me every single day of my life in spirit.”

Michael would also like to recognize that he had help besides his family.

He would like to thank Dave’s Bike Shop and Coleman Moore from Peake Performance for their help with his bike and nutrition.

After everything he’s been through, Michael says the lesson is to keep moving.

Keep going and don’t give up on life.