Orsini, Balog rode bicycles across the country to raise money for ALS research

July 1, 2015 at 9:47a.m.

As he and his cousin traveled through eight states, bicycling 8-12 hours a day (or more), sleeping in cheap hotels and tents, while dodging cars, coyotes and the occasional tornado, Nicholas Orsini learned one very important thing about riding coast to coast in less than a month.

It’s a pain in the butt.

The quads, too. And the calves.

“Mainly the butt,” said Orsini, a Youngstown native who is heading into his senior year at Ohio State. “There’s a lot of soreness. It hurts to sit down. But you kind of get used to it after about three weeks.”

Orsini completed the cross-country ride to raise money for ALS research, the adopted charity of his fraternity, Phi Delta Theta. So far, he’s raised nearly $1,500 while earning Iron Phi status, given to anyone who participates in an athletic event to raise money for ALS.

“I was the philanthropy chair of my fraternity my sophomore year and I got pretty involved in it,” said Orsini, who, grew up with his mother, Nancy Foran, in The Villages in Florida but still spent his summers in Boardman with his father, Tom Orsini. “It’s a good cause and not too many people knew about it until the Ice Bucket Challenge last summer. So I wanted to spread awareness and raise money for a good cause.”

Orsini was joined by his cousin, Brett Balog, a Youngstown native who now lives in Aurora. (Both still have several family members in Youngstown.) He started the trek (on a Trek hybrid bike) on May 11 in Gainesville, Fla., and finished on June 26 when they crossed into California, traveling through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona along the way.

“I wouldn’t say it was fun,” he said, laughing. “It would have been more fun if we had more time to do it, but it was still a really good experience. Most days it was really challenging, but I’m definitely more disciplined now and I learned the value of working hard for something.”

Orsini and Balog typically woke up between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. and tried to finish by 8:30 p.m. Although they were in shape, neither had done much biking before the trip, which (not surprisingly) turned out to be a mistake. Outside of the general fatigue, they dodged a few cars (they had one particularly close call coming out of El Paso), a tornado (which touched down on their road in Texas) and a coyote (“We were taking a break and weren’t paying attention when it came up to our bike”).

How did he feel when he finally crossed over into California?

“It was awesome,” he said. “It was kind of a weight lifted off our shoulders and it was just really cool getting to see California.

“It was definitely worth it. I’ve definitely grown as a person. I have a lot of experience with a lot of different situations and I’m definitely twice the man I was before I left.”

Orsini and Balog only stayed in California for one day before flying home. He’s still accepting donations and while he set a goal of raising $5,000, he really just wanted to make sure he got at least $1,000.

To donate, visit support.ironphi.org.

“My main advice to anyone who wants to do this is, take some bike trips before you do it,” he said. “Maybe some weekend trips. Really get to know your bike. The feel of it. Changing tires. Everything like that. And go with a support vehicle.”

He laughed, then added, “I believe most people do that. We didn’t do that.”