Carse Finishes Stroke Awareness Ride (8/14/06)

BILLINGS, MT – The 12-day journey Montana State-Billings men’s basketball coach Craig Carse started on August 3 came to a close on Monday in Pennsylvania.  Carse set out from Billings to raise awareness for stroke victims and CardioSEAL®.  His goal was to ride 100 miles a day for 10 days with two rest days interspersed throughout.

When Carse concluded his ride on Monday he had covered 1,051.33 miles in a total riding time of 79 hours and 15 minutes.  At just over 13 miles per hour, Carse reached his goal of 1,000 miles in 12 days.  He took two rest days during the trip and averaged 105.13 miles per day on the 10 days of riding.

“I believe the ride was successful in a combination of ways,” Carse says.  “First of all, I believe there was a tremendous awareness brought about stroke.  We saw many, many stroke victims and people that now know more about it, particularly the people who have to work with families of people who have had strokes.”

Carse suffered his stroke on May 28, 2005, while working in his office during the annual MSU Billings summer tournament.  In addition to extensive rehabilitation following his stroke, Carse received a CardioSEAL® implant in his heart.  The procedure was done on July 19, 2005 by Dr. Steven Goldberg at University of Washington Medicine Regional Heart Center.  CardioSEAL® is designed to close different types of holes in the heart without open heart surgery.  

“We know we have given great exposure to CardioSEAL®, and have really gotten some eyes opened,” says Carse.  “In my case I have tremendous confidence in the CardioSEAL®.  I am appreciative of Dr. Steve Goldberg at the University of Washington and the whole University of Washington Regional Heart Center under the direction of Dr. Larry Dean’s direction.

“The Isagenix product that we used to train from a nutrition standpoint has just been phenomenal.  We used it all the way across (the country).  We stayed with one meal a day of 600 calories or less.  I started at 204 pounds when we first started riding on August 3.  Today when we finished I was 193 pounds.”

Carse will spend the next few days driving back to Billings along with Buddy Windy Boy, a former player of Carse’s who drove the trail vehicle the entire way to the East Coast.  Carse says he expects to reach Billings sometime on Thursday.