By Emma Bouthillette 

Staff Writer

Like her classmates, Kennebunkport resident Ellen Noble, 12, started seventh grade at Middle School of the Kennebunks Tuesday, but unlike an average seventh grader, she is training for the Multiple Sclerosis Bike and Hike the Berkshires 100-mile “Century Challenge” scheduled for Sept. 27. 

While the event offers bicycling routes in lengths of 25 and 50 miles, Ellen Noble chose to join her parents Tom and Sandy Noble, along with 11 other “Diva Remix RX For a Cure” team members, in the 100-mile ride through the hilly terrain of Massachusetts Berkshires country to help her best friend’s mother, Gillian Draleau.

The ride is a fundraising event for Central New England Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which has a goal of  raising $175,000 to help fund research and programs for people living with Multiple Sclerosis. “Diva Remix RX For a Cure” hopes to contribute at least $4,000 to that overall goal.

Draleau, 47, a Kennebunk winter resident, said she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999, and while she tries to stay active the disease has progressed over the past two years to the point that she has lost feeling from her knees down.

“Ellen sees how this ride will benefit me. She has excellent motivation and for the right reason. It is amazing for a 12-year-old girl to just get it,” Draleau said. “I told her she could do the 25 mile ride with me, but she wanted to do the 100 mile ride. She said ‘I want to really do something so people know how difficult it is to live with MS.’” 

“Riding for someone I know makes me want to do it more —t o help her and give her an easier life because she is struggling,” Ellen Noble said. 

The benchmark time for finishing “a century” is five hours, but Tom Noble said it will probably take the team between six and eight hours. Ellen Noble said she is more accustomed to races between 10 and 30 miles, so she is training more for the longer race.

“I like racing probably because I’m competitive, but when you race you’ve got to train. I’m not a big fan of training,” Ellen Noble said. 

Training includes 20 to 30 mile rides on weekdays, averaging more than 100 miles per week. On weekends when she is not racing, she rides longer distances with her parents to prepare for the Multiple Sclerosis ride. On Aug. 24 the trio bicycled 55 “easy miles” she said, and will increase the distance each weekend until the week of the race.  

Tom Noble said she learned how to ride a bike when she was 2 and a half years old. Ellen Noble said she began racing competitively when she was 5 years old after seeing her parents racing.

“I wanted to be a part of what my parents were doing,” she said. 

This bicycling season, Ellen Noble has participated in at least 20 races, one of which lasted for 24 hours. She participated in the 24 Hours of Great Glen mountain bike race for the second time Aug. 9.

The race required cyclists to follow an 8.25-mile course at the base of Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Ellen Noble said she completed the course 10 times during the allotted 24 hours. 

“It’s not as fun as I thought it would be. I was so miserable by the 10^th lap. I had memorized every single spot on the course,” she said. 

The first year, Ellen Noble completed four laps, but finished first in the 0 to 18-year-old women’s solo division because she was the only participant. This year, one other participant in the 0 to 18-year-old women’s solo division surpassed her by one lap.

“It tested me physically and mentally, and was the hardest thing that I have ever done, without a doubt,” Ellen Noble said. 

She said the worst part of the race was a one-mile section of the course that was “knee-deep in mud,” most cyclists dismounted to hike the section, she said.

Even though she came in second in 24 Hours of Great Glen mountain bike race this year, Ellen Noble said she is setting records and earning points for her overall standing the Maine Mountain Bike Series and the New England Championship Series.

She said in the Maine series she has no consistent competitors, but cycles against eight others in the New England series. Prizes are awarded at the end of each season to the competitor with the most points in their division, and while she doesn’t know what the New England prize will be, the fastest junior girl in the Maine series will be presented with a Giant for Women mountain bike frame. 

While Ellen Noble said she aspires to participate in the Olympics, it is not in her near future. Tom Noble said most women cyclist peak in their late 20s or early 30s.

“Overall we’re trying to strike a balance between being a parent coach and having a kid who doesn’t get burnt out by the time she’s 15. We don’t want to take the fun away,” Tom Noble said. 

To sponsor the “Diva Remix RX For a Cure” team in the Multiple Sclerosis Bike and Hike the Berkshires, visit www.bikems.org and follow the link to sponsor a rider. 

Donations can also be mailed to Ellen Noble 53 Winter Harbor Road, Kennebunkport, Maine, 04046.